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688 pages
ISBN 9780375701047 Published Feb. 1998
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Posted Oct. 21, 2011 8:21 a.m. by sally-haldorson
In - 800 CEO Read Blog
While Dylan is relaxing on his honeymoon in Costa Rica, I'm going to take a stab at my version of Friday Links. Enjoy!
There has been a lot of talk both online and around the water cooler about the New York Times article "Amazon Signs Up Authors, Writing Publishers Out of Deal" published earlier this week that made the bold statement:
Amazon.com has taught readers that they do not need bookstores. Now it is encouraging writers to cast aside their publishers.
The author, David Streitfeld, goes on to detail the moves Amazon has made to establish itself as a competitor to more traditional publishers which, right or wrong, are made to seem submissive in the face of Amazon's emergence, depicted here quite colorfully with references to fear, confusion, and anger. Amazon, in turn, sounds nearly benevolent to authors and their struggles to get published. Needless to say, the article has sparked some strong opinions. Here are two of them:
Friend of company and all-around-smart-publishing-person, John Eklund, a rep for Harvard University Press, The MIT Press, and Yale University Press, takes issue less with the article itself, than with the assertion made by "a top Amazon executive" that “The only really necessary people in the publishing process now are the writer and the reader.” In his Paper Over Board blog post, who needs editors? writers, Eklund counters:
[N]obody- or precious few anyway- has written a book worth reading on their own. Someone taught you to write, someone took care of the kids and the bills while you wrote, perhaps someone even gave you ideas. And once an editor recognized quality and meaning in your work, and persuaded her house to take a chance on you, a complicated publishing apparatus improved on your creation.
That’s not always how it works. And one solution might be more publishers, not fewer. But as a reader, I’ll continue to buy books that have been brought to market by experienced professionals with a publishing legacy, and will be wary of books that make a virtue out of scorning them.
The AARdvark blog, "created by the AAR Digital Rights Committee to educate the membership on all aspects of and issues surrounding the emerging digital publishing marketplace" takes on the article itself, in a post titled, Really, New York Times??, asking readers not to just find it either 'yesterday's news' or even revealing an uncomfortable truth, but to feel some "rage" over it.
Monday’s New York Times front page article on Amazon’s “writing publishers out of the deal” has been much commented-on. But I think it calls for some rage. As someone who really cares about this industry, the simplistic and narrow focus is infuriating; and the message it conveys to people outside the business is misleading at best and damaging at worst. I would have expected more insight and at least some analysis from ‘the newspaper paper of record.’
Author, Brian DeFlore, whose vitae provides ample evidence of this knowledge of the subject, takes offense at the tone of the article which, as he reads it, paints Amazon in a most favorable light.
And yes, it is sexy to think of Amazon as the great democratizer, and the Times uses that for effect. But of course Amazon could swat any publisher out of existence with a flick of its mighty wrist. If there is a Goliath, it ain’t the publishers. You’d think the Times would address that.
No doubt the evolution of the publishing industry will continue to stir up great passion, and it is impossible to predict just how it will all shake out. Look at the evolution of the music business: it still hasn't ceased to change. But we can take solace in the fact that there is indeed such passion over our passion for reading.
***
On November 3rd, the winner of the 2011 Financial Times and Goldman Sachs Business Book of the Year Award will be announced. The Financial Times has posted a number of videos to their YouTube channel of business leaders discussing great business books.
Cynthia Carroll, CEO of Anglo American, talks about Michael Porter's On Competition
Pete Redfern, Chief Executive of Taylor Wimpey makes an unconventional pick, Red Plenty by Francis Spufford.
Samir Brikho, Chief Executive, Amec, explains how he uses Eliyahu M Goldratt and Jeff Cox's The Goal in his organization.
***
In our The 100 Best Business Books of All Time, Jack chose Personal History by Katharine Graham as one of his favorite biographies. Graham ran the Washington Post Company from 1963-1991, an amazingly long time for any business person to helm a company.
But her success was not without struggle. Throughout her tenure as publisher, she had problems garnering the respect of her peers and subordinates, and, in this book, she discusses her struggles with trusting her own instincts. But it is indeed her obvious success as a leader and as a moral icon that makes this book essential reading.
This book came to mind this week when I watched this story on CBS News about Jill Abramson who has been named the new Executive Editor of the New York Times. She will have an incredible challenge in the coming years to intertwine the paper and digital visions of the paper. And, of course, the challenge of being a woman in the top newspaper job. About this, Abramson says:
"I'm very conscious of the past battles that woman journalists waged to rise up in the newsroom, and that happened here at the Times, too," Abramson said. "It would be nice to think we would get to the point where it wasn't so remarkable when a woman rose to the top job at an important institution. But we aren't there yet."
Indeed. But both Graham and Abramson have helped advance the process.
How Did They Do It?
Posted Aug. 5, 2011 4:06 a.m. by sally-haldorson
In - 800 CEO Read Blog
In our The 100 Best Business Books of All Time, we included a chapter of recommended biographies. Jack has always championed the form as a valid way to learn valuable business lessons, not just as good entertainment. In the opening of the chapter, we explained:
How did they do it? That is the question we all want to ask when we meet someone famous or wealthy. We want to mimic them, thinking that if we just follow their footsteps we'll arrive at the same place. But, as Mark Twain said, "History rhymes; it does not repeat." Biographies provide a direction and a context so we can better plot our own course."
In that chapter, we included these 7 biographies:
Titan: The Life of John D. Rockefeller, Sr. by Ron Chernow;
My Years with General Motors by Alfred P. Sloan, Jr.;
The HP Way by David Packard;
Personal History by Katharine Graham;
Moments of Truth by Jan Carlzon;
Sam Walton: Made in America by Sam Walton with John Huey;
Losing My Virginity by Richard Branson.
Today, Fast Company came out with their own list of recommended biographies. They chose:
Mary Kay: Miracles Happen by Mary Kay Ash;
Let My People Go Surfing: The Education of a Reluctant Businessman
by Yvon Chouinard;
Direct from Dell: Strategies that Revolutionized an Industry; by Michael Dell and Catherine Fredman;
Iacocca: An Autobiography by Lee Iacocca with William Novak;
Confessions of an Advertising Man by David Ogilvy;
The HP Way: How Bill Hewlett and I Built Our Company by David Packard;
Body and Soul: Profits with Principles, the Amazing Success Story of Anita Roddick & the Body Shop by Anita Roddick;
Pour Your Heart into It: How Starbucks Built a Company One Cup at a Time by Howard Schultz and Dori Jones Yang;
Sam Walton, Made in America: My Story by Sam Walton and John Huey
Father, Son & Co.: My Life at IBM and Beyond by Thomas J. Watson and Peter Petre;
Jack: Straight from the Gut by Jack Welch and John A. Byrne
While our recommendations are quite dissimilar (we only have two matching titles, The HP Way and Sam Walton), some of these books (the Ogilvy and Watson) made our original shortlist, and we also write a bit in the new paperback version of The 100 Best coming out in November 2011 about the game-changing effect that Iococca's book had on the business book genre.
Looking at the sub-genre of business biographies as a whole, unlimited lessons can be learned from the lives of others, and we are privileged to be let into the lives of these masters of business through their books.
Business Book Humiliations
Posted Aug. 3, 2010 3:43 a.m. by sally-haldorson
In - 800 CEO Read Blog
Penguin's Portfolio imprint specializes in business books, and their Portfolio Javelin blog ("Business, Business Books, and the Business of Books") is a great read for any of us business book geeks. Yesterday, Will Weisser, Vice President and Associate Editor of Portfolio, wrote an entry inspired by a post in the Guardian's blog in which the author, Robert McCrum, confessed, despite his education and exposure to great books, that he had never read Middlemarch by George Eliot (if you too have not read Middlemarch, I highly recommend remedying that this summer--it's one of my favorites.) McCrum then invites readers to share their book humiliations by listing the books that they regret never having read.
In his post, Weisser agrees to play along, but specifies that he has "focused on the business category for 15 years but still haven’t read some of the most acclaimed and influential business books, the ones we use as benchmarks and role models."
Weisser's list of regrets:
Barbarians at the Gate by Bryan Burrough and John Helyar
Den of Thieves by James B. Stewart
In Search of Excellence by Tom Peters and Bob Waterman
The Innovator’s Dilemma by Clay Christensen
Only the Paranoid Survive by Andy Grove
Why We Buy by Paco Underhill
The HP Way by David Packard
Then he was kind enough to mention our book, The 100 Best Business Books of All Time, as a great resource for determining which books you've missed out on. (When preparing the "lost chapter" of The 100 Best, we added Barbarians at the Gate by Burrough and Helyar, and it would be the perfect book to take on vacation yet this summer.)
Intrigued by this challenge, I posed the question to Jack, our in-house encyclopedia of business books, what Business Book Humiliations he may still have. He replied that Michael Porter (author of Competitive Advantage and Competitive Strategy comes to mind. Personal History by Katharine Graham was Dylan's choice. If I had to choose one, it would be Men and Women of the Corporation by Rosabeth Moss Kanter.
What's your business book humiliation, the one business book you most regret never having read?
Inc. Magazine's 30th Anniversary Book Recommendations
Posted April 8, 2009 10:03 a.m. by todd-sattersten
In Lists - 800 CEO Read Blog
Inc. Magazine is celebrating 30 years of publication this month and as a part of their coverage have put together "The Business Owner's Bookshelf" - 30 books people running small businesses should read.
Here is the list in its entirety:
- Against the Gods: The Remarkable Story of Risk, by Peter Bernstein (1996)
- The Art of the Start: The Time-Tested, Battle-Hardened Guide for Anyone Starting Anything, by Guy Kawasaki (2004)
The Box: How the Shipping Container Made the World Smaller and the World Economy Bigger, by Marc Levinson (2006)
Brand New: How Entrepreneurs Earned Consumers' Trust from Wedgwood to Dell, by Nancy F. Koehn (2001)
The Dilbert Principle: A Cubicle's-Eye View of Bosses, Meetings, Management Fads, and Other Workplace Afflictions, by Scott Adams (1996)
The E-Myth Revisited: Why Most Small Businesses Don't Work and What to Do About It, by Michael Gerber (1995)
The Effective Executive: The Definitive Guide to Getting the Right Things Done, by Peter Drucker (1967)
The Fifth Discipline: The Art & Practice of the Learning Organization, by Peter Senge (1990)
First, Break All the Rules: What the World's Greatest Managers Do Differently, by Marcus Buckingham and Curt Coffman (1999)
Good to Great: Why Some Companies Make the Leap…And Others Don't, by Jim Collins (2001)
The Great Game of Business: The Only Sensible Way to Run a Company, by Jack Stack (1992)
Growing a Business, by Paul Hawken (1987)
Green to Gold: How Smart Companies Use Environmental Strategy to Innovate, Create Value, and Build Competitive Advantage, by Daniel Esty and Andrew Winston (2006)
How to Win Friends and Influence People, by Dale Carnegie (1936)
The Innovator's Dilemma: When New Technologies Cause Great Firms to Fail, by Clayton Christensen (1997)
Intellectual Capital: The New Wealth of Organizations, by Thomas A. Stewart (1997)
The Knack: How Street-Smart Entrepreneurs Learn to Handle Whatever Comes Up, by Norm Brodsky and Bo Burlingham (2008)
Let My People Go Surfing: The Education of a Reluctant Businessman, by Yvon Chouinard (2005)
Made to Stick: Why Some Ideas Survive and Others Don't, by Chip Heath and Dan Heath (2007)
The New New Thing: A Silicon Valley Story, by Michael Lewis (1999)
Nuts! Southwest Airlines' Crazy Recipe for Business and Personal Success, by Kevin Freiberg and Jackie Freiberg (1996)
Ogilvy on Advertising, by David Ogilvy (1983)
On Competition, by Michael Porter (2008)
Personal History, by Katharine Graham (1997)
Pour Your Heart Into It: How Starbucks Built a Company One Cup at a Time, by Howard Schultz and Dori Jones Yang (1997)
Small Giants: Companies That Choose to Be Great Instead of Big, by Bo Burlingham (2005)
Soul of a New Machine, by Tracy Kidder (1981)
The Wealth of Nations, by Adam Smith (1776)
What Management Is: How It Works and Why It's Everyone's Business, by Joan Magretta and Nan Stone (2002)
The Wisdom of Crowds: Why the Many Are Smarter Than the Few and How Collective Wisdom Shapes Business, Economies, Societies and Nations, by James Surowiecki (2004)
Jack and I think it is a pretty good list. Eleven of their 30 books match with selections from The 100 Best. The editors provide some big challenges for readers recommending The Wealth of Nations, On Competition, and The Fifth Discipline. Nuts! and Let My People Go Surfing are great for business owners (also check out Raising The Bar). And their fun add of The Dilbert Principle is a great one, showing us what to do by showing us what not to do.
InBubbleWrap - Personal History
Posted Jan. 22, 2009 3:50 a.m. by dylan
In Uncategorized - 800 CEO Read Blog
We continue to give away as many of The 100 Best Business Books of All Time as we can get our hands on over on InBubbleWrap. This week we have Personal History, the autobiography of Katharine Graham, the amazing woman who ran The Washington Post from 1963 to 1991, and the first woman to run a newspaper of such national prominence.
Jack reviewed the book for The 100 Best, and gives you a taste of what to expect in the video below. I'm sure he'll convince you that you want to read this book. I know I'd like a copy. We have 25 available.
