The 100 Best Business Books of All Time: What They Say, Why They Matter, and How They Can Help You,   ISBN:B002BWQ56I

Customer Rating: 

Thank you Jack and Todd. Finally, I found a book that compiles the best of the best in a meaningful and thoughtful way. This book is very well organized with twelve chapters on twelve pertinent business topics to choose from depending on your area of interest. There is something here for everyone whether you are trying to solve a business problem, increase your depth of knowledge or strengthen your skillset.

The first chapter is the all important YOU followed by leadership, strategy, sales & marketing, rules and scorekeeping -- well you will just have to read it. I loved the fact that with only a couple of exceptions the books recommended were under 300 pages. Given our premium on time, that was a plus. However much we are interested in the topic, so many business books contain unnecessary filler material.

Some of these books you will have read as part of your MBA experience but this presents an opportunity to revisit some of those messages you may want to refresh. I was impressed by the fact that they even included children's books such as "Oh, the Places you will go" and some fables. That reminded me of that other book: "Everything I Ever Needed to Know I Learned in Kindergarten". How true that is. Including side bars recommending additional books, movies and even speeches further enhanced the experience.

I downloaded this book onto my kindle. While I was reading it, if I ran across a compelling book based on their review, I simply downloaded a sample to see if indeed I wanted to buy it, add to my wishlist or save for another time. I am currently reading "Chasing Daylight." What a story and a message that contains!

Customer Rating: 

I was hoping for a summary of the best business books, so I didn't have to read them, or at least would only bother to read the ones I was more interested in. However, this book is basically 100 ads for other books, in addition to an ad for the author's book company. The descriptions of the books aren't anything more informative then the back cover of the book. You'd be better off just reading the amazon descriptions of the books listed instead of reading this book.

Customer Rating: 

If a college-age intern asked you this summer to name the 100 best business books of all time, I have a cheat sheet for you. Some of your favorites won't be on this list and you'll likely be unfamiliar with several dozen--but that's a good thing.

The co-authors run 800-CEO-READ and have been recommending business books for years--so buying the book was a no-brainer. It called out to me. Reading the book was both mandatory and motivating. The 100 best business books are categorized in 12 sections including: you (strengths, etc.), leadership, strategy, sales and marketing, rules and scorekeeping, management, biographies, entrepreneurship, narratives, innovation and creativity, big ideas and takeaways.

I've read 21 of the 100 books. I'm familiar with another 25--and have always wanted to read about half of those. So the value of this book, for me, is having at my finger tips a two-page morsel on each of the 54 books I've never read. If your favorite book is missing, you can recommend it on their website. I've added my own, of course, Mastering The Management Buckets: 20 Critical Competencies for Leading Your Business or Non-profit.

Each book summary includes a memorable quote in big, bold type, like "If you can't measure it, you can't manage it," from The Balanced Scorecard. Or, this from Moments of Truth, the classic customer service book by Jan Carlzon, who led the Swedish airline, SAS: "An individual without information cannot take responsibility; an individual who is given information cannot help but take responsibility." And how about this line from The Partnership Charter: How to Start Out Right With Your New Business Partnership (or Fix the One You're In), "A charter is a necessary tool because few people have been taught how to be partners."

The co-authors are like fine surgeons in the art of reviewing business books: no wasted words, get to the heart of the matter, get out. Each two-page review delivers the diagnosis and enough medicine to get you moving. Even reading the summary of The Effective Executive, by Peter Drucker (one of my personal Top-20 books), gave me new insight and a new one-liner, "Effective executives solve problems once."

This book is a treasure, and besides the 100 book summaries, it's jammed with delightful full-page sidebars including a readers' Top-10 poll (The Goal was No. 1), conferences to attend (like the TED conference), an interesting chart on the differences between fables, modern books and classics (with examples), the Top-10 bestselling business books from 2004 to 2008 (Good to Great was No. 1 with 1.4 million sales), six leadership movies, and why The Economist is the only magazine you need to read.

Customer Rating: 

This is a decently organized collection of business books but it left me frustrated.

I wanted to learn the key ideas in these 100 books and this book did not provide it. That is my main criticism. I am just not that interested in learning how "refreshing" the style of writing is or in reading commentary on how clever the author was.

So, if you think that you are going to get summaries and distillations of the ideas from these 100 books then you are mostly mistaken. I say mostly because there are indeed a few (a very few) morsels provided in each review. However, all too often the review just says something like "the author then provides 8 ideas that you should consider in setting up your business", but you don't get to learn what those 8 ideas are! Down with fluffy teasers.

I also wish the collection did not restrict itself only to relatively contemporary works. That is like saying music should only be understood by looking at everything from the Beatles on. Don't get me wrong: I love the Beatles but what about Bach? Frederick Taylor's views of the employee may be old but it still provides insight into how a sizeable portion of businesses are still being run around the world today ... not to mention that it gives us a context for understanding how we got to where we are right now.

In fairness, there are a number of "pop numbers" that I would have never learned about if not for this book. So, I feel the authors do a credible job of surveying and presenting fresh options based on contemporary (e.g. humanitarian) business values and trends.

If you like this book you probably owe it to yourself to broaden your list a little. There are a lot of "best business" lists out there. For example, Fortune Magazine has a nice list called the "75 Smartest Books We Know".

After going through this book, the Fortune list and numerous other "best business" lists, my favorite "best of business" source remains "The Best Business Books Ever: The 100 Most Influential Business Books You'll Never Have Time to Read". That one, too, has its share of problems but, in my opinion, it provides less pop numbers but more meat and more context.

Customer Rating: 

This book is excellent - for me this is a very helpful map in the disorientating world of business literature.

There are far too many business books out there and reading a bad business book is a really terrible experience. This book significantly improves your chances of reading thought provoking material which you can confidently apply to your own approach. Highly recommended.