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If you’ve never run your own business or considered high school, it can be hard to understand how the corporate world works. Fortunately, there are plenty of excellent (yes, even nice) tomes out there that can help. here are eight great ones to get you started, a mix of classics and new readings on today’s hottest startups, as suggested by writers and editors at the time and fortune.
You are reading: Books to understand business
the dilemma of innovators ($14, amazon)
The Innovators’ Dilemma, Clayton Christensen’s 1997 classic, argues that market-leading companies can become shells of their former selves if they are unwilling to “disrupt” themselves, because someone else will come and will do it for them. It’s akin to a religious text in Silicon Valley, where it’s considered a guide for new innovators looking to take on the world’s biggest companies.
soul of a new machine ($10, amazon)
the pulitzer-winning soul of a new machine, by tracy kidder, is considered by many to be one of the best non-fiction books on technology ever written. The 1981 novel follows the now-deceased data general’s efforts to build a next-generation “minicomputer” in the 1970s. The company’s ability to overcome design, engineering, and corporate challenges offers particularly valuable lessons for any person interested in project management between teams.
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good to excellent ($19, amazon)
The world is home to billions of companies, but only a few become true corporate powerhouses. What separates the merely good companies from the great ones? that’s the question jim c. collins looks to answer in its 2001 good to great. His ultimate answer: It’s about focusing on what you do best, what economists might call “comparative advantage.”
the smartest guys in the room ($10, amazon)
Enron’s demise was perhaps the most infamous corporate collapse in American business history. Here, journalists Peter Elkind and Bethany McLean offer an insightful look at the complex business arrangements that masked Enron’s failing health, all without requiring readers to have a business degree before diving in. ever thought possible.
steve jobs ($15, amazon)
steve jobs, whose return to apple in 1997 sparked a change that helped cupertino, california. becoming the world’s largest company by market capitalization was in many ways flawed genius. but there is no denying his business acumen, and anyone interested in business would do well to know his story well. No one has captured a better portrait of the jobs than former editorial director Walter Isaacson, whose 2011 biography leaves readers with a deeper understanding of the man and the now huge company he helped resurrect.
the upstarts ($20, amazon)
Ours is an era dominated not only by decades-old corporate powerhouses, but also increasingly by well-funded tech startups. In The Upstarts, Bloomberg’s Brad Stone offers a look at how two of these companies in particular, Uber and Airbnb, have remade the world in their image seemingly overnight. it’s especially insightful as an insight into how modern businesses deal with the rules and regulations that can disrupt their business strategies.
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disney war ($12, amazon)
disney is called “the happiest place on earth,” but its corporate history has long been marked by rivalries and high-profile infighting. james b. Stewart’s Disneywar focuses on the tenure of former CEO Michael Eisner, revealing along the way how personal feuds can threaten to derail even the world’s most iconic corporate powers. read this if you’re interested in learning about the ability of individual leaders to drive companies forward, or turn them into chaos.
losing signal ($16, amazon)
research in motion, the canadian maker of instantly recognizable blackberry phones, once dominated the embryonic smartphone market. today, not so much. what happened? Losing the Signal by Jacquie McNish and Sean Silcoff in 2015 offers an answer: Rim simply couldn’t predict how Apple’s iPhone would change everything in the world of smartphones. read this after the innovators dilemma for a modern case study featuring a company you probably know well.
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