Best Business Books 2003: The Jobless Recovery

We may remember 2003 as the third year of the postbubble economy and the year of the jobless recovery. While the economy is growing at a rate of about 2.5 percent, economists estimate we need four to five percent to begin hiring people again. For the first time in a year and a half, the stock market was up in 2003, over 10,000 again, but companies are still laying off U.S. workers in record numbers while hiring foreign workers and sending jobs overseas. The outflowing jobs are higher paying and have more intellectual content. Will this trend end?

Corporate shenanigans and malfeasance—as detailed in Smartest Guys in the Room by Bethany McLean and Peter Elkind and 24 Days by journalists Rebecca Smith and John Emshwiller—have hurt the U.S. economy and by extension the global picture. Readers can learn more about what has happened to the world economy and the U.S. role in it from Paul Krugman's The Great Unraveling and from Nobel laureate/economist Joseph Stiglitz's The Roaring Nineties. Maggie Mahar's Bull! A History of the Boom, 1982–1999 also recalls the bygone hothouse economy of the 1980s and 1990s. The current postbubble financial strategy may not have a clear direction, but these and other recent books delineate the tumultuous place where we've been.

While economists doubt that any sector can soon replicate the frenzied pace of the dot-com era, the tech sector shows signs of reawakening. Current investment books like Financial Reckoning Day by Bill Bonner and Addison Wiggin and The Successful Investor by William O'Neil recommend slow, steady saving with investment in large, established companies and stocks will still yield fair returns. In the wake of recent corporate disasters, experts also suggest learning more about the leadership of companies before investing in their stocks.

Despite a clutch of books dissecting the Enron and AOL–Time Warner debacles, the next economic stage remains unclear. As Peter Drucker said recently in Fortune, the past three years have not been a recession but a "transition with a lot of incongruities." The biggest problem he sees with the U.S. economy is our dependence on foreign money to cover the federal debt and the apparent end to U.S. dominance of the world economy. India is becoming a powerhouse while China's main problem is its numbers of uneducated workers. So, as usual, in the future, education will be all-important. Readers will keep learning and growing and, in the end, that is probably the key to success in any economic weather.

Brinkley, Douglas. Wheels for the World: Henry Ford, His Company, and a Century of Progress. Viking. 858p. ISBN 0-670-03181-X. $34.95.

Historian Brinkley's meticulous work follows every phase of Ford's history, from a fitful start through the rise of the Model T to the automaker's current cycles of corporate decay and rebirth. The envirosocial impact of Ford's industrial innovations are not ignored, but the focus is on the all-too-human characters of the Ford saga and empire. (LJ 5/15/03)

Kemper, Steve. Code Name Ginger: The Story Behind Segway and Dean Kamen's Quest To Invent a New World. Harvard Business School. 336p. ISBN 1-57851-673-0. $27.95.

The two-wheeled scooter with a self-balancing system is Dean Kamen's effort to invent a new type of transportation device, and Kemper's book covers the unforgettable story and ingenious engineering as the Segway machine is designed, prototyped, and readied for manufacture. While the success of "Ginger" is still up in the air, Kamen comes across as a visionary thinker, audacious salesman, and outstanding engineer who will continue to invent.

Klein, Alec. Stealing Time: Steve Case, Jerry Levin, and the Collapse of AOL Time Warner. S. & S. 352p. index. ISBN 0-7432-4786-8. $25.95.

AOL's Steve Case needed to keep his company afloat; he bought Time Warner to help Jerry Levin push that company into the Internet age. Washington Post reporter Klein used hundreds of company documents and interviews with key players to tell his riveting behind-the-scenes story of how a clash of cultures and management styles instigated a spectacular corporate collapse.

McLean, Bethany & Peter Elkind. The Smartest Guys in the Room: The Amazing Rise and Scandalous Fall of Enron. Portfolio. 320p. index. ISBN 1-59184-008-2. $26.95.

This human drama of ambitious, brilliant people fueled by greed and arrogance explores the motives, thoughts, and fears behind characters we know only superficially from the news, e.g. Ken Lay, Jeff Skilling, and Rebecca Mark. Thoughtful and provocative storytellers, the authors, both Fortune senior writers, present the company's illusory success and disgraceful fall in an entertaining, enticing manner. They reveal what really caused the California power crisis, how much Wall Street knew about Enron's treachery, and other dirty secrets.

Mahar, Maggie. Bull!: A History of the Boom, 1982–1999. HarperCollins. 486p. index. ISBN 0-06-056413-X. $27.95.

Mahar, a financial journalist, takes a comprehensive look at the period of the 1980s and 1990s, which she sees as one boom, not two. Along the way, she points out the fallacies of the bull market and covers the main issues, from dodgy accounting and the mutual funds explosion to easy credit and belief in the new economy. This witty history makes one thing very clear: in the history of financial markets, markets always revert to a mean. Potential investors will find Mahar's work both bracing and enlightening. (LJ 11/1/03)

Maney, Kevin. The Maverick and His Machine: Thomas Watson, Sr. and the Making of IBM. Wiley. 416p. index. ISBN 0-471-41463-8. $29.95.

USA Today technology columnist Maney explores the life and work of demanding curmudgeon Watson (1874–1956), America's first celebrity CEO. Humorous yet poignant, this terrific portrayal of the creation of IBM, one of the first great high-tech firms, is a page-turner and offers lessons on personal conduct and management still valid today. (LJ 6/15/03)

Stiglitz, Joseph. The Roaring Nineties: A New History of the World's Most Prosperous Decade. Norton. 416p. index. ISBN 0-393-05852-2. $24.95.

Noted economist and Nobel prize winner Stiglitz offers a fascinating, insightful account of the political forces that drove the U.S. economy to frenzy in the 1990s and collapse in 2000. The two main causes, as he sees it, are misguided deregulation and "growth on the cheap," or government borrowing heavily to finance investment and consumption. (LJ 9/15/03)

Batstone, David. Saving the Corporate Soul—& (Who Knows?) Maybe Your Own: Eight Principles for Creating and Preserving Wealth and Well-Being for You and Your Company Without Selling Out. Jossey-Bass. 270p. index. ISBN 0-7879-6480-8. $26.95.

Batstone (Business 2.0 ) provides the tools, strategies, and inspiration to revitalize corporations and their employees. He describes eight principles for doing business honestly and openly and cites examples of firms like Timberland, GM, and Clif Bar candy as evidence that principled companies excel over the long haul.

Huffington, Arianna Stassinopoulos. Pigs at the Trough: How Corporate Greed and Political Corruption Are Undermining America. Crown. 275p. index. ISBN 1-4000-4771-4. $22.

This scathing indictment of the unholy alliance of CEOs, politicians, lobbyists, and Wall Street bankers is presented in a blistering, witty manner. Huffington's rousing call to arms demonstrates the scandalous state of corporate America and asks for help in rescuing capitalism and democracy.

Jennings, Marianne M. & Laura C. Schlessinger. A Business Tale: A Story of Ethics, Choices, Success and a Very Large Rabbit. AMACOM:American Management Assn. 128p. ISBN 0-8144-7197-8. $19.95.

Jennings (applied ethics, Arizona State Univ.) follows one Edgar P. Benchley through his education and professional life. Edgar's imaginary friend and conscience, Aristotle, a pooka, also follows him, advising Edgar of the importance of being honest. Using real-life examples and a ten-step action plan for ethical behavior in the workplace, this fable shows the ethical path to success.

Paine, Lynn Sharp. Value Shift. McGraw-Hill. 302p. index. ISBN 0-07-138239-9. $27.95.

Globalization, privatization, deregulation, and technology are forcing fundamental changes on corporations, says Paine (Harvard Business School). Making a reevaluation of current corporate values, Paine's new organizational model demonstrates where corporate leaders will best use their skills to merge high moral standards with good financial results.

Seglin, Jeffrey L. The Right Thing: Conscience, Profit, and Personal Responsibility in Today's Business. Spiro Pr. 156p. ISBN 1-904298-97-4. $17.95.

New York Times columnist Seglin takes readers through various difficult choices that real-world companies must make. This well-written collection, organized into themes— Ethics, Policies and Life in the Corporation; Hiring; Bosses; Privacy; Lying, Cheating, and Stealing; and Leading by Example—should stimulate discussion. (LJ 4/15/03)

Smith, Rebecca & John R. Emshwiller. 24 Days: How Two Wall Street Journal Reporters Uncovered the Lies That Destroyed Faith in Corporate America. HarperCollins. 320p. ISBN 0-06-052073-6. $25.95.

This fast-paced, absorbing book follows Smith and Emshwiller as they use the investigative process to unravel Enron's inner workings, audacious schemes, and arrogant dismissal of anyone questioning the company's finances. This disturbing look at corporate misconduct in America might help put readers on guard against another such debacle.

Hashemi, Sahar & Bobby Hashemi. Anyone Can Do It: Building Coffee Republic from Our Kitchen Table—57 Real Life Laws on Entrepreneurship. Capstone. 224p. ISBN 1-84112-204-1.$24.95.

This sister-and-brother team built Coffee Republic, the original High Street coffee chain in the UK, leaving the security of well-paying jobs to follow the entrepreneurial dream. Here they chronicle how they developed the business plan, raised money, opened the first store, took the company public, and became successful. Coffee Republic now has 100 outlets and thousands of employees.

Klein, Maury. The Change Makers: From Carnegie to Gates, How the Great Entrepreneurs Transformed Ideas into Industries. Times Bks. 320p. ISBN 0-8050-6914-3. $26.

Historian Klein analyzes the creative talents great entrepreneurs possess: they all transcend conventional wisdom and demonstrate persistence, determination, and a strong work ethic. For aspiring entrepreneurs, professors, and students. (LJ 2/15/03)

Matthews, Jana B. & Jeff Dennis. Lessons from the Edge: Survival Skills for Starting and Growing a Company. Oxford Univ. 268p. ISBN 0-19-516825-9. $29.

This unique collection of first-person accounts covers a wide range of experiences, from the loss of key customers, theft, and finding and keeping good employees to choosing a business partner and the ongoing challenge of balancing personal and business lives. The book's five sections are Leadership, People, Partnership, Money, and Personal Issues, which entrepreneurs surveyed have identified as the major hurdles for starting and growing a company.

Newman, Paul & A.E. Hotchner. Shameless Exploitation in Pursuit of the Common Good. Doubleday. 272p. ISBN 0-385-50802-6. $22.95.

Combining philanthropy with name recognition and nutritious products, Newman's Own started out selling Paul's homemade salad dressing and became the first company to mass market all-natural foods. Newman and business partner and author Hotchner recount how they relied on instinct, imagination, common sense, and exceedingly good luck to found and grow their maverick enterprise. An inspirational, informative, and quirkily entertaining unbusiness book. (LJ 11/15/03)

Sathe, Vijay. Corporate Entrepreneurship: Top Managers and New Business Creation. Cambridge Univ. 387p. ISBN 0-521-82499-0. $35.

Writing for managers, practitioners, students, and scholars, professor Sathe leads the reader into the real world of management to help understand how corporate entrepreneurship works. The author covers management cultures, corporate philosophies, organizational politics, and how personal priorities affect the success or failure of an organization.

Krugman, Paul. The Great Unraveling: Losing Our Way in the New Century. Norton. 426p. ISBN 0-393-05850-6. $25.95.

Krugman (economics, Princeton) clearly and thoughtfully details how the boom economy unraveled, including how exuberance gave way to pessimism and the fall of the stock market; how and why corporate scandals dominated the news; and how and why fiscal responsibility largely collapsed. He chronicles the history of the California energy crisis and how the lies of the Bush administration have affected the economy, the war, and our future politics. (LJ 10/1/03)

Salacuse, Jeswald W. The Global Negotiator: Making, Managing, and Mending Deals Around the World in the Twenty-First Century. Palgrave Macmillan. 312p. ISBN 0-312-29339-9. $35.

This unique, outstanding guidebook breaks down the intricacies of international negotiations into understandable segments and provides the tools to ensure success in the creation, management, and remediation of international deals. Salacuse (Fletcher Sch. of Law & Diplomacy, Tufts Univ.) even explains how to cope when negotiations go wrong, illustrating how deals may falter and what methods can save them.

Schlosser, Eric. Reefer Madness: Sex, Drugs, and Cheap Labor in the American Black Market. Houghton. 310p. ISBN 0-618-33466-1. $23.

In the same manner as his last best seller, Fast Food Nation, Schlosser analyzes the three most thriving black market industries in the U.S. economy: marijuana, illegal migrant labor, and pornography. Using first-person narratives of participants in this underground economy, he explores how his subjects are treated and punished as compared with those in aboveground ventures. He traces the parallels between the underground and legitimate economies and asks readers to take a clear look at the myth of the free market. (LJ 4/15/03)

Chakravorti, Bhaskar. Slow Pace of Fast Change: Bringing Innovations to Market in a Connected World. Harvard Business School. 216p. ISBN 1-57851-780-X. $29.95.

Chakravorti has hands-on experience with several innovative companies, and this guidebook offers insights into the difficulties and opportunities in bringing new ideas to market today. Employing game theory, each chapter develops a rich set of ideas and uses real-world companies like Microsoft, Comcast, and AT&T as examples. This intensely practical book explains why true progress is often slow.

Hargadon, Andrew & Kathleen M. Eisenhardt. How Breakthroughs Happen: The Surprising Truth About How Companies Innovate. Harvard Business School. 272p. index. ISBN 1-57851-904-7. $29.95.

Using systems theory, cognitive psychology, and "microsociology," engineer and social scientist Hargadon explains that the innovation process is really about recombining ideas, people, and objects from past technologies. Companies can encourage innovation by cultivating a diverse network of clients, projects, and suppliers.

Poundstone, William. How Would You Move Mount Fuji?: Microsoft's Cult of the Puzzle; How the World's Smartest Company Selects the Most Creative Thinkers. Little, Brown. 288p. ISBN 0-316-91916-0. $22.95.

This hybrid volume studies corporate hiring, assesses the value of IQ tests, provides a history of interviewing, and describes the roots of logic questions in interviews. The second half of the book is puzzle-solving, with possible solutions to some brainteasers. This book won't get you a job at Microsoft, but it is a fun and interesting approach to finding innovative thinkers. (LJ 5/15/03)

Bonner, Bill & Addison Wiggin. Financial Reckoning Day: Surviving the Soft Depression of the 21st Century. Wiley. 306p. index. ISBN 0-471-44973-3. $27.95.

This worthwhile, well-organized book presents insights into the current U.S. economy by comparing contemporary economic events with historical ones, especially such systems as Japan's in the 1990s and the United States in the 1930s. Find out why high-spending, high-borrowing consumerism leveraged the U.S. economy and also what the "soft depression" means for investors.

O'Neil, William J. The Successful Investor: What 80 Million People Need To Know To Invest Profitably and Avoid Big Losses. McGraw-Hill. 183p. ISBN 0-07-142959-X. pap. $10.95.

This thought-provoking guide provides the basics on how to make money and avoid losses in all types of markets. Find out why the market unraveled, what the consequences are, and what to do right now to succeed in future markets. O'Neil's historically based research and formula will improve the skill of all investors and help them see steady, growing results.

Evans, Gail. She Wins, You Win. Gotham Bks. 190p. ISBN 1-59240-025-6. $25.

Evans, CNN's first female executive VP, leads readers through the steps to build formal and informal teams and to stop networking and start "webbing." In Part 2, she identifies seven essential team tips, including mentoring, sharing information, rainmaking, and uniting with women across all business situations. Besides creating a new "woman-only" vocabulary (watch out for "Queen Beas" and "Seniority Sues"), Evans writes a motivating guidebook for women who are serious about career success.

Finkelstein, Sydney. Why Smart Executives Fail—and What You Can Learn from Their Mistakes. Portfolio. 318p. ISBN 1-59184-010-4. $26.95.

Finkelstein's comprehensive study of corporate failure explains the mechanics of executive breakdown, how to avoid it, and what to do once it occurs. Interviews with over 200 executives at 51 companies, including Motorola, GM, Mattel, Quaker, and Sony, point out the common factor among business failures: human emotion rather than business strategy. Finkelstein offers pointers on how shareholders can spot disasters in the making.

George, Bill. Authentic Leadership: Rediscovering the Secrets to Creating Lasting Value. Jossey-Bass. 240p. ISBN 0-7879-6913-3. $27.95.

George candidly recounts his experiences as chair and CEO of Medtronic, a medical technology producer, and makes a case that we need new, authentic business leaders. The five essential dimensions of "authentic" leaders are purpose, values, heart, relationships, and self-discipline. In the scorched, post-Enron corporate world, this motivational how-to will help developing business leaders find the path to personal and business success.

Krames, Jeffrey A. What the Best CEOs Know: 7 Exceptional Leaders and Their Lessons for Transforming Any Business. McGraw-Hill. 250p. ISBN 0-07-138240-2. $19.95.

In Part 1, Krames describes what makes his seven representative leaders great and how they shaped and transformed their industries. Part 2 devotes a chapter to each subject (from Michael Dell to Andy Grove and Bill Gates) and discusses the successful strategies that have made each CEO exceptional. The author thoroughly and intelligently examines leadership strategies that work.

Maxwell, John C. Thinking for a Change: 11 Ways Highly Successful People Approach Life and Work. Warner. 304p. ISBN 0-446-52957-5. $22.95.

Maxwell's easy-to-read, step-by-step text guides readers down the path of mastering what he calls "good thinking," e.g., big-picture thinking, shared thinking, unselfish thinking, and bottom-line thinking, which will help them achieve personal and professional goals. His engaging writing style will help readers come away with new skills for finding solutions. (LJ 4/15/03)

Perlow, Leslie. When You Say Yes but Mean No: How Silencing Conflict Wrecks Relationships and Companies…and What You Can Do About It. Crown Business. 254p. ISBN 1-4000-4600-9. $25.

This problem haunts organizations from start-ups to multinationals and exists in all industries and departments. Perlow, a corporate culture anthropologist, asserts that people's natural desire to be liked and avoid conflict leads to dysfunctional relationships at work and at home. Her 19-month case study, interviewing hundreds of executives and employees, reveals the many detrimental effects of silence and how to avoid them.

Barletta, Martha. Marketing to Women: How To Understand, Reach, and Increase Your Share of the World's Largest Market Segment. Dearborn Trade. 253p. ISBN 0-7931-5963-6. $23.

Barletta's engaging book can help you learn how to use the GenderTrends model, which provides explicit strategies and tactics for assessing your market, understanding your customers, and creating brand identity. Specific chapters target salespeople, detailing selling ideas to attract more customers and close sales more often, emphasizing a women-focused marketing agenda.

Brown, Stephen. Time, Space, and the Market: Retroscapes Rising. M.E. Sharpe. 350p. index. ISBN 0-7656-1013-2. $69.95.

Devoted to "retroscapes," commercial environments like Planet Hollywood and Niketown, and urbanist communities like Boston's Faneuil Hall and Disney's Celebration, USA, this book of case studies examines how our yearnings for the past are transformed by marketers into current realities and "consumptive quests." In today's post-9/11 world, retail venues worldwide are using past images and lifestyles to make the present more tolerable.

Garfield, Bob. And Now a Few Words from Me: Advertising's Leading Critic Lays Down the Law, Once and for All. McGraw-Hill. 203p. ISBN 0-07-140316-7. $24.95.

This brazenly funny, pun-filled take on the advertising industry discusses what is wrong with today's crop of ads. The introduction is entitled "The Ten Commandments of Advertising, Brought to You by God," and it sums up Garfield's viewpoint: though it is fashionable today to "break the rules," the old rules work just fine.

Godin, Seth. Purple Cow: Transform Your Business by Being Remarkable. Portfolio. 145p. index. ISBN 1-59184-021-X. $19.95.

What do Starbucks, Krispy Kreme, HBO, and JetBlue have in common? They've created new ways of doing old business, and like a purple cow in a field of Holsteins, they stand out. Godin (Survival Is Not Enough) employs case studies of real businesses in this "marketing manifesto."

Haig, Matt. Brand Failures: The Truth About the 100 Biggest Branding Mistakes of All Time. Kogan Page. 310p. index. ISBN 0-7494-3927-0. $29.95.

Haig intelligently discusses how multi-million- dollar advertising campaigns launching new brands can sink without a trace. He looks at failures related to ideas (Oranjolt), extension (LifeSavers), PR (Firestone), culture (Coors in Spain), people (Enron), rebranding (British Airways), Internet (pets.com), and tired brands (Kmart). Learn from others' mistakes.

Kotler, Philip & Fernando Trias de Bes. Lateral Marketing. Wiley. 206p. index. ISBN 0-471-45516-4. $24.95.

These two marketing innovators provide effective and practical concepts and tools to help readers create new products and services based on thinking across rather than within markets. Understand the power of marketing creativity and how "lateral marketing" can expand thinking and profits.

Silverstein, Michael & Neil Fiske. Trading Up: The New American Luxury. Portfolio. 320p. index. ISBN 1-59184-013-9. $26.95.

New luxury leaders like Victoria's Secret, Belvedere vodka, BMW, and Williams-Sonoma create and market their goods quite differently from conventional companies. Using plenty of statistics as well as anecdotal evidence, the authors explore why middle-market consumers are willing to sacrifice dining out or clothing to buy a luxury automobile, expensive wine, or round-the-world cruises. (LJ 9/15/03)

Thaler, Linda Kaplan & others. Bang! Getting Your Message Heard in a Noisy World. Currency: Doubleday. 256p. index. ISBN 0-385-50816-6. $24.95.

Learn why we've all heard of AFLAC and the duck and have raised our consciousness about that insurance company from zero to instant recognition. The authors suggest proven strategies and "out-of-the-box" thinking to help students, marketers, and entrepreneurs create loud, clear, attention-grabbing messages about their own products and services.

The Core Business Web. Haworth Information. 324p. ed. by Gary W. White. index. ISBN 0-7890-2094-7. $49.95; pap. ISBN 0-7890-2095-5. $29.95.

Divided into 25 areas of business (e.g., accounting, company information, industry information, labor, real estate), this volume is the result of contributors who searched the web for portals, directories, and metasites of useful business information to save readers hours of "Googling" and surfing. Sites were evaluated on timeliness, relevance, and reliable content; ease of navigation and use; and authority of the author or publisher. A detailed index provides additional access points.