100 Best Business Books of All-Time

October 20, 2022 | Jamie Chapman |

A comprehensive list to help you find inspiration in your work

In May 2009, Harvey Schachter, a writer for the Globe and Mail, referenced the 100 Best Business Books of all time.  The list, compiled by Jack Cover and Todd Sattersten, includes books that have introduced significant new thought into the study of management.  The list is organized into 12 categories.  As well, I have added the additional books recommended by Schachter:

LEADERSHIP

  • On Becoming a Leader – Warren Bennis
  • The Leadership Moment – Michael Useem
  • The Leadership Challenge – Kouzes & Posner
  • Leadership is an Art – Max De Pree
  • The Radical Leap – Steve Farber
  • Control Your Destiny or Someone Else Will – Tichy & Sherman
  • Leading Change – John Kotter
  • Questions of Character – J.L. Badaracco Jr.
  • The Story Factor – Annette Simmons
  • Never Give In!: The Best of Winston Churchill’s Speeches – Winston Churchill

STRATEGY

  • In Search of Excellence – Peters and Waterman
  • Good to Great – James C. Collins
  • The Innovator’s Dilemma – C. Christensen
  • Only the Paranoid Survive – A. S. Grove
  • Who Says Elephants Can’t Dance? – Louis Gerstner
  • Discovering the Soul of Service – Leonard Berry
  • Execution – Larry Bossidy and Ram Charan
  • Competing for the Future – Gary Hamel and C. K. Prahalad

MANAGEMENT

  • The Essential Drucker – Peter Drucker
  • Out of the Crisis – W. Edwards Deming
  • Toyota Production System – Taiichi Ohno
  • Reengineering the Corporation – Michael Hammer and James Champy
  • The Goal – Eliyahu Goldratt and Jeff Cox
  • The Great Game of Business – Jack Stack and Bo Burlingham
  • First, Break all the Rules – Marcus Buckingham and Curt Coffman
  • Now, Discover Your Strengths – Cuckingham and Clifton
  • The Knowing-Doing Gap – J. Pfeffer and R.I. Sutton
  • The Five Dysfunctions of a Team – P Lencioni
  • Six Thinking Hats – Edward De Bono

INNOVATION / CREATIVITY

  • Orbiting the Giant Hairball – Gordon Mackenzie
  • The Art of Innovation – Tom Kelley and J. Littman
  • Jumpstart Your Business Brain – Doug Hall
  • A Whack on the Side of the Head – Roger Von Oech
  • The Creative Habit – Twyla Tharp
  • The Art of Possibility – Rosamund Stone Zander and Benjamin Zander

BIG IDEAS

  • The Age of Unreason – Charles Handy
  • Out of Control – Kevin Kelly
  • The Rise of the Creative Class – Richard Florida
  • Emotional Intelligence – Daniel Goleman
  • Driven – Paul R. Lawrence and Nitin Nohria
  • To Engineer is Human – Henry Petroski
  • The Wisdom of Crowds – James Surowiecki
  • Make to Stick – Chip Heath and Dan Heath

TAKEAWAYS

  • The First 90 Days – Michael Watson
  • Up the Organization – Robert Townsend
  • Beyond the Core – Chris Zook
  • Little Red Book of Selling – Jeffrey Gitomer
  • What the CEO Wants You to Know – Ram Charan
  • The Team Handbook – P. Scholtes, B. Joiner, B. Streibel
  • A Business and its Belief – T. J. Watson
  • Lucky or Smart? – Bo Peabody
  • The Lexus and the Olive Tree – T.L. Friedman
  • Thinkertoys – Michael Michalko
  • More Than You Know – M. J. Mauboussin

SALES & MARKETING

  • Influence – Robert B. Cialdini
  • Positioning – Al Ries and Jack Trout
  • A New Brand World – Scott Bedbury and Stephen Fenichell
  • Selling the Invisible – Harry Beckwith
  • Zag – Marty Neumeier
  • Crossing the Chasm – Geoffrey Moore
  • Secrets of Closing the Sale – Zig Ziglar
  • How to Become a Rainmaker – Jeffrey Fox
  • Why we Buy – Paco Underhill
  • The Experience Economy – Joseph Pine and J. Gilmore
  • Purple Cow – Seth Godin
  • The Tipping Point – Malcolm Gladwell

ENTREPRENEURSHIP

  • The Art of the Start – Guy Kawasaki
  • The E-Myth Revisited – Michael Gerber
  • The Republic of Tea – M. Zeigler, P. Zeigler, B. Rozenzweig
  • The Partnership Charter – D. Gage
  • Growing a Business – Paul Hawken
  • Guerrilla Marketing – Jay Conrad Levinson
  • The Monk and the Riddle – R. Komisar and K. Lineback

RULES/ SCOREKEEPING

  • Naked Economics – Charles Wheelan
  • Financial Intelligence – Karen Berman and Joe Knight
  • The Balanced Scorecard – Kaplan and Norton

BIOGRAPHIES

  • Titan – R. Chernow
  • My Years with General Motors – A.P. Sloan
  • The HP Way – David Packard
  • Personal History – Katharine Graham
  • Moments of Truth – Jan Carlzon
  • Sam Walton: Made in America – S. Walton and J. Huey
  • Losing My Virginity – R. Branson

YOU

  • Flow – Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi
  • Getting Things Done – David Allen
  • The Effective Executive – Peter Drucker
  • How to Be a Star at Work – Robert E. Kelley
  • The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People – Covey
  • How to Win Friends & Influence People – Carnegie
  • Swim with the Sharks Without Being Eaten Alive – Harvey Mackay
  • The Power of Intuition – Gary Klein
  • What Should I Do with My Life? – Po Bronson
  • Oh, the Places You’ll Go – Dr. Seuss
  • Chasing Daylight – Eugene O’Kelly

NARRATIVES

  • McDonald’s: Behind the Arches – J.F. Love
  • American Steel – R. Preston
  • The Force – D. Dorsey
  • The Smartest Guys in the Room – Bethany McLean and P. Elkind
  • When Genius Failed – R. Lowenstein
  • Moneyball – M. Lewis

HARVEY SCHACHTER’S ADDITIONS

  • The Five Temptations of a CEO – Patrick Lencioni
  • SPIN Selling – Neil Rackham
  • The Peter Principle – Laurence J. Peter
  • Soul of A New Machine – Tracy Kiddler
  • The Feiner Points of Leadership – Michael Feiner
  • What Got You Here Won’t Get You There – Marshall Goldsmith
  • Why CEOs Fail – David L. Dotlich and Peter C. Cairo
  • 101 Biggest Mistakes Managers Make – Clay Carr and Mary Albright
  • Why Great Leaders Don’t Take Yes for An Answer – Michael A. Roberto
  • Common Knowledge – Nancy Dixon

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