strategy+business Top Business Books of 2005

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strategy+business is a quarterly magazine that seeks to “bridge the gap between theroy and practice in contemporary global business.” I personally have never read the magazine but a good friend of mine and reader of this site, Tony, pointed out a great article of the Best Business Books of 2005 which is a must read for those of you who have ever considered getting an MBA. It’s really a series of articles pointing out the best in the following categories: The Future, Strategy, Globalization, Management, Work and Life, Marketing, Media, and Leadership. The commentary that accompanies each pick, and its alternatives, is especially thorough and thought-provoking (read it!). This isn’t your typical list.

I’ve listed all the books mentioned in each of the articles as a quick reference (with an affiliate link to Amazon.com):
The Future –

• The World is Flat: A Brief History of the Twenty-First Century by Thomas L. Friedman
• The Long Emergency: Surviving the Converging Catastrophes of the Twenty-First Century by Howard Kunstler
• Joel Garreau’s Radical Evolution: The Promise and Peril of Enhancing Our Minds, Our Bodies — and What It Means To Be Human
• Daniel H. Pink’s A Whole New Mind: Moving from the Information Age to the Conceptual Age
• Steven Johnson’s Everything Bad Is Good for You: How Today’s Popular Culture Is Actually Making Us Smarter
• In the Bubble: Designing in a Complex World by John Thackara
• Massive Change from Bruce Mau

Strategy -

• Blue Ocean Strategy: How to Create Uncontested Market Space and Make the Competition Irrelevant, by W. Chan Kim and Renée Mauborgne (Harvard Business School Press, 2005)
• MarketBusters: 40 Strategic Moves That Drive Exceptional Business Growth, by Rita Gunther McGrath and Ian C. MacMillan (Harvard Business School Press, 2005)
• University of Michigan professor C.K. Prahalad’s The Fortune at the Bottom of the Pyramid: Eradicating Poverty Through Profits (Wharton School Publishing, 2005)

Globalization -

• The End of Poverty: Economic Possibilities for Our Time by Jeffrey D. Sachs
• Capitalism at the Crossroads: The Unlimited Business Opportunities in Solving the World’s Most Difficult Problems, by Cornell University Johnson School of Management professor Stuart L. Hart (Wharton School Publishing, 2005)
• The Fortune at the Bottom of the Pyramid: Eradicating Poverty Through Profits by C.K. Prahalad (again)
• John Perkins’s Confessions of an Economic Hit Man (Berrett-Koehler, 2004)
• Pietra Rivoli’s The Travels of a T-Shirt in the Global Economy: An Economist Examines the Markets, Power, and Politics of World Trade (John Wiley & Sons, 2005)

Management -

• Winning (HarperBusiness, 2005), by Jack Welch with Suzy Welch
• Will Your Next Mistake Be Fatal? Avoiding the Chain of Mistakes That Can Destroy Your Organization (Wharton School Publishing, 2005), by Robert E. Mittelstaedt Jr.
• Conspiracy of Fools: A True Story (Broadway Books, 2005), by Kurt Eichenwald
• Blood on the Street: The Sensational Inside Story of How Wall Street Analysts Duped a Generation of Investors (Free Press, 2005), by Charles Gasparino
• Ponzi’s Scheme: The True Story of a Financial Legend (Random House, 2005), by Mitchell Zuckoff

Work and Life -

• Time Divide: Work, Family, and Gender Inequality (Harvard University Press, 2004), by sociologists Jerry A. Jacobs and Kathleen Gerson
• Journalist Carl Honoré’s In Praise of Slowness: How a Worldwide Movement Is Challenging the Cult of Speed (Harper San Francisco, 2004)
• Mary Lou Quinlan’s Time Off for Good Behavior: How Hardworking Women Can Take a Break and Change Their Lives (Broadway Books, 2005)
• Creating the Good Life: Applying Aristotle’s Wisdom to Find Meaning and Happiness (Rodale, 2005), by organizational behavior expert James O’Toole

Marketing -

• All Marketers Are Liars: The Power of Telling Authentic Stories in a Low-Trust World, by Seth Godin (Portfolio, 2005)
• Brand Hijack: Marketing without Marketing, by Alex Wipperfürth (Portfolio, 2005)
• How Customers Think: Essential Insights into the Mind of the Market, by Gerald Zaltman (Harvard Business School Press, 2003)
• ProfitBrand: How to Increase the Profitability, Accountability & Sustainability of Brands, by Nick Wreden (Kogan Page, 2005)

I skipped Media.

Leadership -

• Michael Lewis’s Coach: Lessons on the Game of Life (W.W. Norton, 2005)
• Manfred F.R. Kets de Vries’s Lessons on Leadership by Terror: Finding Shaka Zulu in the Attic (Edward Elgar, 2004)
• Dennis W. Bakke’s Joy at Work: A Revolutionary Approach to Fun on the Job (PVG, 2005)
• John C. Whitehead’s A Life in Leadership: From D-Day to Ground Zero: An Autobiography (Basic Books, 2005)

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