« Are interfaces necessary for web services? | Main | Hacking Technorati »
October 14, 2004
Business books I have loved
I thought I would enter some of the business books that have had an effect on me and then do some later entries on the books. Many of these books have been referred to me by Pete.
One great book was Jack Welch's story of his career at GE. Some key points from this book for me were: 1) Work like a startup in a large company; 2) Challenge the status quo; 3) focus on execution; 4) A PhD doesn't necessarily make you bad at business; 5) All you ever needed to know about business you could learn from your mother; 6) Reward innovation and it's better when people argue/discuss vociferously in meetings rather than sleep.
The key takeaway in "Built to Last", for me was the difference between executives that focus on execution and day to day issues rather than vision. The conclusion of the built to last authors was that you don't necessarily need to be a charismatic business personality to succeed as CEO. Rather, many of the successful leaders of successful business have focused on execution and operations.
Ok, so if you haven't read innovators dilemma, you probably haven't been in the software industry for the last five years. The main misuse of the central concepts of this book that I've seen is to justify hair brained schemes to people executing on a successful strategy.
"Crossing the Chasm," is again business 101 these days. From early adopters to main street, and how to target your product in the different stages of its life cycle.
"The Mind of the Strategist," covers basic business strategy. This is a good entrypoint for the technologist learing about business. There are some great points about fostering innovation, adapation and execution in large companies. Andrew Littlefield (our former Director of Product Management) recommended this book to Pete when he was thinking about Product Management.
Posted by Chris at October 14, 2004 11:16 AM