publications

There are lots of reasons why we read business books. Some we read for "Big Ideas." Others for inspiration. Still others are designed to help us do what we do, but a little bit better. So I wondered recently: Why wasn’t I reading more books?

Don’t get me wrong; I read a lot. It’s just that in the past couple of years I’ve found myself increasingly gravitating toward blog posts; magazine articles; and other quickly digestible sources of ideas, insights and inspiration.

The problem with “snackable content,” as Mitch Joel calls this stuff, is that it doesn’t allow for the deep dive. And I’d forgotten how good a good book can be—or how much you can learn when you’re not confined to 140 characters, 1,000 words, or the length of an average magazine article. To help me get back on track, I started a book review series late last year with the modest aim of reading and reviewing one book a month.

If you’re in need of big ideas and inspiration, I’ve assembled the following list of seven books to consider adding to your reading list.

1. The world has changed but has your business? The premise of Macrowikinomics: Rebooting Business and the World is that we need to embrace our interconnectedness and harness the power of technology and the social Web to tackle big problems and grow 21st-century businesses.
   
   Authors Don Tapscott and Anthony Williams posit that their original idea of wikinomics, “defined as the art and science of mass collaboration in business” is becoming “macrowikinomics: the application of wikinomics and its core principles to society and all of its institutions,” which represents “a more encompassing societal shift.” They suggest that successful organizations must embrace five principles to succeed in this new environment: collaboration, openness, sharing, integrity and interdependence. They then explore how these principles are already being applied in a variety of sectors, including banking and finance, transportation, health care, education, media and government.
   
   Macrowikinomics is that rare business book that’s big, meaty and worth poring over. The authors point out that “small companies can have many of the same capabilities as large companies without the main liabilities—bureaucracy, legacy cultures, antiquated systems and old ways of working…. As more small firms exploit the Web for new resources, they can gain unprecedented access to global markets previously enjoyed by only the largest corporations.”
   
2. In The Referral Engine, John Jantsch points to an informal survey of small business owners that found “63.4 percent felt that over half their business came by way of referrals. But, of the same group, 79.9 percent readily admitted that they have no system of any kind to generate referrals.” If this sounds familiar, then The Referral Engine is worth reading just to know that you’re probably doing some (or many) things right—but perhaps not as systematically as need be. The book offers nuggets of business sense (e.g., “every business needs to create or capture their simple strategy, differentiator or process that allows them to communicate their unique difference in 30 seconds or less”), homework (such as identifying your “secret sauce or way of doing business that you plan to use to drive your content strategy”), and examples of businesses that are walking the walk.
   
3. While business successes are great, we tend to learn far more from our failures (at least I know I do). The stuff that goes wrong makes for illustrative case studies and lessons learned, as well as adjustments, innovation and change. Ralph Heath’s Celebrating Failure is about embracing our mistakes and using them as teachable moments to make us smarter leaders, business owners and entrepreneurs. The book is broken into 30 short chapters, each with a story, a learning moment and some actionable takeaways. One of my favorite vignettes is Heath’s discussion of celebrating your successes—and then pivoting to assess what you could do better next time. He notes that “the desire to continuously improve is not a negative reflection of the initial effort. It is, for example, just good business sense to take a triumphant moment and make it serve multiple purposes.”
   
4. What happens when companies leverage emerging technologies to better understand their customers, help their employees collaborate more effectively, crowdsource or otherwise improve their core business functions? They become companies with a competitive edge—and part of what author Phil Simon calls The New Small. The book explores five emerging tech trends (cloud computing, software as a service, free and open-source software, mobility, and social media/social networking) that are making it possible for smaller companies to compete—and beat—large, established corporations. The book also has one of my new favorite phrases, “long-term greedy,” which refers to how smart, reputation-savvy business owners will turn down (the wrong) work rather than take on a project they know will fail.
   
5. David Siteman Garland lays out the premise of his book on page 1: “When you break down all the fluff, there are two ways to promote and market your business: dumber, slower and expensive—or smarter, faster and cheaper.” Who’s going to argue with that? Faster, Smarter, Cheaper is filled with marketing advice about being human, building trust, growing your community and leveraging social platforms to expand your reach and demonstrate your smarts. While the book seems aimed at newbies, there’s plenty of advice for seasoned business owners and marketers alike. It even saved me big-time when I was tweaking my website recently. Reading Garland’s chapter on “Creating a Sharable and Spreadable Website,” I realized I was so focused on making sure I was getting my shiny social media icons on my new home page that I’d forgotten to include email and telephone information front and center. (Fortunately, my site wasn’t live yet.)
   
6. Rework. Jason Fried and David Heinemeier Hansson, founders of 37signals, have written a brilliant business book about reworking how we work. Sample fare: “Start a Business Not a Startup: Don’t use the idea of a startup as a crutch. Instead, start an actual business…. Actual businesses don’t mask problems by saying, ‘it’s okay, we’re a startup.’ Act like a business and you’ll have a much better shot at succeeding.” The only reason Rework isn’t No. 1 on this list is because I haven’t quite figured out yet how to unpack all the awesome information.
   
7. Six Pixels of Separation. While most books about social media are written for marketers, Mitch Joel’s book is a business book that’s crammed with great advice about the changing landscape and why entrepreneurs need to embrace social business. Joel talks about using the tools “as another way to grow your business.” Six Pixels of Separation does just that, from identifying the five C’s of entrepreneurship 2.0 (connecting, creating, conversations, community and commerce) to urging business people to think in ripples (“powerful conversations that are generated when you share your content”).

What’s next on my reading list? The Entrepreneur Equation, UnMarketing and Content Rules. Check back with me, and I’ll let you know what I learned.

*Disclosure: I received free copies of three of these books (The Referral Engine, The New Small and Smarter, Faster, Cheaper) in exchange for agreeing to review them. I’m citing them here because I learned something from each—and I’m betting you will too.