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From
Strategy+Business
Best Business Books 2007
by Ann Graham
In 2001, when strategy+business
first published this now-annual review of best business
books, we knew we had a tough audience to please.
Indeed, as leadership scholar James O’Toole notes in one
of the following reviews, a recent New York Times
article about the reading habits of successful business
leaders found that they read everything but business and
management books.
So every year, we look for nominees
in unexpected places. We carefully select reviewers,
like O’Toole, who have a wide range of experiences and
perspectives, who are willing to look far and wide for
the ideas and stories that executives will find most
relevant to their work and their thinking.
One theme running through all the
essays this year is the presence and power of human
behavior in business, especially in the executive suite.
Economist Diane Coyle notes that the subject of her
choice for the best book on capitalism — the infamous
economist Joseph Schumpeter — appreciated that the
economy represents “a human order with social,
political, and cultural implications.” Futurist Howard
Rheingold selected three books this year on behavioral
theory. They present provocative views on the ways in
which network information technologies — the Internet,
mobile phones, PDAs, and the like — are changing the
behaviors of billions of people around the world. In
reviewing the best books on human capital, R.
Gopalakrishnan, executive director of the Indian
multinational Tata Sons, deftly relates his observations
to his own experiences managing people and watching
others do it, too. MIT’s Michael Schrage and journalist
Tom Ehrenfeld highlight the importance of humility to
innovation and entrepreneurship, respectively. The essay
by science and health-care expert Joe Flower exposes the
human hopes and fears raised by the risky business of
biotechnology.
Of course, our list of the year’s
best business books is not complete without a selection
on strategy and competition. This year, David Newkirk —
the head of executive education at the University of
Virginia’s Darden School of Business — has selected five
of the best guides in print for helping executives
redirect their companies in an ever-changing world.
Contents:
The Best Business Books for 2007 pdf file. Or
html
The list features dozens of book
reviews in 11 subjects:
s+b's Top Shelf ,
Innovation by Michael Schrage,
Strategy by David Newkirk,
Biotech by Joe Flower,
Capitalism by Diane Coyle,
The Entrepreneurs by Tom Ehrenfeld,
Behavioral Theory by Howard Rheingold,
Human Capital by R. Gopalakrishnan,
Biography by James O'Toole
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