The Curmudgeonly Professor has long advocated reading business books for anyone who seriously intends to learn anything about how businesses operate in the real world. The more business books one reads, the more one can take a clinical approach to seeing what worked, what didn't work, where blind following resulted in disasters, and where innovations spelled success. Hardy Green of Business Week has reviewed a new compilation of business books by Jack Covert and Todd Sattersten titled The 100 Best Business Books of All Time: What They Say, Why They Matter, and How They Can Help You (Portfolio, 2009). You can read the review here.
According to Green, management books are emphasized, while biography, business narratives, and "big ideas" are downplayed. Many "classics" such as Barbarians at the Gate, dated but still perhaps the most significant accounting of a leveraged buyout, and which was always a staple in my MBA readings course. Naturally, ten people may have ten different ideas about any given book, but the Curmudgeonly Professor has always been leery of "Business Books Lite" although they may sell millions of copies and lay claim to the inspiration that guided some entrepreneur from rags to riches.
Green offers a comparison between Hardy's list and many of the books that business readers are reading now. Another egregious omission from their book was Michael Lewis' Liar's Poker. For instance. But lists of business books are always an object of fascination to those who are strong supporters of the value of reading business books.
Dr. Curmudgeonly Professor,
Hardy Green is one of the few people in the business media who is capable of a comprehensive critique of The 100 Best. He favors Wall Street finance and recency over accessible and applicable books for the business practitioner.
We did leave out a few books that people would expect like Barbarians and Liar's Poker. We instead choose Smartest Guys in The Room and When Genius Failed to capture the "hubris and greed" subgenre.
Green also summed up strategy, leadership, and management to create the 29 management books mentioned. And in slighting biographies and narratives, he doesn't give us credit for books like Who Says Elephants Can't Dance? and The Republic of Tea that appear in other chapters.
I hope you'll take a further look at The 100 Best Business Books of All Time
You can read the introduction and see two of the reviews as they appear in the book:
http://100bestbiz.com/about-the-book/
You can also find the entire 100 Best listed here:
http://100bestbiz.com/more-on-the-100-best/
Posted by: Todd Sattersten | January 31, 2009 at 07:40 PM