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The Ultimate Business Library

Stuart Crainer wrote a book back in 1997 called "The Ultimate Business Library: 50 Books That Shaped Management Thinking". The book is out of print now, but I found the list of books during my internet travels last week. I thought it went nicely with the FT list of 80 books every manager should read.

Below the fold, you will find the 50 books that Crainer thought should be in your library. They are organized by category and then listed in alphabetical.

• Management
• Chester Barnard (1938), The Functions of the Executive, Harvard University Press, Cambridge, Mass.
• Dale Carnegie (1937), How to Win Friends and Influence People, Simon & Schuster, New York.
• Peter F. Drucker (1954), The Practice of Management , Harper & Row, New York.
• Henri Fayol (1949), General and Industrial Management , Pitman, London.
• Mary Parker Follett (1941), Dynamic Administration , (editors Fox, Elliot & Urwick, Lyndall) Harper & Row, New York.
• Henry Mintzberg (1973), The Nature of Managerial Work , Harper & Row, New York.
• Ricardo Semler (1993), Maverick! , Century, London.
• Leadership
• Warren Bennis & Burt Nanus (1985), Leaders: The Strategies for Taking Charge , Harper & Row, New York.
• James MacGregor Burns (1978), Leadership , Harper & Row, New York.
• Henry Ford (1923), My Life and Work , Doubleday, Page & Co, New York.
• Nicolo Machiavelli (1513), The Prince , Penguin, London(1967).
• Thomas Watson Jr. (1963), A Business and its Beliefs: The Ideas that Helped Build IBM , McGraw Hill, New York.
• Complexity
• Alfred Chandler (1962), Strategy and Structure , MIT Press, Boston.
• Michael Goold, Andrew Campbell & Marcus Alexander (1994), Corporate Level Strategy , John Wiley, New York.
• Alfred P. Sloan (1963), My Years with General Motors , Doubleday, New York.
• Max Weber (1947), The Theory of Social and Economic Organization , Free Press, New York.
• People
• Meredith Belbin (1984), Management Teams: Why They Succeed or Fail , Butterworth Heinemann, Oxford.
• Frederick Herzberg (1959), The Motivation to Work , (with Mausner, B. and Snyderman, B.), Wiley, New York.
• Douglas McGregor (1960), The Human Side of Enterprise , McGraw Hill, New York.
• Abraham Maslow (1954), Motivation and Personality , Harper & Row, New York.
• Customers
• W. Edwards Deming (1982), Out of the Crisis , MIT, Cambridge, Mass.
• Joseph M. Juran (1988), Juran on Planning for Quality , Free Press, New York.
• Philip Kotler (1967), Marketing Management: Analysis, Planning, Implementation and Control , Prentice Hall, New Jersey(1994, 8th edition).
• Ted Levitt (1962), Innovation in Marketing , McGraw Hill, New York.
• Adam Smith (1776), The Wealth of Nations , Modern Library, New York(1937).
• Global
• Christopher Bartlett & Sumantra Ghoshal (1989), Managing Across Borders , Harvard Business School Press, Boston.
• Kenichi Ohmae (1990), The Borderless World , William Collins, London.
• Richard Pascale & Anthony Athos (1981), The Art of Japanese Management , Penguin Books, London.
Michael Porter (1990), The Competitive Advantage of Nations , Macmillan, London. Fons Trompenaars (1993), Riding the Waves of Culture , Nicholas Brealey, London.
• The Future
• Peter F. Drucker (1969), The Age of Discontinuity , Heinemann, London.
• Gary Hamel & C.K. Prahalad (1994), Competing for the Future , Harvard University Press, Cambridge.
• Charles Handy (1989), The Age of Unreason , Business Books, London.
• Alvin Toffler (1980), The Third Wave , Bantam, New York.
• Renewal
• Chris Argyris & Donald Schon (1978), Organizational Learning: A Theory of Action Perspective , Addison-Wesley, Reading, Mass.
• Rosabeth Moss Kanter (1983), The Change Masters , Simon & Schuster, New York.
• Richard Pascale (1990), Managing on the Edge , Simon & Schuster, New York.
• Tom Peters & Robert Waterman (1982), In Search of Excellence , Harper & Row, New York & London.
• Tom Peters (1992), Liberation Management , Alfred P. Knopf, New York.
• Edgar H. Schein (1985), Organizational Culture and Leadership , Jossey-Bass, San Francisco.
• Peter Senge (1990), The Fifth Discipline: The Art and Practice of the Learning Organization , Doubleday, New York.
• Competition
  • Michael Porter (1980), Competitive Strategy: Techniques for Analyzing Industries and Competitors , Free Press, New York.
  • Sun Tzu (500 BC), The Art of War
• Efficiency
  • James Champy & Michael Hammer (1993), Reengineering the Corporation , Harper Business, New York.
  • Frederick W. Taylor (1911), The Principles of Scientific Management , Harper & Row, New York.
• Strategy
  • Igor Ansoff (1965), Corporate Strategy , McGraw Hill, New York.
  • Gary Hamel & C.K. Prahalad (1994), Competing for the Future , Harvard University Press, Cambridge.
  • Henry Mintzberg (1994), The Rise and Fall of Strategic Planning , Prentice Hall International, Hemel Hempstead.
  • Kenichi Ohmae (1982), The Mind of the Strategist , McGraw Hill, New York.
• Fun
• C.N. Parkinson (1958), Parkinson's Law , John Murray, London.
• Robert Townsend (1970), Up the Organization , Michael Joseph, London.




By Alphabet

1. Igor Ansoff (1965), Corporate Strategy , McGraw Hill, New York.
2. Chris Argyris & Donald Schon (1978), Organizational Learning: A Theory of Action Perspective , Addison-Wesley, Reading, Mass.
3. Chester Barnard (1938), The Functions of the Executive, Harvard University Press, Cambridge, Mass.
4. Christopher Bartlett & Sumantra Ghoshal (1989), Managing Across Borders , Harvard Business School Press, Boston.
5. Meredith Belbin (1984), Management Teams: Why They Succeed or Fail , Butterworth Heinemann, Oxford.
6. Warren Bennis & Burt Nanus (1985), Leaders: The Strategies for Taking Charge , Harper & Row, New York.
7. James MacGregor Burns (1978), Leadership , Harper & Row, New York.
8. Dale Carnegie (1937), How to Win Friends and Influence People, Simon & Schuster, New York.
9. James Champy & Michael Hammer (1993), Reengineering the Corporation , Harper Business, New York.
10. Alfred Chandler (1962), Strategy and Structure , MIT Press, Boston.
11. W. Edwards Deming (1982), Out of the Crisis , MIT, Cambridge, Mass.
12. Peter F. Drucker (1954), The Practice of Management , Harper & Row, New York.
13. Peter F. Drucker (1969), The Age of Discontinuity , Heinemann, London.
14. Henri Fayol (1949), General and Industrial Management , Pitman, London.
15. Mary Parker Follett (1941), Dynamic Administration , (editors Fox, Elliot & Urwick, Lyndall) Harper & Row, New York.
16. Henry Ford (1923), My Life and Work , Doubleday, Page & Co, New York
17. Michael Goold, Andrew Campbell & Marcus Alexander (1994), Corporate Level Strategy , John Wiley, New York.
18. Gary Hamel & C.K. Prahalad (1994), Competing for the Future , Harvard University Press, Cambridge.
19. Charles Handy (1989), The Age of Unreason , Business Books, London.
20. Frederick Herzberg (1959), The Motivation to Work , (with Mausner, B. and Snyderman, B.), Wiley, New York.
21. Joseph M. Juran (1988), Juran on Planning for Quality , Free Press, New York.
22. Rosabeth Moss Kanter (1983), The Change Masters , Simon & Schuster, New York.
23. Philip Kotler (1967), Marketing Management: Analysis, Planning, Implementation and Control , Prentice Hall, New Jersey(1994, 8th edition).
24. Ted Levitt (1962), Innovation in Marketing , McGraw Hill, New York.
25. Nicolo Machiavelli (1513), The Prince , Penguin, London(1967).
26. Douglas McGregor (1960), The Human Side of Enterprise , McGraw Hill, New York.
27. Abraham Maslow (1954), Motivation and Personality , Harper & Row, New York.
28. Henry Mintzberg (1973), The Nature of Managerial Work , Harper & Row, New York.
29. Henry Mintzberg (1994), The Rise and Fall of Strategic Planning , Prentice Hall International, Hemel Hempstead.
30. Kenichi Ohmae (1982), The Mind of the Strategist , McGraw Hill, New York.
31. Kenichi Ohmae (1990), The Borderless World , William Collins, London.
32. C.N. Parkinson (1958), Parkinson's Law , John Murray, London.
33. Richard Pascale & Anthony Athos (1981), The Art of Japanese Management , Penguin Books, London.
34. Richard Pascale (1990), Managing on the Edge , Simon & Schuster, New York.
35. Tom Peters & Robert Waterman (1982), In Search of Excellence , Harper & Row, New York & London.
36. Tom Peters (1992), Liberation Management , Alfred P. Knopf, New York.
37. Michael Porter (1980), Competitive Strategy: Techniques for Analyzing Industries and Competitors , Free Press, New York.
38. Michael Porter (1990), The Competitive Advantage of Nations , Macmillan, London.
39. Edgar H. Schein (1985), Organizational Culture and Leadership , Jossey-Bass, San Francisco.
40. Ricardo Semler (1993), Maverick! , Century, London.
41. Peter Senge (1990), The Fifth Discipline: The Art and Practice of the Learning Organization , Doubleday, New York.
42. Alfred P. Sloan (1963), My Years with General Motors , Doubleday, New York.
43. Adam Smith (1776), The Wealth of Nations , Modern Library, New York(1937).
44. Frederick W. Taylor (1911), The Principles of Scientific Management , Harper & Row, New York.
45. Alvin Toffler (1980), The Third Wave , Bantam, New York.
46. Robert Townsend (1970), Up the Organization , Michael Joseph, London.
47. Fons Trompenaars (1993), Riding the Waves of Culture , Nicholas Brealey, London.
48. Sun Tzu (500 BC), The Art of War
49. Thomas Watson Jr. (1963), A Business and its Beliefs: The Ideas that Helped Build IBM , McGraw Hill, New York.
50. Max Weber (1947), The Theory of Social and Economic Organization , Free Press, New York.
Posted by Todd S. at February 14, 2005 03:38 PM | TrackBack