Halley Suitt, in Worthwhile, refers to the 800CEOREAD list of top 25 books for business. I have read only one of these, The Art of the Start, which I believe is an excellent reference book for any business. In perusing the other 24 titles, I noticed that there is nothing that peeks my interest. I guess I’m not your "average" business reader. For instance, here are my best reads this year, though they weren’t all published in 2004:
- Drucker (2002) Managing in the Next Society [a good review of Drucker’s writings]
- Zuboff & Maxmin (2002) The Support Economy [read Parts 1 & 2, then go to Dave Pollard’s Natural Enterprise]
- Federman & de Kerckhove (2003) McLuhan for Managers [absolutely essential reading if you’re trying to understand the effects of any technology]
- Malone (2004) The Future of Work [a good high level view of a new perspective on work]
These are some of the books on my list to buy/read:
- Dawson (2002) Living Networks: Leading Your Company, Customers, and Partners in the Hyper-Connected Economy
- Barley & Kunda (2004) Gurus, Hired Guns, and Warm Bodies: Itinerant Experts in a Knowledge Economy
- Surowiecki (2004) The Wisdom of Crowds: Why the Many Are Smarter Than the Few and How Collective Wisdom Shapes Business, Economies, Societies and Nations
- Malcolm Gladwell’s new book: Blink [to be published in Jan 2005]
Any other suggestions for a free-agent, consultant, learning/business/technology guy?
Worthwhile Reading – From the Frozen WestHarold,
Hope all is well in Sackville – it certainly has to be
warmer than Saskatoon – I gotta stop living in cold
cities and towns that start with “S”.
I found Jim Collins “Good to Great” (2001) to be worthwhile
reading, although it’s not as “research-based” as Collins
would have use believe. Sometimes I read these things just
to be able to refute glossed or incorrect versions I hear
from other executives.
For any instructional design folks out there, David Jonassen’s
“Learning to Solve Problems: An Instructional Design Guide” (2003)
is an excellent and well-writen resource. Jonassen is becoming
the new Polya with respect to reverse-engineering the problem-solving
process and its related pedagogy/andragogy.
I still refuse to read “Who Moved My Cheese” (1998, Johnson)
or the “One Minute Manager” (Blanchard, 1990) and I think
your readers should too. Awful!
Merry Christmas all!
David Francis
Academic Director, SIAST Virtual Campus
ThanksThanks David:
I’ve lost your e-mail, so could you send it to me?
Merry Christmas!