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Paperback
832 pages
ISBN 9781400077304 Published March 2004
Vintage Books
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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.
An Embarrassment of Riches
Posted Oct. 6, 2010 4:38 a.m. by jack
In - 800 CEO Read Blog
In 1997, Sebastian Junger wrote a great book called The Perfect Storm. The phrase, “a perfect storm” is used when multiple things come together to create an extraordinary experience.
That thought fleeted through my mind last night as I sat reading Jonathan Franzen’s Freedom, because, including Freedom, I’m actually reading three brilliant books in three rather different genres.
I didn't want to like Freedom, due to the hype, but it is totally worthy of all the praise it has been getting. I don’t read a lot of contemporary fiction, but this is a brilliant story told brilliantly.
In the biography genre, I am reading Ron Chernow’s fantastic Washington, A Life. I have been a fan of Chernow for years, and in fact, his classic Titan about John D. Rockefeller was included in The 100 Best Business Books of All Time.
In the business genre, I am reading Steven Johnson’s fascinating book about innovation called Where Good Ideas Come From. Johnson is one of the best writers of “big idea” books, books that look at a common subject and use unpredictable stories combining history and science and the like to illuminate the subject a different way. In the process, we as readers, learn to look at business more holistically...and enjoyably.
In the many years I have been in the book business, I can’t remember a time when I so looked forward to sitting and reading books from multiple genres at the same time. These three books have ignited a passion for reading that I haven’t felt in a long time.
For all the talk of the decline of publishing, this embarrassment of riches reminds me that there is plenty of life left in the industry.
