A silver lining of 2020 for me has been getting back into the reading habit. I used to be an avid reader during my school years but never quite got back into the habit during my early twenties. I’ve set myself a target of 30 books each year now and I should easily reach it this year. Hopefully, I keep that momentum going in the future as well.
One of the genres that I’ve found engrossing in the last few years is Business Books. These could be about entrepreneurship, autobiographies of executives from successful companies, or even some unconventional books on business stories. Here are my top 5 in this category I read this year:
A. Zero to One by Peter Thiel
This 2014 book from Peter Thiel, founder of PayPal, based on his class on startups at Stanford, is considered as a must-read for aspiring entrepreneurs. This book lives up to its high praise as Thiel dives into what makes a very successful, truly innovative company go from creating something out of nothing or go from zero to one. Being the first contrarian from Silicon Valley, he also dives into how companies today are not really focused on innovation and how some monopolies are necessary for a period of time to inspire that radical innovation.
(Clicking on the book image will take you to its the Amazon page.)
My Favorite Quote
“The best entrepreneurs know this: every great business is built around a secret that’s hidden from the outside. A great company is a conspiracy to change the world; when you share your secret, the recipient becomes a fellow conspirator.”
An Interesting Concept from the Book
Opposite principles to what the Silicon Valley believes might be truer:
· While the Valley prefers incremental advances, it’s better to risk boldness that triviality otherwise you won’t be differentiated enough
· A bad plan is better than no plan
· Competitive markets destroy profits, try to corner a small market first
· Sales matter as much as products so have effective distribution strategies
B. The Outsiders: Eight Unconventional CEOs and Their Radically Rational Blueprint for Success by William Thorndike
This 2012 book on eight unconventional CEO’s, including Warren Buffet, sheds light on their approach that garnered unparalleled successes. Analyzing these principles can provide some clues for executives and CEO’s to go against the conventional wisdom and focus on deploying cash to deliver the maximum value for their shareholders. While this book might not be for everyone, it’s a good read for anyone interested in the stories of successful business leaders.
My Favorite Quote
“There is a fundamental humility to decentralization, an admission that headquarters does not have all the answers and that much of the real value is created by local managers in the field.”
An Interesting Concept from the Book
The common traits in all these ridiculously successful CEO’s were:
1. Decentralization from corporate to local offices
2. Patient but bold and astute acquisitions
3. Stock buybacks when internal options don’t provide the same returns
4. Focus on having a strong cashflow
C. Sam Walton: Made in America
This 1992 book published around the time of Sam Walton’s demise is rich with anecdotes and philosophies that made Walmart the biggest retailer in his lifetime, a title it retains till date. Without having a college background and coming from a small town, it’s incredible to see one man’s drive to create the largest retailer from scratch. It’s no surprise that a lot of the lessons seem to be followed by Amazon today and that this book features on Jeff Bezos’ reading list.
My Favorite Quote
“Great ideas come from everywhere if you just listen and look for them. You never know who’s going to have a great idea.”
An Interesting Concept from the Book
The two aspects that Sam always focused on are:
1. The Customer: He had an attitude for saving every dollar as it would be coming out of the customer’s pocket.
2. The Employees or “Partners”: Many of his philosophies revolve around treating employees right. Something that is seen through the many Walmart millionaire employees as he’s had a stock ownership program from the early years.
D. The Hard Thing About Hard Things by Ben Horowitz
Ben Horowitz has an incredibly impressive background. He’s a founder of Andreessen Horowitz, one of the most successful VC firms in Silicon Valley. He was the VP at Netscape when they were taking on Microsoft in the browser battles and he was founder, CEO of LoudCloud, one of the first companies in Cloud Computing. This book from 2014 is like a how-to guide for entrepreneurs and executives which lands on every must-read books list for executives. He’s been candid about his failures and given detailed lessons on what works and doesn’t work in the hard situations at a company. It’s a book that I’ll keep coming back to as I progress in my career.
My Favorite Quote
“Every time I read a management or self-help book, I find myself saying, “That’s fine, but that wasn’t really the hard thing about the situation.” The hard thing isn’t setting a big, hairy, audacious goal. The hard thing is laying people off when you miss the big goal. The hard thing isn’t hiring great people. The hard thing is when those “great people” develop a sense of entitlement and start demanding unreasonable things. The hard thing isn’t setting up an organizational chart. The hard thing is getting people to communicate within the organization that you just designed. The hard thing isn’t dreaming big. The hard thing is waking up in the middle of the night in a cold sweat when the dream turns into a nightmare.”
An Interesting Concept from the Book
Take care of the people, the products, and the profits—in that order.
E. High Output Management by Andy Grove
This book by Andy Grove, who was a former Chairman, CEO and employee number 3 at Intel, is a true business classic. It is specifically written for middle management and upper management folk with timeless principles that still hold true today despite being published in 1995. The book also talks about concepts in industry around production, inventory, manpower, etc. Yet, the focus is squarely on people management and defining the output of a manager as the sum of the output of the organizational units under their influence. While a dated book might not excite everyone, I think it is a treasure trove of management wisdom.
My Favorite Quote
On pointless meetings - “Just as you would not permit a fellow employee to steal a piece of office equipment worth $2,000, you shouldn’t let anyone walk away with the time of his fellow managers.”
An Interesting Concept from the Book
The highest leverage a manager can apply is on training and coaching their employees. Spending say 12 hours on coaching ten employees that can bring even 1% improvement for them over the next year would save 120 of their total 12000 hours worked the following year and hence be a 10x leverage for the manager’s 12 hours.
In conclusion, I hope you liked these reviews and feel like reading a couple of these books. Please let me know in the comments if you like the format of these reviews or have some suggestions for improvements. I’d also love to hear about any book recommendations you have!
Cover Picture Credits: instagram.com/pictorialjournal/
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