March 19, 2007

Five Best from Ken Roman, Former Advertising Executive

Saturday's Wall Street Journal had a list of the five blue-chip business management books. The list was compiled by Ken Roman, a former advertising executive. I think it is one of the best lists I have seen.

1> The Effective Executive by Peter Drucker
2> Management and Machiavelli (out of print) by Antony Jay
3> What They Don't Teach You at Harvard Business School By Mark McCormick
4> Confessions of an Advertising Man by David Ogilvy
5> Who Says Elephants Can't Dance? by Lou Gerstner

A brilliant list.

Posted by jack at March 19, 2007 10:40 AM | TrackBack
Comments

Fascinating.
Probably the first book list where I've read all the books listed.
(But 5 is so few, makes the test too easy.)
Certainly they are all worth reading and reading with care.
But the best?
In the 40 yeas since Drucker wrote "The Effective Executive"
we ought to have learned enough to need a rewrite.
I think of Jim Collins' "Good to Great" but he approaches the
subject so differently than Drucker that it may not be useful to contrast the books.

For IBM I think Watson Jr.'s "A Business and its Beliefs" and "Father, Son, & Co." give a deeper understanding of what made that company great. But Gerstner, coming later, reaffirms the importance of the Watsons' beliefs in creating that greatness. Even if he had to re-word and modify those beliefs to fit his management.

(Unfortunately much has been lost from the belief “Respect For The Individual� Particularly in not following Watson, Sr.’s oft repeated dictum: “We are not going to stop progressing because we know we have to keep going forward or go backward and we are not going backward.�

What could have been accomplished at IBM had they progressed with Respect For The Individual rather than backing away from it?)

Posted by: ShakspearesFool at March 23, 2007 9:51 PM
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