Paul Johnson

Business Book Reviews With Attitude

Reviewed by Paul Johnson, Principal, Panache and Systems LLC

Bookmark this page so that whenever you get the urge to read a book, you can be sure to get only the best and avoid all the rest.

These reviews are in one long list so you can save time by searching for exactly what you need. Your browser probably has a search capability; try pressing the Control and F keys (Ctrl-F) simultaneously and see if a search window pops up. Use the search function to just look at the A: or B: books if you like. Or look for a specific book to see if it got a C: ranking and why, so you can NOT read it. You might also want to look for author, keyword (like "sales") or date (like "2003"). Try it!

We've included links to Amazon.com and BarnesandNoble.com for your convenience, because these reviews are all about saving you time. Yes, we make an affiliate commission if you buy through our link, but I don't care if you buy any of these books or not. I'd much rather you think highly of us and hire our firm to help your business grow. In fact, hire our firm and we'll be happy to buy you a few of these books.

I'll be inserting additional reviews from time to time, so expect the list to change.

Christensen, Clayton M., Michael E. Raynor. The Innovator's Solution: Creating and Sustaining Growth. Harvard Business School Publishing, 2003.

A:    A worthy guide to new revenue growth and profits.

Hargadon, Andrew. How Breakthroughs Happen: The Surprising Truth About How Companies Innovate. Harvard Business School Publishing, 2003.

B:    This book will help you see all the innovation opportunities already around you.   The risk: you'll have to step outside your comfortable and familiar silo to make it happen.

Keller, Ed, Jon Berry. The Influentials. Simon & Schuster, Inc., 2003

C:    Interesting report on consumer "bell cows," but try to apply it and you'll be chasing shadows.

Uldrich, Jack, Deb Newberry. The Next Big Thing is Really Small: How Nanotechnology Will Change the Future of Your Business. Random House, 2003.

B:   A primer on the big changes that the tiny world of nanotechnology will wreak on your business and your life.

Dychtwald, Maddy. Cycles: How We Will Live, Work, and Buy. Simon & Schuster, Inc., 2003.

B:    A good reminder that your future does not have to equal the past.   This gets you thinking about how you want to live your next 50 years.

Tanaka, Graham. Digital Deflation: The Productivity Revolution and How It Will Ignite the Economy. The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc., 2oo4.

C:    An economics lesson on how computers affect productivity.   A few insights buried in the numbers.

Glickman, Ph.D., Rosalene. Optimal Thinking: How to Be Your Best Self. John Wiley & Sons, Inc., 2002.

C:    You can skip this book if you already have a great goal setting and management program. Novel approach by an Australian.

Meyer, Christopher, Stan Davis. It's Alive: The Coming Convergence of Information, Biology, and Business. Random House, 2003.

A:    Fascinating!   Exciting examples of how people are creating our future, and insights into how you can adapt and create your own future.

Klein, Gary. Intuition at Work: Why Developing Your Gut Instincts Will Make You Better At What You Do.   Doubleday & Company, Inc., 2002.

B:    Want intuition?   Use your experience to recognize patterns; lots of helpful diagrams and lists make it doable. Helpful processes, too.

Herman, Roger, Thomas Olivo, Joyce Gioia. Impending Crisis: Too Many Jobs, Too Few People.   Oakhill Press, 2002.

C:    Lots of “shoulds” and “oughts”.   The drumbeating successfully raises awareness about a real problem, but the platitudes offered as solutions fall short of “insightful”.

Nohria, Nitin, William F. Joyce, Bruce Roberson. What Really Works: The 4 + 2 Formula for Sustained Business Success.   HarperCollins Publishers, Inc., 2003.

A:    The organization of the content and simplicity of its prescriptions make this book invaluable.   Lots of relevant examples demonstrate how to make this work for your company.

Krames, Jeffrey A. What the Best CEOs Know: 7 Exceptional Leaders and Their Lessons for Transforming and Business.   The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. 2003.

B:    You'll likely pick your own favorite CEO (I like Herb.)   Perhaps we have the most to learn from the other six.

Davenport, Thomas H., Laurence Prusak, H. James Wilson. What's the Big Idea?: Creating and Capitalizing on the Best Management Thinking. Harvard Business School Publishing, 2003.

C:    The focus is on selecting and selling the next big idea within your company.   This deals little with execution, which is the bigger problem for most companies.

Zaltman, Gerald. How Customers Think: Essential Insights into the Mind of the Marke.   Harvard Business School Publishing, 2003.

B:    Many valuable insights mired in the technical details.   You should do the "metaphor elicitation" described.

Eckblad, Ph.D., John, David Kiel, D.P.H. If Your Life Were a Business, Would You Invest In It?: The 13-Step Program for Managing Your Life Like the Best CEOs Manage Their Companies.   The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc., 2003.

B:    A detailed approach for living your life with purpose and on purpose.   A practical guide to the business of you.

Sample, Steven B. The Contrarian's Guide to Leadership.   John Wiley & Sons, Inc., 2002.

C:    No examples or case studies.   I don't believe it's possible to put these ideas into practice.

Ditlich, David L., Peter C. Cairo. Unnatural Leadership: Going Against Intuition and Experience to Develop Ten New Leadership Instincts.   John Wiley & Sons, Inc., 2002.

B:    Lots of clearly-defined ideas to choose from.   Unfortunately, not much proof is offered to justify the contrarian viewpoints.

Miniter, Richard. The Myth of Market Share: Why Market Share Is the Fool's Gold of Business.   Random House, 2003.

A:    A great case for why and how to focus your company; how to put your horse in front of your cart.

LaSalle, Diana, Terry A. Britton. Priceless: Turning Ordinary Products into Extraordinary Experiences.   Harvard Business School Publishing, 2003.

A:    Wow! A powerful approach for turning your commodity into something your customers will stand in line for.

Cairncross, Frances. The Company of the Future.   Harvard Business School Publishing, 2002.

C:    The message: We have to learn to integrate technology into the management of our companies.

Stein, Dave. How Winners Sell: 21 Proven Strategies to Outsell Your Competition and Win the Big Sale. Bard Press, 2002.

A:    A THOROUGH program for the big sales dogs who hunt really large game. Unfortunately, most salespeople don't handle deal sizes large enough to warrant really using this book.

Shapiro, Stephen M.   24/7 Innovation: A Blueprint for Surviving and Thriving in an Age of Change.   The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc., 2002.

C:    A preachy publication written to jump on the innovation bandwagon.

Trout, Jack. Big Brands, Big Trouble: Lessons Learned the Hard Way.   John Wiley & Sons, Inc., 2001.

B:    Jack Trout deserves to play the armchair quarterback here.   Get past his chest-thumping, and you'll learn lots from this book about marketing your company and beating the competition.

Freedman, Mike, Benjamin B. Tregoe. The Art and Discipline of Strategic Leadership.   The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc., 2003.

B:    Links great ideas and vision to the project management discipline that enables paper plans to become reality.

McCarthy, May Pat, Jeff Stein with Rob Brownstein.   Agile Business for Fragile Times: Strategies for Enhancing Competitive Resiliency and Stakeholder Trust.   The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc., 2003.

C:    Trite. Stuff I've heard over and over again. A good read if you like to be reminded of things you already learned long ago.

Ricci, Ron, John Volkmann. Momentum: How Companies Become Unstoppable Market Forces.   Harvard Business School Publishing, 2003.

A:    A treasure-trove of principles for building your brand.   While tailored to digital offerings, it has wider application.

Drucker, Peter F.   Managing in the Next Society.   St. Martins Press, 2002.

C:    Drucker's opinions about the future - love ‘em or hate ‘em. Not much insight or value.

Bossidy, Larry, Ram Charan.   Execution: The Discipline of Getting Things Done. Random House, 2002.

A:    Solid linkage to strategy.   Weak discussion of processes.

Harris, Jim.   Blindsided: How to Spot the Next Breakthrough That Will Change Your Business Forever.   Johns Wiley & Sons, Inc., 2002.

A:    Powerful insights. Stunning statistics. All relevant. A well-researched tome that will let you create your future.

O'Neil, William J.   How to Make Money in Stocks: A Winning System in Good Times or Bad, Third Edition.    The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc., 2002.  

B:    No silver bullet but a reasonable, doable approach.   Packed full of valuable charts.

Hill, Sam.   60 Trends in 60 Minutes.   John Wiley & Sons, Inc., 2002.

B:    This makes it easy to stick your head out of your gopher hole for a quick look around. And you'll likely be inspired to do something when you go back down.

Ulrich, Dave, Steve Kerr, Ron Ashkenas with Debbie Burke and Patrice Murphy.   The GE Work-Out: How to Implement GE's Revolutionary Method for Busting Bureaucracy and Attacking Organizational Problems - Fast!   The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc., 2002.

B:    Specific and valuable instructions on how to use the work-out tool.

Horibe, Frances.   Creating the Innovation Culture: Leveraging Visionaries, Dissenters and Other Useful Troublemakers in Your Organization.   John Wiley & Sons, Inc., 2001.

B:    An eye-opener on how to constructively manage dissent and keep your company out of the ruts.

Ettenberg, Elliott.   The Next Economy: Will You Know Where your Customers Are?   The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc., 2002.

B:    Lightweight. Some useful observations on the customer experience.

Bergeron, Bryan, Jeffrey Blander.   Business Expectation: Are You Using Technology to Its Fullest?   John Wiley & Sons, Inc., 2002.   

C:    Subject = Technology product launches. Useful models and checklists, but do authors really understand technology and marketing?   They use "digitalized” instead of “digitized” , and they associate the “decline” phase of a life cycle with very uncharacteristic marketing activities.

Pate, Carter, Harlan Platt.   The Phoenix Effect: 9 Revitalizing Strategies No Business Can Do Without.   John Wiley & Sons, Inc., 2002.

C:    Masters of statements of the obvious.   “A company has 3 choices; grow, shrink, or stay in the same business.   Pick one.”   “Don't let untrained people manage your working capital.” Duh.

Sheth, Jagdish, Rajendra Sisodia.   The Rule of Three: Surviving and Thriving in Competitive Markets.   Simon & Schuster, Inc., 2002.

A:    Useful strategies to assist the development of niche businesses.

Dru, Jean-Marie.   Beyond Disruption: Changing the Rules in the Marketplace.   John Wiley & Sons, Inc., 2002.

B:    Great examples of building competitive value.

Goleman, Daniel, Richard Boyatzis, Annie McKee.   Primal Leadership: Realizing the Power of Emotional Intelligence.   Harvard Business School Publishing, 2002.

B:    Highly subjective, touchy-feely.   It might make work more fun if you can make their concepts work for you.

Palus, Charles J., David M. Horth.   The Leader's Edge: Six Creative Competencies for Navigating Complex Challenges.   John Wiley & Sons, Inc., 2002.

B:    Lots of reasonable, doable tips.

Collins, Jim.   Good to Great: Why Some Companies Make the Leap and Others Don't.   HarperCollins Publishers, Inc., 2001.

A:    Strong supporting material in hedgehog concept, discipline/control, and when to apply technology (answer: to accelerate growth.)

Hammer, Michael.   The Agenda: What Every Business Must Do to Dominate the Decade.   Random House, 2001.

B:    Supports “whole product” and measurement.   Most concepts depend on altruism.

Brown, Stanley A., ed and contributor.   Customer Relationship Management: A Strategic Imperative in the World of e-Business.   John Wiley & Sons, Inc., 1999.

B:    A few useful tidbits to help get new customers. Statistics.

Walther, George R.   Upside-Down Marketing: Turning Your Ex-Customers into Your Best Customers.   The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc., 1994.

C:    Misnamed; this is all about customer service, not marketing.

Von Ghyczy, Tiha, Bolko van Oetinger, Christopher Bassford, eds., Clausewitz on Strategy: Inspiration and Insight from a Master Strategist.   John Wiley & Sons, Inc., 2001.    

B:    Insight on causes, strategy, and games you can win.  

Roth, Charles B., Roy Alexander.   Secrets of Closing Sales.   Prentice Hall, 1997.

C:    One-dimensional.   Nothing worth reviewing.

Sutton, Robert I.,   Weird Ideas That Work:   11 ½ Practices for Promoting, Managing, and Sustaining Innovation.   Simon & Schuster, Inc., 2001.

C:    No proof that they work. Doubtful people will put up with them.

Enriquez, Juan.   As the Future Catches You: How Genomics and Other Forces Are Changing Your Life, Work, Health and Wealth.   Crown Publishing Group, 2001.

B:    Interesting comparisons.   Past/present, rich/poor, etc.

Thakor, Anjan V.   Becoming a Better Value Creator: How to Improve the Company's Bottom Line - and Your Own.   John Wiley & Sons, Inc., 2000.

C:    I could never find where he explains what “value” is; I'm not sure he knows. More focus on shareholders than customers.

Tellis, Gerard J., Peter N. Golder.   Will and Vision: How Latecomers Grow to Dominate Markets.   The McGraw Hill Companies, Inc., 2002.

A:    Yes, it's better to be good than first.   Good stats.

Courtney, Hugh.   20/20 Foresight: Crafting Strategy in an Uncertain World.   Harvard Business School Publishing, 2001.

A:    Good explanation of the limitations of strategy development.

Crawford, Fred, Ryan Mathews.   The Myth of Excellence: Why Great Companies Never Try to Be the Best at Everything.   Crown Business Publishing, 2001.

A:    Brilliant model. I question whether they applied it appropriately in their customer examples. A lot to learn here.

Rasiel, Ethan M., Paul N. Friga.   The McKinsey Mind: Understanding and Implementing the Problem-Solving Tools and Management Techniques of the World's Top Strategic Consulting Firm.   The McGraw Hill Companies, Inc., 2002.

C:    Mostly “What's” not “Hows”. You won't have much luck trying to implement these techniques.

Kelly, Tom, Jonathan Littman.   The Art of Innovation: Lessons in Creativity from IDEO, America's Leading Design Firm.   Doubleday & Company, Inc., 2001.

B:    Useful tips for when creativity is at issue.

D'Alessandro, David F., Michele Owens.   Brand Warfare: 10 Rules for Building the Killer Brand.   The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc., 2001.

B:    Lots of good sound bites, but not sure if they know what a brand is.   Detailed advice on sponsorships.

Swift, Ronald S.   Accelerating Customer Relationships: Using CRM and Relationship Technologies.   Pearson Education, 2000.

C:    Lots of lofty “must do's” skim over the inherent complexity.   Swift talks a good game, but I'm not convinced he knows how to make it happen.

Foster, Richard, Sarah Kaplan.   Creative Destruction: Why Companies That Are Built to Last Underperform the Market: and How to Successfully Transform Them.   Doubleday & Company, Inc., 2001.

C:    Good company stories.   The academic analysis and theory are impractical; too many “shoulds”.

Seybold, Patricia B.   The Customer Revolution: How to Thrive When Customers Are in Control.   Crown Publishing Group, 2001.

C:    Full of Cliché Abuse.

Thomas, Dan.   Business Sense: Exercising Management's Five Freedoms.   Simon & Schuster, Inc., 1993.

C:    Analytics for established businesses. Lots of labels, charts, and data-gathering.

McGrath, James, Fritz Kroeger, Michael Traem, Joerg Rockenhaeuser.   The Value Growers: Achieving Competitive Advantage Through Long-Term growth and Profits.  The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc., 2001.

B:    Makes a good case for growth, but weak on practical advice on how to develop it.

Peoples, David A.   Selling to the Top: David Peoples' Executive Selling Skills.   John Wiley & Sons, Inc., 1993.

B:    Nothing new. Solid reference material on core selling strategies.

Mark, Margaret, Carol S. Pearson.   The Hero and the Outlaw: Building Extraordinary Brands Through the Power of Archetypes.   The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc., 2001.  

A:    Wow! Really an A+ - this approach to branding really resonates with me.   Get the book!

Kanter, Rosabeth Moss.   Evolve!: Succeeding in the Digital Culture of Tomorrow.   Harvard Business School Publishing, 2001.

B:    Useful tips on creating a culture for e-business.

Earle, Nick, Peter Keen.   From .com to .profit: Inventing Business Models that Deliver Value and Profit.   John Wiley & Sons, Inc., 2000.

C:    Doesn't get past superfluous academic metaphors.

Zook, Chris, James Allen.   Profit from the Core: Growth Strategy in an Era of Turbulence. Harvard Business School Publishing, 2001.

B:    Some useful statistics and diagrams.   Advocates creating a core, rather than finding it as your essence.

DeMarco, Tom.   Slack: Getting Past Burnout, Busywork, and the Myth of Total Efficiency.   Broadway Books, 2002.

A:    Outstanding!   Makes the quest for “balance” possible.   

Leifer, Richard, Christopher M. McDermott, Gina Colarelli O'Connor, Lois S. Peters, Mark P. Rice, Robert W. Veryzer.   Radical Innovation: How Mature Companies Can Outsmart Upstarts.   Harvard Business School Publishing, 2000.

C:    Lots of good advice, clear steps. No “wow” ideas.   No examples.

Jennings, Jason, Laurence Haughton.   It's Not the Big That Eat the Small... It's the Fast That Eat the Slow: How to Use Speed as a Competitive Tool in Business.   HarperCollins Publishers, Inc., 2000.

C:    A few useful ideas on guiding principles, causes, and story telling.

Waldroop, Ph.D., James, Timothy Butler, Ph.D.   Maximum Success: Changing the 12 Behavior Patterns That Keep You from Getting Ahead.  Doubleday & Company, Inc., 2000.

A:    Authors of “Job Sculpting”. Good fodder for straightening out your career path.

Moore, Geoffrey A.   Living on the Fault Line: Managing for Shareholder Value in the Age of the Internet.   HarperCollins Publishers, Inc., 2000.

A:    Many tactics for managing a company to provide what the market values.

Rosen, Emanuel.   The Anatomy of Buzz: How to Create Word of Mouth Marketing.   Doubleday & Company, Inc., 2000.

C:    Not much new here.

McGrath, Rita Gunther, Ian MacMillan.   The Entrepreneurial Mindset: Strategies for Continuously Creating Opportunity in an Age of Uncertainty.   Harvard Business School Publishing, 2000.

B:    Some supporting ideas, but otherwise a highly academic and tediously verbose explanation of product positioning and launching.

Daniels, Aubrey C.   Other People's Habits:   How to Use Positive Reinforcement to Bring Out the Best in People around You.   The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc., 2001.

B:    Some useful tips on how to give and accept compliments (positive reinforcements).

Kaplan, Robert S., David P.   Norton.   The Strategy-Focused Organization: How Balanced Scorecard Companies Thrive in the New Business Environment.    Harvard Business School Publishing, 2001

B:    Some good concepts, but quickly gets lost in complexity.

Gilder, George.   Telecosm: How Infinite Bandwidth Will Revolutionize Our World.   Simon & Schuster, Inc., 2000.

A:    Excellent framework for future technology changes.

O'Malley, Michael N.   Creating Commitment: How to Attract and Retain Talented Employees by Building Relationships That Last. John Wiley & Sons, Inc., 2000.

B:    Practical information regarding job satisfaction.

Nolan, John.   Confidential: Uncover Your Competitors' Top Business Secrets Legally and Quickly - and Protect Your Own.   HarperCollins Publishers, Inc., 2000.

B:    Great information, but I don't know what I'd do with it.

Gladwell, Malcolm.   The Tipping Point: How Little Things Can Make a Big Difference.   Little, Brown & Company, 2000.

B:    Good concept. Not a lot of meat.

Pottruck, David S., Terry Pearce.   Clicks and Mortar: Passion-Driven Growth in an Internet-Driven World.   John Wiley & Sons, Inc., 2000.

C:    Misleading title.   Just typical vision and culture fluff.   Pottruck's 10 rules of advertising is useful.

Hamel, Gary.   Leading the Revolution. Harvard Business School Publishing, 2000.

A:    Great steps supporting structure and strategy, core competencies.

Tapscott, Don, David Ticoll, Alex Lowy.   Digital Capital: Harnessing the Power of Business Webs.   Harvard Business School Publishing, 2000.

C:    A lot of academic analysis no one ever asked for.

Ries, Al, Laura Ries.   The 11 Immutable Laws of Internet Branding.   HarperCollins Publishers, Inc., 2000.

B:    Good tips on branding and naming.   Good discussion against convergence.

Brown, John Seely, Paul Duguid.   The Social Life of Information.   Harvard Business School Publishing, 2000.

B:    Intriguing information, but highly theoretical.   Examples are sparse and weak.

Ryans, Adrian, Roger More, Donald Barclay, Terry Deutscher.   Winning Market Leadership: Strategic Market Planning for Technology-Driven Businesses.   John Wiley & Sons, Inc., 2000.

C:    Remedial.   Lots of charts of questionable value.

Evans, Philip, Thomas S. Wurster.  Blown to Bits: How the New Economics of Information Transforms Strategy.   Harvard Business School Publishing, 2000.

B:    Powerful theory on competitive strategies. A little weak on “how to...” and examples.

Pfeffer, Jeffrey, Robert I. Sutton.   The Knowing-Doing Gap: How Smart Companies Turn Knowledge into Action.   Harvard Business School Publishing 2000.

A:    Encourages business simplicity.   Supports need for positive decisions.

Trout, Jack, Steve Rivkin.   Differentiate or Die: Survival in Our Age of Killer Competition.   John Wiley & Sons, Inc., 2000.

A:    Outstanding.   Closely tied to the Panache approach.

Garvin, David A.   Learning in Action: A Guide to Putting the Learning Organization to Work.   Harvard Business School Publishing, 2000.

C:    Way more than I ever wanted to know about learning theory.

Schrage, Michael.   Serious Play: How the World's Best Companies Simulate to Innovate.   Harvard Business School Publishing, 2000.

B:    Useful prototyping concepts, but mainly for products.

Oliver, Richard W.   The Coming Biotech Age: The Business of Bio-Materials.   The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc., 2000.

C:    General predictions useful.   Most claims ungrounded and inconsistent.

Doyle, James S.   The Business Coach:   A Game Plan for the New Work Environment.   John Wiley & Sons, Inc., 1999.

C:    Difficult to apply general business coaching concepts.

Siegel, David.   Futurize Your Enterprise: Business Strategy in the Age of the E-Customer.   John Wiley & Sons, Inc., 1999.

B:    Good feature matrix discussion. I can't argue with his philosophy, but not a lot of “how to...”.

Smith, Douglas K.   Make Success Measurable: A Mindbook-Workbook for Setting Goals and Taking Action.   John Wiley & Sons, Inc., 1999.

A:    Well laid-out approach to ensuring the execution of key strategies. Packed with tools you can use.

Leonard, Dorothy, Walter Swap.   When Sparks Fly: Igniting Creativity in Groups.   Harvard Business School Publishing, 1999.

B:    Good tools for facilitating creativity sessions.

Zyman, Sergio.   The End of Marketing As We Know It.   HarperCollins Publishers, Inc., 1999.

A:    Insightful marketing instruction, good examples.

Schwartz, Peter, Peter Leyden, Joel Hyatt.   The Long Boom: A Vision for the Coming Age of Prosperity.   Perseus Publishing, 1999.

C:    Superfluous tripe based on ungrounded opinion.

Ciampa, Dan, Michael Watkins.   Right from the Start: Taking Charge in a New Leadership Role.   Harvard Business School Publishing, 1999.

A:    Written for presidents and CEOs. Good tips on visioning.

Markides, Constantinos C.   All the Right Moves: A Guide to Crafting Breakthrough Strategy. Harvard Business School Publishing, 1999.

A:    An A+ - many useful models and examples.

Underhill, Paco.   Why We Buy: The Science of Shopping.   Simon & Schuster, Inc., 1999.

A:    Lots of useful, specific tactics for breaking through to retail buyers.

Kotler, Philip.   Kotler on Marketing: How to Create, Win, and Dominate Markets.   Simon & Schuster, Inc., 1999.

B:    Likes low cost provider position! I don't, but there's still plenty to learn here.

Kawasaki, Guy, Michele Moreno.   Rules for Revolutionaries: The Capitalist Manifesto for Creating and Marketing New Products and Services.   HarperCollins Publishers, Inc., 1999.

B:    Useful product marketing tips.

Schwartz, Evan I.   Digital Darwinism: Seven Breakthrough Business Strategies for Surviving in the Cutthroat Web Economy.   Random House, 1999.

B:    Clear instructions for Web Branding.

Senge, Peter, Art Kleiner, Charlotte Roberts, Richard Ross, George Roth, Bryan Smith.   The Dance of Change.   Random House, 1999.

C:    Interesting metaphor about biological limits.   Fluffy team building techniques.

Drucker, Peter F.   Management Challenges for the 21 st Century.   HarperCollins Publishers, Inc., 1999.

B:    Statistics on collapsing birth rate.   Fabulous section on cultivating strengths.

Koch, Richard.   The 80/20 Principle: The Secret of Achieving More with Less.   Doubleday & Company, Inc., 1998.

C:    If you think you know what this book is about, you do. Thoughtful treatise on how complexity is undesirably expensive.

Mendelson, Haim, Johannes Ziegler.   Survival of the Smartest: Managing information for Rapid Action and World-Class Performance.   John Wiley & Sons, Inc., 1999.

B:    Good points on Decision Architecture.

Heenan, David A., Warren Bennis.   Co-Leaders: The Power of Great Partnerships.   John Wiley & Sons, Inc., 1999.

B:    Good examples, case studies, tips.

Goleman, Daniel.   Working with Emotional Intelligence.   Bantam Doubleday Dell Publishing Group. Inc, 1998.

C:    Soft stuff.   Lots of “shoulds and woulds”.

Pine II, B. Joseph and James H. Gilmore.   The Experience Economy: Work is Theatre and Every Business a Stage.   Harvard Business School Publishing, 1999.

A:    Tremendously useful.   People don't buy products, they buy the experiences discussed in this book.

Smart, Ph.D., Bradford D.,    Topgrading: How Leading Companied Win by Hiring, Coaching and Keeping the Best People.   Prentice Hall, 1999.

C:    Close to worthless.

Alessandra, Ph.D., Tony, Michael J. O'Connor, Ph.D.   The Platinum Rule: Discover the Four Basic Business Personalities - and How They Can Lead You to Success.   Harvest Book Company, 1996.

C:    I first heard this in 1984, and it wasn't new then.

Thielen, David.   The 12 Simple Secrets of Microsoft Management.   The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc., 1999.

C:    Thin Management Platitudes.

Goffee, Rob, Gareth Jones.   The Character of a Corporation: How Your Company's Culture Can Make Or Break Your Business.   HarperCollins Publishers, Inc., 1998.

A:    Very useful culture assessment tools.

Greaver II, Maurice F.   Strategic Outsourcing: Risk Management, Methods and Benefits.   Amacom, 1998.

C:    Written from a buyer's (not seller's) perspective. Good discussion of core competencies.   Very mechanical; useful justification tools.

Marks, Mitchell Lee, Phillip H. Mirvis.   Joining Forces: Making One Plus One Equal Three in Mergers, Acquisitions, and Alliances.   Macmillan Library Reference, 1997.

B:    How to beat the odds and make a merger work.

Slater, Robert.   Jack Welch and the GE Way: Management Insights and Leadership Secrets of the Legendary CEO.   The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc., 1999.

B:    Limited management reference material.

Trout, Jack, Steve Rivkin.   The Power of Simplicity: A Management Guide to Cutting Through the Nonsense and Doing Things Right.   The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc., 1999.

B:    A bit “simple” but good models.

Hammond, John S., Ralph L. Keeney and Howard Raiffa.   Smart Choices: A Practical Guide to Making Better Decisions.   Harvard Business School Publishing, 1999.

A:    Great decision-making tools,   i.e. Desirability Curve.

Dembo, Ron S., Andrew Freeman.   Seeing Tomorrow: Rewriting the Rules of Risk.   John Wiley & Sons, Inc., 1998.

C:    Dry; numbers analysis.   Some good risk management concepts.

Capodagli, Bill, Lynn Jackson.   The Disney Way: Harnessing the Management Secrets of Disney in Your Company.   The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc., 1999.

C:    Some decent project management ideas.

Schaffer, Robert H.   High-Impact Consulting.   Jossey-Bass Inc., 1997.  

C:    Limited ideas; more about how to hire a consultant than how to deliver high impact through consulting.

Bardwick, Ph.D., Judith M.   In Praise of Good Business.   John Wiley & Sons, Inc., 1998.

B:    Excellent guide to leading in high-risk environments.

O'Shaughnessy, James.   How to Retire Rich: Time-Tested Strategies to Beat the Market and Retire in Style.   Bantam Doubleday Dell Publishing Group, Inc., 1998.

A:    5 good strategies that are reasonable to apply.

McLaughlin, Peter, Peter McLaughlin, Jr.   CatchFire: A 7-Step Program to Ignite Energy, Defuse Stress and Power Boost Your Career.   Random House, 1998.

C:    A stress reduction program that I can't get excited about.

Downes, Larry, Chunka Mui.   Unleashing the Killer App: Digital Strategies for Market Dominance.   Harvard Business School Publishing, 1998.

B:    Nice observations but tough to apply.   Seems to work best in the rearview mirror.

Dreman, David.   Contrarian Investment Strategies: The Next Generation.   Simon & Schuster, Inc., 1998.

A:    Full of investment tips.   Worth a read if you have money to invest.

Ries, Al, Laura Ries.   The 22 Immutable Laws of Branding.   HarperCollins Publishers, Inc., 1998.

A:    Call it an A+   - terrific guiding information on branding.

Fisher, Roger, Alan Sharp.   Getting It Done.   HarperCollins Publishers, Inc., 1998.

B:    Helpful for working with volunteers on committees. A useful work skill to develop.  

Jasinowski, Jerry J. ed.   The Rising Tide: The Leading Minds of Business and Economics Chart a Course toward Higher Growth and Prosperity.   John Wiley & Sons, Inc., 1997.

B:    Good information supporting the value of technology and innovation in driving the economy's growth past the government's “limit” of 2.3%.

Davenport, Thomas H., Laurence Prusak.   Working Knowledge: How Organizations Manage What They Know.   Harvard Business School Publishing, 1997.

C:    How to suck knowledge out of your employees for the benefit of the company.

Kelley, Robert E.   How to Be a Star at Work: Nine Breakthrough Strategies You Need to Succeed.     Crown Publishing Group, 1999.

B:    Great productivity ideas.

Schultz, Howard, Dori Jones Yang.   Pour Your Heart Into It; How Starbucks Built a Company One Cup at a Time.   Hyperion Press, 1999.

B:    Good concepts, story. Limited personal applicability of the Starbucks lessons.   Useful description of brand qualities.

Slywotzky, Adrian J., David J. Morrison.   The Profit Zone.   Random House, 1997.

A:    Excellent material on building business models and strategies.

Rosse, Joseph, Robert Levin.   High-Impact Hiring: A Comprehensive Guide to Performance-Based Hiring.   Jossey-Bass Inc., 1997.

B:    Good process; helpful list of illegal questions.

Davis, Stan, Christopher Meyer.   Blur: The Speed of Change in the Connected Economy.   Perseus Publishing, 1998.

A:    Great reference material to help you rethink your positions.

Pfeffer, Jeffrey.   The Human Equation: Building Profits by Putting People First.   Harvard Business School Publishing, 1998.

B:    How to manage people for maximum success.

Gordon, Josh.   Tough Calls: Selling Strategies to Win over Your Most Difficult Customers.     Amacom, 1996.

C:    Generic sales advice.

Labovitz, George, Victor Rosansky.   The Power of Alignment .   John Wiley & Sons, Inc., 1997.

C:    Impractical.   Lots of feel-good phrases that are hard to apply.

Fahey, Liam, Robert M. Randall, eds.   Learning from the Future: Competitive Foresight Scenarios.   John Wiley & Sons, Inc., 1998.

B:    Good advice for constructing future scenarios.

Katzenbach, Jon R.   Teams at the Top: Unleashing the Potential of Both Teams and Individual Leaders.   Harvard Business School Publishing, 1997.

C:    I suppose if you wanted a team in the executive suite, this would be the book to read.

Beckwith, Harry.   Selling the Invisible: A Field Guide to Modern Marketing.   Warner Books, Inc., 1997

A:    Excellent content and application.   An easy to read guide for selling services.

Templeton, John Marks.   Is Progress Speeding Up? Our Multiplying Multitudes of Blessings.   Templeton Foundation Press, 1997

B:    Helps you appreciate the world you're already living in.

Cooper, Ph.D., Robert K., Ayman Sawaf.   Executive EQ: Emotional Intelligence in Leadership & Organizations.   Putnam, 1997.

A:    Great material to help you bring all of you -- not just your skills -- to work.

Nelson, Bob.   1001 Ways to Energize Employees.   Workman Publishing Company, Inc., 1997.

C:    The Swiss Army Knife of rah-rah.

McKenna, Regis.   Real Time: Preparing for the Age of the Never Satisfied Customer.   Harvard Business School Publishing, 1997.

C:    Nice concepts that don't seem to be working anywhere.

Stoltz, Ph.D., Paul G.   Adversity Quotient: Turning Obstacles into Opportunities.   John Wiley & Sons, Inc., 1997.

B:    A helpful guide for overcoming adversity and putting optimism to work for you.

Sveiby, Karl Erik.   The New Organizational Wealth: Managing and Measuring Knowledge-Based Assets.   Berrett-Koehler Publishers, Inc., 1997.

B:    Contains the keys for making knowledge a tangible, measurable, manageable asset of your organization.

Winkler, Ira.   Corporate Espionage: What it is, Why it's Happening in Your Company, What You Must Do about It.   Crown Publishing Group, 1997.

C:    Good info. Hopefully somebody (else) at your company cares about this stuff.

Loehr, James E.   Stress for Success: The Proven Program for Transforming Stress into Positive Energy at Work.   Random House, 1997.

B:    A comprehensive program to help you use stress to your advantage.

Bower, Marvin.   The Will to Lead: Running a Business with a Network of Leaders.   McKinsey & Company, 1997.

C:    All theory; most of this is not doable.

Wayland, Robert E., Paul M. Cole.   Customer Connections: New Strategies for Growth.   Harvard Business School Publishing, 1997.

A:    A solid approach for evaluating your customer portfolio.

Christensen, Clayton M.   The Innovator's Dilemma: When New Technologies Cause Great Firms to Fail.   Harvard Business School Publishing, 1997

A:    Secrets to making radical new products pay off. Deals with the roadblocks inherent within the cultures of large companies.

Rinke, Ph.D., Wolf J.   Winning Management: 6 Fail-Safe Strategies for Building High Performance Organizations.   Achievement Publishers, 1996.

C:    Lots of platitudes that will be difficult to implement.

Smith, J. Walker, Ann Clurman.   Rocking the Ages: The Yankelovich Report on Generational Marketing.   HarperCollins Publishers, Inc., 1997.

B:    This will give you lots of tips for selling to the generation you're not.

Burkan, Wayne.   Wide Angle Vision : Beat Your Competition by Focusing on Fringe Competitors, Lost Customers, and Rogue Employees.   John Wiley & Sons, Inc., 1996.

B:    This book is about how to harvest the fringe dwellers at the "edge" for phenomenal business gains.

Peppers, Don, Martha Rogers, Ph.D.   Enterprise One to One: Tools for Competing in the Interactive Age.   Bantam Doubleday Dell Publishing Group, Inc., 1997.

C:    More on one to one marketing.   A weak companion to their original book.

Cross, Robert G.   Revenue Management: Hard-Core Tactics for Market Domination.   Bantam Doubleday Dell Publishing Group, Inc., 1997.

A:    A brilliant approach to managing the pricing component of the marketing mix.   And it works!

Bemmer, C.   Britt, Robert L. Shook.   Predatory Marketing: What Everyone in Business Needs to Know to Win Today's Consumer.   William Morrow and Co., 1996.

A:    An aggressive approach to becoming No. 1 in your market at the expense of your competitors.

Bennis, Warren, Patricia Ward Biederman.   Organizing Genius.   Perseus Publishing, 1998.

C:    Attempts to use historical "lessons" to build a case for using special teams ("great groups") to get things done.   A yawner.

Dertouzos, Michael.   What Will Be: How the New World of Information Will Change Our Lives.   HarperCollins Publishers, Inc., 1997.

C:    Pretty useless.

Hagel III, John, Arthur G. Armstrong.   Net Gain: Expanding Marketing Through Virtual Communities.   Harvard Business School Publishing, 1997.

C:    I suspect the authors were more interested in establishing themselves as Internet gurus than producing a book of substance for their readers.

Segil, Larraine.   Intelligent Business Alliances: How to Profit Using Today's Most Important Strategic Tool.   Random House, 1996

B:    A thoughtful guide to help you get started in the world of strategic alliances.

Blanchard, Ken, Terry Waghorn, Jim Ballard.   Mission Possible: Becoming a World-Class Organization While There's Still Time.   The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc., 1997.

B:    All about growth.   A practical guide for building an organization capable of reaching the next level.

Freiberg, Kevin, Jackie Freiberg.   NUTS!: Southwest Airlines' Crazy Recipe for Business and Personal Success.   Bard Books, Inc., 1996.

A:    An informative and entertaining look at what makes Southwest Airlines work so well.

Brandenburger, Adam M., Barry J. Nalebuff.   Co-opetition.   Bantam Doubleday Dell Publishing Group, Inc., 1996.

A:    Powerful strategies for dealing with the complexities of making deals in today's complicated business environments.

Kao, John.   Jamming: The Art and Discipline of Business Creativity.   HarperCollins Publishers, Inc., 1996.

C:    There are better book on creativity out there.   Save your dough.

Grove, Andrew S.   Only the Paranoid Survive: How to Exploit the Crisis Points that Challenge Every Company and Career.   Doubleday & Company, Inc., 1996.

A:    Practical lessons for thriving in changing markets from a guy who can show you how to turn a dime.

Murphy, Emmett C.   Leadership IQ: A Personal Development Process Based On a Scientific Study of a New Generation of Leaders.   John Wiley & Sons, Inc., 1996.

B:    An attempt to dissect the attributes of leaders.   A little granular and hard to follow.

Kaplan, Robert S., David P. Norton.   The Balanced Scorecard: Translating Strategy Into Action.   Harvard Business School Publishing, 1996.

C:    A worthy approach, but tough to implement from the book. Be prepared to bring in consultants if you actually want to do it.

Kotter, John P.   Leading Change.   Harvard Business School Publishing, 1996.

B:    A solid book on how to make change happen.   Generous with charts and graphs.