Top 10 business books to fuel your thoughts

No one else says it as effectively as the researcher and management guru Jim Collins does. Good to Great and Built to Last are his masterpieces. Getting people in the key seats, some team exercises that can help the bond last longer and your company turns into the best one around. Now, aren’t these enough perks?

Do you know what’s the hardest thing for a leader? Not progress indicators, not share prices, not brand image or even the decisions which we usually deem as tough. The biggest challenge is that of interpreting one’s own psychology. This book tells you how to build a business when there are no easy answers.

Emotional intelligence is much more important than smartness. It means a hell lot more than Intelligence Quotient and people in the business world do understand the importance and value of remaining emotionally stable through ups and downs of this world that can always leave you on the edge.

If you assumed this book was about baseball, you are mighty wrong. And in your assumption, you also exposed your limited knowledge of the business terms. This book by Lewis is precisely about intellectual honesty! This deals with the most pertinent question we have before us today – that of instinct and data, which one would we follow? Sounds like this is today’s book!

Title of the book is self explanatory. This book is a must for those managers who wish to follow their instinct, heart and ambition instead of merely sitting around as a data crunching machine. Responses from over 80,000 interviews prove that managers and leaders are those who take the road that’s less trodden to meet success, and not those to tread the safe crowded path to remain mediocre.

The author, who served as a CEO of GM between 1923-46 was probably among the early writers who chronicled their work at this prestigious company that’s still going great guns. Though GM’s lawyers did manage to ban the book for a few years, but eventually the book won over. Sloan gives some shrewd lessons about managing the automotive behemoth. If you are in automobile industry, this should be your Bible. Even otherwise, this is a must-read.

This book is a sheer work of art, and the best one at that. This is a ‘read me quick’ book that can be finished no sooner than you started it. But, book by the ‘The One Minute Manager’ authors has changed a lot of lives for better. There is a bit of something in everything this book talks about.

Oh, come on! This book on the list of business literature? No, this ain’t a mistake. This book has been read by way too many business leaders to take the message out of it. This will drive home the core message – holding on to your conviction even during the times when things don’t seem to work at all. Have the vision, the perseverance and most certainly, you will win!

Total Quality Management is the core message of the book. The key management principles enumerated in this book are relevant at all times, though Quality Management and building on customer feedback, and constant improvement are all the mantras of every business house today. Don’t miss it!