Top 50 Business Books

As I sit in an office surrounded by more than 2,000 business books, it’s pretty tough to narrow the selection down to just a handful of the absolute best.  However, if I were going to pick the top 50 books that I feel give the very best information on how to run a business successfully, this would, in no particular order, be my list:

1. In Search of Excellence — Tom Peters
2. The Little BIG Things – Tom Peters
3. Good to Great — Jim Collins
4. Built to Last — Jim Collins
5. What Really Works — Joyce, Nohria, Roberson
6. The Leadership Challenge — Kouzes and Posner
7. Authentic Leadership — Bill George
8. Indispensable – Joe Callaway
9. Becoming a Category of One – Joe Calloway
10. The Discipline of Teams — Katzenbach and Smith
11. The Five Dysfunctions of a Team — Patrick Lencioni
12. Team Building (fourth edition) — Dyer, Dyer and Dyer
13. Lessons in Excellence from Charlie Trotter — Paul Clarke
14. Kiss Theory Goodbye — Bob Prosen
15. Mavericks at Work — Taylor and LaBarre
16. On Becoming a Leader — Warren Bennis
17. The Great Game of Business — Jack stack
18. The Starbucks Experience — Joseph Michelli
19. The New Gold Standard — Joseph Michelli
20. Customers for Life – Carl Sewell
21. At America’s Service — Karl Albrecht
22. The Northbound Train — Karl Albrecht
23. Leading People — Robert Rosen
24. The Definitive Drucker — Elizabeth Edersheim
25. What the Best CEOs know – Krames
26. Teaching the Elephant to Dance — James Belasco
27. If Aristotle ran General Motors — Tom Morris
28. The Rockefeller Habits – Vern Harnish
29. The Orange Revolution – Adrian Gostick and Chester Elton
30. All In – Adrian Gostick and Chester Elton
31. Nobel Enterprise – Darwin Gillette
32. Blue Ocean Strategy – W. Chan Kim and Renee Mauborgne
33. Primal Leadership – Daniel Goleman, Richard Boyatzis and Annie McKee
34. The Leader of the Future – Frances Hesselbein, Marshall Goldsmith and Richard Beckhard
35. Execution – Larry Bossidy and Ram Charan
36. Love is the Killer App — Tim Sanders
37. Start with Why – Simon Sinek
38. Up Your Business —  Dave Anderson
39. The 100 Best Business Books of All Time – Jack Covert and Todd Stattersten
40. Simply Better – Patrick Barwise and Sean Meehan
41. Referral Engine – John Jantsch
42. Duct Tape Marketing – John Jantsch
43. Managing with a Conscience – Frank Sonnenberg
44. Six Disciplines Execution Revolution – Gary Harpst
45. Repeatability – James Allen and Chris Zook
46. The Lean Startup – Eric Ries
47. The Thank You Economy – Gary Vaynerchuck
48. Crush It – Gary Vaynerchuk
49. Firms of Endearment – Rajendra S. Sisodia, David B. Wolfe, Jagdish N. Sheth
50. Leading in a Culture of Change-  Michael Fullan

I could easily recommend 75 or 80 more, but I think if you were to read these books, they would give you the best overall view on how to build, lead and grow a highly successful organization. If you do not see one of your VERY favorites, please send me a note, in case I have not read it yet.

John Spence is the author of “Awesomely Simple – Essential Business Strategies for Turning Ideas into Action,” and has twice been recognized as one of the top 100 business thought leaders in America and one of the country’s leading small business influencers. John has also read more than 100 business books a year since 1989. www.johnspence.com