Product Description

Thousands of business books are published every year— Here are the best of the best

After years of reading, evaluating, and selling business books, Jack Covert and Todd Sattersten are among the most respected experts on the category. Now they have chosen and reviewed the one hundred best business titles of all time—the ones that deliver the biggest payoff for today’s busy readers.

The 100 Best Business Books of All Time puts each book in context so that readers can quickly find solutions to the problems they face, such as how best to spend The First 90 Days in a new job or how to take their company from Good to Great. Many of the choices are surprising—you’ll find reviews of Moneyball and Orbiting the Giant Hairball, but not Jack Welch’s memoir.

At the end of each review, Jack and Todd direct readers to other books both inside and outside The 100 Best. And sprinkled throughout are sidebars taking the reader beyond business books, suggesting movies, novels, and even children’s books that offer equally relevant insights.

This guide will appeal to anyone, from entry-level to CEO, who wants to cut through the clutter and discover the brilliant books that are truly worth their investment of time and money.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #17954 in Books
• Published on: 2009-02-05
• Format: Bargain Price
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Hardcover
• 352 pages

From Booklist
*Starred Review* Unbelievably, over 10,000 business books are published each year, creating a dizzying array of choices for the budding entrepreneur or executive manager seeking solutions. In some circles, the genre may have a reputation for being dull, but the best written have much to offer to a wider audience. A great business book can encompass inspirational writing, biography, engaging narratives, even mystery and suspense. Covert and Sattersten operate 800-CEO-READ, a specialty business-book retailer. Out of the countless business books they have read every year for a quarter century, they have culled 100 of the best and presented them in review format. Of course, you get the classics, like How to Win Friends and Influence People, by Dale Carnegie (1936), and The HP Way, by David Packard (1995), but you also get the whimsical (Oh, the Places You’ll Go, by Dr. Seuss, 1990); historical (Never Give In, speeches by Winston Churchill, 2003); artistic (The Creative Habit, by Twyla Tharp, 2003); and philosophical (The Monk and the Riddle, by Komisar and Lineback, 2000). This list and the fine reviews are proof positive that business books can offer a rich treasure of stories and inspiration. --David Siegfried

About the Author
Jack Covert (right) is the founder and president of 800-CEOREAD, a specialty business book retailer that began as a subsidiary of the Harry W. Schwartz Bookshops.

Todd Sattersten (left) is the company’s vice president. Both read countless business books every year and review many of them on their Web site and blog.

Customer Reviews

Let the disagreements begin!

Presumably when Jack Covert and Todd Sattersten made their selections for this book, they struggled to decide which books to include written by prolific authors such as Warren Bennis, Clayton Christensen, Peter Drucker, James Kouzes and Barry Posener, C.K. Prahalad, and Noel Tichy. I am curious to know why they include Billy Beane's Moneyball instead of Thomas Davenport's Competing on Analytics, Po Bronson's What Should I Do with My Life? instead of Benjamin Franklin's Autobiography or James O'Toole's Creating the Good Life, and Annette Simmons' The Story Factor but none of Stephen Denning's books, notably The Leader's Guide to Storytelling and/or The Secret Language of Leadership? And why include none of the books written by others such as Joel Barker (Paradigms), Kenneth Blanchard (The One Minute Manager, with Spencer Johnson), William Bridges (Transitions), Henry Chesbrough (Open Innovation), Eric Drexler (Engines of Creation), Howard Gardner (Multiple Intelligences), Bill George (True North), Jason Jennings (Think Big, Act Small), Jon Katzenbach (The Wisdom of Teams), Philip Kotler (Marketing Management), Thomas Kuhn (The Structure of Scientific Revolutions), David Ogilvy (On Advertising), Michael Ray (Creativity in Business), and Joseph Schumpeter (Capitalism, Socialism, and Democracy)?

That said, I think Covert and Sattersten have created an invaluable single source of information, especially given the fact that 11,000 business books were published in the United States in 2007 and, when I last checked, more than 1.9-million business books are now offered by Amazon, including more than 267,000 in the "business management" category. The material is carefully organized within 12 sections, each devoted to a theme: You (The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People among the books discussed), Leadership (The Leadership Challenge), Strategy (Good to Great), Sales and Marketing (the selections including Positioning are fine but why not Theodore Levitt's The Marketing Imagination also?), Rules and Scorekeeping (The Balanced Scorecard), Management (The Essential Drucker), Biographies (My Years with General Motors), Entrepreneurship (The Monk and the Riddle), Narratives (The Force, a brilliant choice), Innovation and Creativity (The Art of Innovation), Big Ideas (Made to Stick), and Takeaways (The Lexus and the Olive Tree).

I especially appreciate the inclusion of "Sidebars" throughout the book. For example Business Books for Kids of All Ages (Page 34), Leadership in Movies (Page 46 but what about Fort Apache, Paths of Glory, and Twelve O'Clock High?), The Best Route to an Idea (Page 77), Learn from Experience (Page 81), Selling on the Silver Screen (Page 120 and the five choices are excellent but where's The Producers?), Classics (Page 200), Found in Fiction (Page 247), Fresh Perspectives Not in a Bookstore Near You (Page 282), and Readers' Poll (Page 307). In "The Last Word," Covert and Sattersten invite their readers to visit 100bestbiz.com for more information about all of the books discussed, including chapter excerpts, interviews with authors, videos about the books, and more. I also highly recommend signing up for the 800-CEO-READ Blog (bloggers@800ceoread.com) which provides daily updates of various kinds.

As previously indicated, I am among those who question many of the selections and especially, several omissions. So what? After reading this book, just for the fun of it, I compiled my own list and even devised a few "Sidebars." Perhaps others will also come up with their own list. There are several on Jack Covert and Todd Sattersten's list that I have not as yet read or last read decades ago. After reading or re-reading them, perhaps I'll change my mind. In any event, I enjoyed reading this book and am grateful for the enlightenment and entertainment it provides as well as for its capacity for thought-provocation. Now that it has been published, let the disagreements begin!

I'd like this book even more if I wasn't in it
It's a little awkward to recommend a book where the authors are generous to you, but for a moment, let's pretend they are not.

If you own a Zagats restaurant guide, it probably means you care about the food you eat.

You need to buy this book if you care about the work you do.

Even better than a restaurant guide, this book will actually feed your head. The summaries are first rate, their enthusiasm is palpable and you'll learn something on every single page.

I know, I'm biased. But I'm sitting here making a fool of myself for a reason--you need to read more business books! This is a great place to start.

Frustrating morsels
This is a decently organized collection of business books but it left me frustrated.

I wanted to learn the key ideas in these 100 books and this book did not provide it. That is my main criticism. I am just not that interested in learning how "refreshing" the style of writing is or in reading commentary on how clever the author was.

So, if you think that you are going to get summaries and distillations of the ideas from these 100 books then you are mostly mistaken. I say mostly because there are indeed a few (a very few) morsels provided in each review. However, all too often the review just says something like "the author then provides 8 ideas that you should consider in setting up your business", but you don't get to learn what those 8 ideas are! Down with fluffy teasers.

I also wish the collection did not restrict itself only to relatively contemporary works. That is like saying music should only be understood by looking at everything from the Beatles on. Don't get me wrong: I love the Beatles but what about Bach? Frederick Taylor's views of the employee may be old but it still provides insight into how a sizeable portion of businesses are still being run around the world today ... not to mention that it gives us a context for understanding how we got to where we are right now.

In fairness, there are a number of "pop numbers" that I would have never learned about if not for this book. So, I feel the authors do a credible job of surveying and presenting fresh options based on contemporary (e.g. humanitarian) business values and trends.

If you like this book you probably owe it to yourself to broaden your list a little. There are a lot of "best business" lists out there. For example, Fortune Magazine has a nice list called the "75 Smartest Books We Know".

After going through this book, the Fortune list and numerous other "best business" lists, my favorite "best of business" source remains "The Best Business Books Ever: The 100 Most Influential Business Books You'll Never Have Time to Read". That one, too, has its share of problems but, in my opinion, it provides less pop numbers but more meat and more context.