Books Worth a Glance— Management/ Leadership from the Practitioners
While there’s no dearth of books in this category, the ones below show a lot of direct speak which you don’t find in typical books written by management gurus/ academicians. The insights are fresh, unique, relevant and impactful — like a skilful surgeon they slice through the heart of the issue and can save us a lot of heartache/stress that come as part of our work life especially the more responsibilities one takes up.
Along with this, a couple of quotes have been coming back to me recently, which reinforced the need to invest in learning deeply and consistently.
1) “Those that fail to learn from history are doomed to repeat it.”
2) “History is nothing new, but the same things happening to different people.”
In this context of learning from history, books (the good ones) seem to be prophetic in listing out the challenges organizations and us individuals working in them face, framewroks to understand the root causes and providing principles/practices for dealing with them. They are not limited to the company alone, but also to one’s personal career as well— as relevant now as it was when they were first written. Each book in the list below is well worth a read, nay you can’t afford not to.
- Zero to One by Peter Thiel — written by the ultimate contrarian. Love the fact that it wasn’t conceptualized as a book, but rather as class notes that were later converted into one by a super zealous student. The frames he takes when looking at the issue and the ideas drawn out were very new to me despite having read quite a bit prior. Here’s a great talk that summarizes the key ideas from the book, but no alternative for actually reading it.
2. Anti Fragile by Nassim Taleb — he pretty much coins a new word to describe a powerful idea which like most brilliant ideas seems so obvious in retrospect. Also love how he stitches together business, philosophy, ethics and everyday life in a seamless and simple manner.
3. The Hard Thing About Hard Things by Ben Horowitz — one of the most direct and topic specific books written from a practitioner’s perspective. Very little jargon, generalities or superfluous content — its targeted high intensity workout with a nice mix of anecdotes, lessons learned and practical applications. Doesn’t mean that its simplistic or tactical, rather the opposite — deep insights without losing out on realness while also bringing out new frameworks with which to view people and business. Love his authentic style of writing, be it in the choice of language, intertwining rap music or his homage to his gurus (Andy Grove).
4. Only the Paranoid Survive by Andy Grove — a book I finally picked up because Ben Horowtiz was quoting him every other chapter and boy am I glad. Its not just the idea of Strategic Inflection Points being framed so powerfully and beautifully, but also how he describes in a very real manner the practical ways it impacts every layer of the organization. This is like AA for business leaders — sometimes the best way to learn is from someone who has stumbled, hurt themselves and learnt how to get up.
5. Maverick by Ricardo Semler — Someone who has more that lived up to the title and amazingly in a manufacturing set up from the 80s in Brazil, not the best of places/times to be able to bring in radical practices and run a successful business. Living proof that where there is vision and will, the way can be paved. Here’s a simple talk that gives the essence of his vision.
Note: Will add to this list as I come across more. Books in other categories will be listed in other blogs under the series “Books Worth a Glance”.
