Best Business Books 2006: The Balanced Books
By Sarah Statz Cords, Carol Elsen, Caroline Geck, Lucy Heckman, Lawrence R. Maxted, & Stephen E. Turner -- Library Journal, 3/15/2007
The year's business reading identified new trends, reckoned with old challenges, offered counteropinions on hot topics, reinforced some old lessons, highlighted gains over losses, celebrated innovations that have potential for all, and observed the failures of these innovations to keep their promise. In short, it was a year of balancing equations—of balancing the books. A veritable definition of the state of today's business world, these are the best of the year.
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The books show the persistence of retail and brand giants but note the successes of small companies with intensely loyal customers. They find some business careerists opting out of the corporate race to shape personally fulfilling kaleidoscope careers instead.
The year saw some newly crafted equations, particularly in the economics of major business, reshaped by technology, the assured trendsetter. Most notably, Chris Anderson identified the power of online sellers to profit from the “long tail” of virtually infinite product categories and distribution over bricks-and-mortar businesses that depend on a few blockbusters for profit.
In the meantime, authors note that even as U.S. manufacturing shifts to developing countries, there are intangible costs when global ventures are not simply cyber but literal. These can be steep, even though a global balance is being sought through regulatory reforms, reductions in corruption, and increased transparency.
The power of the Internet and social networking is amply recognized as a means of marketing and increasing return on investment, yet the year also brought economic case studies undertaken in developing countries that requite such praise with assessments indicating that cyber access provides few benefits to struggling inhabitants compared with the advantages they acquire through mobile and radio technology. For them, the world does not seem to be so very “flat” after all.
The books listed here balance lessons from the past with distinctly rendered maps of our future, where Wall Street shares status with developing nations, with cyberspace, and with the café around the corner.
A team of librarians and a business practitioner from around the country have chosen these titles as the best of 2006.
Biography/Autobiography
Cannadine, David.Mellon: An American Life. Knopf. 800p. ISBN 0-679-45032-7. $35.
Cannadine (Univ. of London) gives us the first full biography of the financier, secretary of the treasury (under Harding, Coolidge, and Hoover), and philanthropist, not neglecting his personal story. The resulting saga rescues Mellon from the mixture of obscurity and scorn that beset him. (LJ 10/1/06)
D'Antonio, Michael.Hershey: Milton S. Hershey's Extraordinary Life of Wealth, Empire, and Utopian Dreams. S. & S. 305p. ISBN 0-7432-6409-6. $25.
His chocolate bar made Hershey a household name, and this is a sweet recounting of the man's remarkable life and legacy. He persevered beyond initial failures in the candy business, becoming a tycoon who lived to help others. (LJ 11/15/05)
Gardner, Chris with Quincy Troupe.The Pursuit of Happyness. Amistad: HarperCollins. ISBN 0-06-074486-3. $25.95.
This gutsy autobiography begins in a Milwaukee ghetto and ends on Wall Street. Yes, Gardner's struggles as a homeless single dad trying to make it as a stockbroker are Hollywood material, but the tale's real power is its portrayal of the elusiveness of the American dream. (LJ 4/1/06)
Knee, Jonathan A.The Accidental Investment Banker. Oxford Univ. 288p. ISBN 978-0-19-530792-4. $26.
Knee, a former investment banker, provides valuable insider perspective on the organizational cultures at Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley and the inner workings of Wall Street during the 1990s dot-com craze.
Nasaw, David. Andrew Carnegie. Penguin Pr: Penguin Group (USA). 878p. ISBN 978-1-59420-104-2. $35.
Readers are swept into the story of Carnegie's Algeresque rise from Scottish immigrant bobbin boy in Pittsburgh to world's wealthiest citizen and legendary philanthropist. Setting him within his personal and cultural spheres, Nasaw presents a richly rewarding saga. (LJ 9/1/06)
Tedlow, Richard S. Andy Grove: The Life and Times of an American.Portfolio. 568p. ISBN 1-59184-139-9. $29.95.
Time magazine's Man of the Year for 1997, Grove, chair and CEO of Intel, is a survivor whose life has inspired many, including Tedlow (Harvard Univ.), who defines the former Hungarian refugee as “the father of the digital revolution.” (LJ 11/1/06)
Wood, John. Leaving Microsoft To Change the World: An Entrepreneur's Odyssey To Educate the World's Children.Collins: HarperCollins. 272p. ISBN 978-0-06-112107-4 . $25.95.
Wood was a senior executive at Microsoft in the 1990s, but here he measures success through personal fulfillment and giving back. He tells of founding the global nonprofit Room To Read. (LJ 8/06)
Business/Corporate History
Burlingham, Bo. Small Giants: Companies That Choose To Be Great Instead of Big. Portfolio. 256p. ISBN 978-1-59184-093-0. $24.95.
Most people like to root for the underdog, so they will naturally cheer on the small, private companies like Anchor Brewing and Righteous Babe Records profiled here. What's not to like about success through great products and services?
Fishman, Charles. The Wal-Mart Effect: How the World's Most Powerful Company Really Works—and How It's Transforming the American Economy. Penguin. 304p. ISBN 1-59420-276-9. $25.95.
Cutting through the company's fabled secrecy, Fishman offers a balanced study of the retail behemoth, hailed as the savior—or destroyer—of the working and middle class. He examines Wal-Mart's business practices, effect on world markets, and status as a cultural icon. (LJ 1/06)
Gorman, Leon. L.L. Bean: The Making of an American Icon. Harvard Business Sch. 336p. ISBN 1-57851-183-6. $26.95.
Gorman took over his grandfather's legendary establishment in 1967. That's 40 years of reinventing the sleepy, old-fashioned business—while retaining the firm's powerful branding, values, and home-grown appeal.
Whitaker, Jan. Service and Style: How the American Department Store Fashioned the Middle Class. St. Martin's. 342p. ISBN 0-312-32635-1. $35.
The department store transformed American culture and urban development. Whitaker shows how. Invaluable for retailers, business professionals, and historians.
Business How-To
Bing, Stanley. Rome, Inc.: The Rise and Fall of the First Multinational Corporation. Atlas: Norton. 192p. ISBN 978-0-393-06026-3. $23.95.
An irreverent look at the history of Rome—as a multinational corporation. Bing extracts current business lessons from a host of notable Romans. Julius Caesar gets high marks as a CEO; Pompey's strengths were in the field. Imaginative, fun, and instructive.
Michelli, Joseph A. The Starbucks Experience: 5 Principles for Turning Ordinary into Extraordinary. McGraw-Hill. 208p. ISBN 0-07-147784-5. $21.95.
What are the secrets of Starbucks's success? Michelli analyzes its management and customer service techniques, interviewing actual managers, among others, to come up with five principles for business success. (LJ 9/1/06)
Morrison, Terri & Wayne A. Conaway.Kiss, Bow, or Shake Hands: The Bestselling Guide to Doing Business in More Than 60 Countries. 2d ed. B. Adams Pub. Group. 592p. ISBN 978-1-59337-368-9. pap. $24.95.
The definitive reference for doing business around the world. A clear and comprehensible format, country by country, provides both general cultural orientations and specific business etiquette and local negotiation strategies. (1st ed. reviewed, LJ 1/95)
Economics
Steil, Benn & Robert E. Litan. Financial Statecraft: The Role of Financial Markets in American Foreign Policy. Yale Univ. 208p. ISBN 0-300-10975-X. $38.
The aim of think-tankers Steil (Council on Foreign Relations) and Litan (Brookings Inst.) is to craft the classic text on financial statecraft, which targets capital flows, thus distinguishing it from economic statecraft, which focuses on trade. It can have immediate consequences and is little understood. This gap in our global knowledge base is well filled here.
Warsh, David. Knowledge and the Wealth of Nations: A Story of Economic Discovery. Norton. 426p. ISBN 978-0-393-05996-0. $27.95.
This tale of discovery traces the formation of the concept of knowledge as a means of production, first voiced in a 1980 paper by economist Paul Romer. That breakthrough has allowed economists to understand and account better for economic growth. Warsh (Boston Globe) provides insights about our growing information society as he makes clear to lay readers the role of technical innovation (“knowledge”) in economic growth. (LJ 5/15/06)
Ethics
Hamilton, Stewart & Alicia Micklethwait. Greed and Corporate Failure: The Lessons from Recent Disasters. Palgrave Macmillan. 207p. ISBN 978-1-4039-8636-8. $42.50.
Looking beyond the headlines of the Enron and WorldCom scandals, Hamilton and Micklethwait examine how prominent corporations came to their demise through bad decisions, CEO hubris, and other identified means and how reforms can be implemented to limit them.
Globalization (in Bus & Tech)
Anderson, Chris. The Long Tail: Why the Future of Business Is Selling Less of More. Hyperion. 238p. ISBN 978-1-4013-0237-5. $24.95.
The title refers to the opportunity provided by new technology to offer far more choice to consumers. A hit title might sell 100,000 units, but 100,000 other titles that sell one each are equally profitable when distributed costs are low. This long tail has swept the business world. It's The World Is Flat for marketing, with even broader societal implications. (LJ 8/06)
Buderi, Robert & Gregory T. Huang. Guanxi (The Art of Relationships): Microsoft, China, and Bill Gates's Plan To Win the Road Ahead. S. & S. 304p. ISBN 0-7432-7322-2. $26.
Since 1998, Microsoft's Beijing computing research laboratory has generated hundreds of high-tech, profitable innovations, thereby grooming many Chinese men and women for future leadership positions in the company's global operations. Here is globalization Gates-style. (LJ 4/15/06)
Cohen, Daniel. Globalization and Its Enemies. MIT. 192p. ISBN 978-0-262-03350-3. $27.95.
The other side of globalism is what it does to local cultures and indigenous peoples. Here the bubble of globalization as a panacea to underdevelopment gets punctured.
Frieden, Jeffry A. Global Capitalism: Its Fall and Rise in the Twentieth Century. Norton. 556p. ISBN 978-0-393-05808-6. $29.95.
Globalization is not new. Worldwide markets and the reallocation of production to less-expensive regions were already operating at the beginning of the 20th century. The disruption of two world wars and a worldwide financial depression put up barriers to a global marketplace. This book chronicles a world headed toward globalism, its upsets, and the regained momentum after mid-century. (LJ 1/06)
Goldsmith, Jack & Tim Wu. Who Controls the Internet?: Illusions of a Borderless World. Oxford Univ. 272p. ISBN 0-19-515266-2. $28.
Two law professors ably put forth the case that cyberspace is not such an unrestricted community. Multinational corporations that are trying to sell online, such as eBay and Dow Jones, have discovered quickly and painfully that they must abide by the sovereign standards and codes of national governments. (LJ 3/1/06)
Kenny, Charles. Overselling the Web?: Development and the Internet. Lynne Rienner. 159p. ISBN 978-1-58826-458-9. $45.
Illuminating economic analyses and case studies here demonstrate that providing Internet access to all inhabitants of developing countries will provide few benefits. Other technologies, such as radio, mobile phones, and text messaging, offer more advantages and can be better supported in low-technology environments. (LJ 12/06)
Kynge, James. China Shakes the World: A Titan's Rise and Troubled Future—and the Challenge for America. Houghton. 270p. ISBN 0-618-70564-3. $25.
Kynge (former Beijing bureau chief, Financial Times) knows what makes China tick. He analyzes the implications of this new economic titan's rise to power, e.g., its iron-fisted government will have to improve rampant pollution and maintain farmable land if it wants to establish good standing with the rest of the world. (LJ 8/06)
Lanham, Richard. The Economics of Attention: Style and Substance in the Age of Information. Univ. of Chicago. 312p. ISBN 0-226-46882-8. $29.
This English professor draws from economic, sociological, and psychological sources to show that our scarcest resource is the “human attention needed to make sense of information.” You can call it scholarly and densely argued, but Lanham's examination of our basic choice between “stuff and fluff” is highly pertinent.
Levinson, Marc. The Box: How the Shipping Container Made the World Smaller and the World Economy Bigger. Princeton Univ. 392p. ISBN 0-691-12324-1. $24.95.
An illuminating history of how the seemingly simple shipping container revolutionized the transfer of goods by breaking down cost barriers and making the physical movement of products practical, a crucial factor in the globalization of manufacturing. (LJ 3/1/06)
Saxenian, AnnaLee. The New Argonauts: Regional Advantage in a Global Economy. Harvard Univ. 424p. ISBN 0-674-02201-7. $27.95.
Using a new metaphor for globalization, Saxenian ably illustrates how “brain drain” from emerging economies has morphed into “brain circulation”: foreign-born entrepreneurs, who are educated and begin their careers in the United States, eventually take their talents back home, while building partnerships back in the states—truly cosmopolitan.
Scoble, Robert & Shel Israel. Naked Conversations: How Blogs Are Changing the Way Businesses Talk with Customers. Wiley. 272p. ISBN 0-471-74719-X. $24.95.
If corporate bloggers and their readers can return to the printed page for a spell, this is their must-read, replete with case studies and definitive guidelines regarding the who, when, and how of blogging for business success. The blog-averse had better read it, too! (LJ 1/06)
Toffler, Alvin & Heidi Toffler. Revolutionary Wealth. Knopf. 492p. ISBN 978-0-375-40174-9. $27.95.
This book ties it all together, a blueprint and chronicle of growth economics. The renowned author of Future Shock and his wife show how technology, globalization, and our changing social structures, with newly knowledge-based economies, have brought new opportunities for wealth creation. (LJ 5/15/06)
Healthcare
Law, Jacky. Big Pharma: Exposing The Global Healthcare Agenda. Carroll & Graf. 266p. ISBN 0-7867-1783-1. pap. $15.95.
With tobacco giants duly chastised, mega-pharmaceutical firms are the new focus of industry critics. Healthcare writer Law takes these global pharma players to task for holding public health hostage to the bottom line. (LJ 3/15/06)
Rost, Peter. The Whistleblower: Confessions of a Healthcare Hitman. Soft Skull. 256p. ISBN 1-933368-39-X. pap. $14.95.
Here is a chilling tale from a former Pfizer exec about his decision to expose corporate activities, including takeovers and layoffs, physician payoffs, marketing to juvenile patients, and tax dodging. This blow-by-blow account amply supports his statement that the current U.S. healthcare system is “certainly the best system for the drug companies.”
Spar, Debora L. The Baby Business: How Money, Science, and Politics Drive the Commerce of Conception. Harvard Business Sch. ISBN 1-59139-620-4. $26.95.
A baby book that reads like science fiction. Spar (Harvard Business Sch.) unwraps the blankets around the worldwide booming baby business as she examines the fertility industry, cloning, and adoption.
Human Resources
Mainiero, Lisa A. & Sherry E. Sullivan. The Opt-Out Revolt: Why People Are Leaving Companies To Create Kaleidoscope Careers. Davies-Black. 378p. ISBN 0-89106-186-X. $28.95.
The authors set out to examine why women are leaving the full-time work force but found both men and women engaged in an “opt-out revolution,” shifting into careers with better work/life balance. Scholarly, engaging, and filled with practical recommendations for employers and employed alike. (LJ 9/1/06)
Uchitelle, Louis. The Disposable American: Layoffs and Their Consequences. Knopf. 283p. ISBN 1-4000-4117-1. $25.95.
This Times reporter has his eyes wide open to the plight of American workers laid off over the past decade—and he also has a sympathetic ear. His knowledge of labor history, his interviews, and specific citations of corporate personnel cuts combine for a compelling study of long-term damage. (LJ 2/15/06)
Investing/Finance
Cramer, James J. with Cliff Mason. Jim Cramer's Mad Money: Watch TV, Get Rich. S. & S. 224p. ISBN 978-1-4165-3790-8. $25.
Another Cramer book loaded with insights for the retail investor. Part companion to his Mad Money show and part continuation of Jim Cramer's Real Money, this offers newly formulated investment rules for lay investors to survive and thrive in the stock market. (LJ 1/07)
Drobny, Steven. Inside the House of Money: Top Hedge Fund Traders on Profiting in the Global Markets. Wiley. 384p. ISBN 978-0-471-79447-9. $29.95.
Here readers get access to some rarely heard candid opinions from hedge fund insiders: how they got into the business and how they deal with the daily pressures of markets and putting billions of dollars at risk.
Solin, Daniel R. The Smartest Investment Book You'll Ever Read: The Simple, Stress-Free Way To Reach Your Wealth Goals.Perigee: Putnam. 192p. ISBN 978-0-399-53283-2. $19.95.
A bible for low-cost index investing. Well documented and clearly written, this hammers home the point that investment returns are overly diminished through investment industry costs. Switching to index funds will make most investors more money in the long run. (LJ 9/15/06)
Marketing/Branding
Carlson, Curtis R. & William W. Wilmot. Innovation: The Five Disciplines for Creating What Customers Want. Crown Business. 368p. ISBN 978-0-307-33669-9. $27.50.
Carlson and Wilmot assert that successful products are those developed with an understanding of who will use/benefit from them.
Coburn, Pip. The Change Function: Why Some Technologies Take Off and Others Crash and Burn. Portfolio. 240p. ISBN 978-1-59184-132-6. $24.95.
“Build it and they will come”? No. The failure rate of new technologies is high: people may adopt them and thus adapt their behavior—or not. Coburn presents case studies of people willing to change if and when they perceive direct benefits. (LJ 7/06)
Denove, Chris & James D. Power IV. Satisfaction: How Every Great Company Listens to the Voice of the Customer. Portfolio. 260p. ISBN 1-59184-109-7. $25.95.
From car ads, many readers know of J.D. Power & Associates when it comes to measuring customer satisfaction. Here's the book on it: how companies must adapt to customer needs and desires, especially with fierce competition. (LJ 2/1/06)
Farris, Paul W. & others. Marketing Metrics: 50+ Metrics Every Executive Should Master. Wharton Sch. Pub., dist. by Pearson. 368p. ISBN 978-0-13-187370-4. $39.99.
There's a tidal wave hitting the world of marketing: the simple idea of return on investment (ROI). Learn how to measure—and understand—whether your marketing dollars are well spent and the best ways to present results to senior management and boards.
McConnell, Ben & Jackie Huba. Citizen Marketers: When People Are the Message. Kaplan Business. 224p. ISBN 978-1-4195-9606-3. $25.
What if your product is so good that it sells itself? The authors say that customers are today's crucial marketers, advertising a brand through cyber and cell word-of-mouth—when a product has inspired them.
U.S. Economy
Draut, Tamara. Strapped: Why America's 20- and 30-Somethings Can't Get Ahead. Doubleday. 277p. ISBN 978-0-385-51505-4. $22.95.
Becoming an adult may be inevitable, but it's also difficult and costly. Draut explains why the under-35 generation is having such a hard time getting started, from the lack of financial grants for college to the scarcity of good jobs. (LJ 11/15/05)
Kamenetz, Anya. Generation Debt: Why Now Is a Terrible Time To Be Young. Riverhead: Putnam. 265p. ISBN 1-59448-907-6. $23.95.
Kamenetz is a 24-year-old Yale grad who's been nominated for the Pulitzer Prize—and she can't land a full-time job with benefits. Gen Y is not exactly living large the way its boomer parents could: college debt, falling wages, temp jobs, decreasing federal aid for social programs. This is a rallying cry for fiscal responsibility and change. (LJ 1/06)
Tertzakian, Peter. A Thousand Barrels a Second: The Coming Oil Break Point and the Challenges Facing an Energy Dependent World. McGraw-Hill. 272p. ISBN 978-0-07-146874-9. $27.95.
The best look at the energy crisis from an economic standpoint, tracing the diminishing supply of oil and the continued rise in thirst for it. Without serious policy changes, energy demand will outstrip supply and cause serious economic disruption. Includes suggestions for ameliorating the coming crisis and even some investment opportunities. (LJ 2/15/06)
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Human Resources Essentials of Strategy. Harvard Business School Publishing Corporation and the Society for Human Resource Management. 323p. ISBN 1-591-39822-3 [ISBN 978-1-591-39822-6]. pap. $39.95. A combination of case studies and detailed guidelines and analysis tools teach human resources (HR) professionals how to optimize their strategic thinking skills, devise strategies that will be closely aligned with top-level management goals, and assess the impact of HR initiatives on organizational performance. Marketing/Branding Brown, Bruce Cameron. How to Use the Internet to Advertise, Promote and Market Your Business or Website with Little or No Money. Atlantic. 288p. ISBN 0-910-62757-6 [ISBN 978-0-910-62757-3]. pap. $24.95. ST This comprehensive and clear book will show you how to make best use of the web to promote your business, whether that be itself an online operation or traditional bricks-and-mortar, and whether you’re operating on a shoe string or with a deep pocket. Kaden, Robert J. Guerrilla Marketing Research: Marketing Research Techniques That Can Help Any Business To Make More Money. Kogan Page. 256p. ISBN 0-7494-4574-2. $29.95. Here is a very good primer on market research and how it can focus decision-making on customers and what the market will accept. The research techniques are not necessarily affordable for small businesses, but the concepts are well-taught. Wheeler, Alina. Designing Brand Identity: A Complete Guide to Creating, Building, and Maintaining Strong Brands. 2nd ed. Wiley 288p. ISBN 0-471-74684-3 [ISBN 978-0-471-74684-3]. $45. Branding was a popular topic of 2006. Now the 2nd edition of this notable title, gives marketers expertly delineated (and full color) steps for achieving brand identity, including creation of a logo and consistent application over a number of brand touchpoints. Also good to read before hiring a branding agency. Sports Payne, Michael. Olympic Turnaround: How the Olympic Games Stepped Back from the Brink of Extinction to Become the World’s Best Known Brand. Praeger. 332p. ISBN 0-275-99030-3 [ISBN 978-0-275-99030-5]. $39.95. LM Written by an insider, this account shows how through clever negotiations, the Olympics were remarketed into a successful ongoing venture, leaving behind their status as a tenuous proposition. Pluto, Terry. Dealing: The Cleveland Indian’s New Ballgame—Inside the Front Office and the Process of Rebuilding a Contender. Gray & Company. 211p. ISBN 1-59851-022-3 [ISBN 978-1-59851-022-5]. $24.95. LM The Cleveland Indians have been credited with innovative business practices in the world of Major League Baseball. This book shows how, when he took over the aging team in 2001, with both attendance and revenues falling, the general manager Mark Shapiro was able to cut the payroll, trade for prospects, and rebuild a contender. Reminiscent of Michael Lewis’s Moneyball. Williams, Pete. The Draft: A Year Inside the NFL’s Search for Talent. St. Martin’s. 328p. ISBN 0-312-35438-X [ISBN 978-0-312-35438-1]. $24.95. LM Personnel decisions are critical in hiring athletic talent. This book looks at the evaluation system used by NFL teams to choose the best players to draft, how those players deal with the draft, and the world of agents and contract negotiations. |
| Author Information |
| Sarah Statz Cords is Library Assistant, Madison Public Library, WI; Carol Elsen is Reference Librarian & Collection Manager, University of Wisconsin–Whitewater; Caroline Geck is Librarian, Kean University Library, Union, NJ; Lucy Heckman is Head of Reference, St. John's University Library, Jamaica, NY; Lawrence R. Maxted is Collection Development Librarian, Gannon University, Erie, PA; & Stephen E. Turner is CEO & Executive Creative Director, Turner & Associates, San Francisco |
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