Top 10 Business Books For Indians With Big Dreams

The tweets may be tempting, Instagram could be as good as the moment and Facebook may nurse narcissistic pleasures. But the leafy books are the best buddies that soothe your frayed soul. When you are in the corporate world and looking at growing bigger by leveraging knowledge and know-hows, it is also important to keep abreast with the ‘here and now’ of this space that will keep you going.

Information is always available to us. But reading brings us closer to wisdom. Harold Bloom, author of How to Read and Why, explains in his book that the purest of all reasons (among the ones you could come up with) to read a book is to discover and augment self, shedding all that’s polemic along the way.

Here is a list (in random order) of the top 10 business books that every Indian must read to operate in the world of business, without losing one’s identity and power of the self.

1. Leaders Eat Last
He guided the world about finding the ‘purpose’ with his last book, Start With Why. Now, he tackles the question ‘how.’ In this book, Simon Sinek explores the most pertinent question that bothers all corporate leaders. What does it take to transform the paranoia and cynicism into safety and trust? And pssttt… corporate leaders are not all whom he has met for this book. He gathers a healthy dose from military leaders too!

2. Thanks for the Feedback
The content of this book is not meant for the corporate world alone. As the title makes it obvious, dealing with ‘feedback’ is the most important, yet the most difficult thing to do in the corporate world, especially when the feedback is not positive. Douglas Stone and Sheila Heen, who also co-authored Difficult Conversations in the past, tell the readers how to look at the mirror, but not ask for ego-satiating answers. Instead, learn to accept what’s reflected and the change should happen to the person, and not to the image. Simple logic, yet described innovatively!

3. Think Like a Freak (Will be open to public in mid-May)
The ‘rogue’ (yes, he loves that attribution) economist and a journalist way ahead of their times, Steven D. Levitt and Stephen J. Dubner, have penned yet another wonderful guide for self. After the astounding success of Freakonomics and SuperFreakonomics, Steven and Stephen are bringing another gem in the ‘freaky’ series. Sure, the world would love it as much as the earlier two!

4. Thrive
Here is Huffington Post co-founder Arianna Huffington, on her mission to redefine success, beyond the power of money and the ‘clever networking’ it needs to grow. She talks about enhancing self by giving, serving, wisdom and creativity. These are most essential in a materialistic world where people end up doing the wrong things to amass the common parameters of success and stand lost at the end of the road. Growing within self can never leave anyone lonely and without friends – that is what Arianna intends to convey.

5. The Three Rules
This is a data-driven era where numbers speak stronger than conviction or the ‘gut feeling.’ So two colleagues at Deloitte put out the results of the analysis they derived from analysing 25,000 companies. They used 45 years of accumulated data. The authors, Michael E. Raynor and Mumtaz Ahmed talk about the basic rules the companies need to operate by. Attention, executives!

6. Crucial Conversations
This New York Times’ bestseller, with the foreword by management expert Stephen R. Covey, is a very useful tool to help people operate in difficult and high-stress environment without offending the ones with whom they are conversing. Written by Kerry Patterson, Joseph Grenny, Ron McMillan, Al Switzler, this book aims at making conversations more persuasive.

7. Mindset: The New Psychology of Success
Written by psychologist Carol Dweck, this book is the result of years of research and in-depth analyses of those studies. A Ph.D. and a Stanford University professor, Dweck talks about the need to change the mindset, in order to embrace success. On a positive note, this book tells why a traveller needs to take the road as it goes, and not insist on the road forming according to his/her wishes.

8. How to Win Friends and Influence People
Aha, here we arrive at the most coveted name. Dale Carnegie’s book on ‘life-saving’ techniques to create and maintain relationships, thus carving out a path for successful relationships leading to personal and professional achievements. And yes, it is worth mentioning that this book has changed the lives of many people and influenced them positively, including biggies such as Warren Buffet and Berkshire Hathaway. Just to put it on record, the book was first published in 1936!

9. David and Goliath
Malcolm Gladwell’s brand new bestseller is the toast of the year, probably. The book is dedicated to, not those dashing young intellects, geeks and executives, but to those underdogs who need to realise the advantages they have for themselves in any situation. The Goliaths of the world can be confident and hence careless, working much to the advantage of the Davids. Go, get your copy!

10. Lean In
For those who don’t know who the author Sheryl Sandberg is, here’s a pointer. She is the COO of a product that millions of people use to connect with each other – Facebook, to be precise. Sheryl’s book was the most discussed one of 2013. Here she pens some uncomfortable truths about how today’s women are facing career obstacles, but also points out that they can overcome those by speaking up, setting big goals and working hard while building their own support network.