Folks
Below you'll find our group's book recommendations and the latest list
from the Kauffman Foundation.
Happy reading!
- Betsy Campbell
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Harvard Alumni Startups' Members suggest:
Ambient Findability
Anyone Can Do It
The Art of the Start
The Art of War
Before You Quit Your Job – 10 Real-Life Lessons Every Entrepreneur
Should Know About Building a Multimillion-Dollar Business
Ben and Jerry’s Double Dip
Beyond the Core: Expand Your Market Without Abandoning Your Roots
Bootstrapper's Bible
Confidence
Crossing the Chasm
Dr. Deming: The American Who Taught the Japanese About Quality
Difficult Conversations: How to Discuss What Matters Most
Effective Executive
Endurance
Entrepreneur's Magazine's Start Up Guide
The Essential Drucker: The Best of Sixty Years of Peter Drucker's
Essential Writings on Management
The Fifth Discipline
The Future of Ideas: The Fate of the Commons in a Connected World
Future Perfect
The Goal
Good to Great
The Good Life
Growing a Business
How to Read a Financial Report: Wringing Vital Signs Out of the Numbers
(How to Read a Financial Report)
How to Stop Worrying and Start Living
How to Win Friends and Influence People
Influence: Science and Practice
Innovation and Entrepreneurship
The Intelligent Investor
Judgment under Uncertainty
Leading Teams
Leading Quietly: An Unorthodox Guide to Doing the Right Thing
The Long Tail: Why the Future of Business is Selling Less of More
Long Walk to Freedom
Lucky or Smart?: Secrets to an Entrepreneurial Life
Making a Living Without a Job
Mastery: The Keys to Success and Long-Term Fulfillment
The Money Game
Money Hunt
The Mythical Man-Month
Never Eat Alone
New Venture Creation
No B.S. Time Management for Entrepreneurs:
On a Clear Day You Can See General Motors
Orbiting the Giant Hairball
The Portable MBA, 4th Edition
Rich Dad, Poor Dad: What the Rich Teach Their Kids About Money--That the
Poor and Middle Class Do Not!
Rules for Revolutionaries
The Sales Bible
Secrets of Attila the Hun
Security Analysis
Seven habits of highly effective people.
The Small Business Startup Kit
SPIN Selling
Things Fall Apart
Tipping Point
Tital
Up the Organization
Why?
Why Nothing Works
The Kauffman Foundation suggests:
/*The Entrepreneurial Imperative: How America’s Economic Miracle Will
Reshape the World – And Change Your Life*/
*Carl J. Schramm* (Harper Collins, 2006)
This book comes to us from Carl Schramm, president of the Kauffman
Foundation. If you’re looking for one book that lays it all it out in
one place on the important question of why entrepreneurship matters,
start here. While lauding America’s nurturing environment for
entrepreneurship, Schramm puts the challenge out to us all to be more
entrepreneurial. Not only is it his passionate goal to see a greater
expansion of start-ups domestically and globally, he feels the promotion
of entrepreneurial capitalism is a key formula for bringing about peace,
prosperity, and stability in the world. The Economist didn’t call
Schramm the “evangelist of entrepreneurship
”
for nothing.
------------------------------------------------------------------------
/*The Success Effect: Uncommon Conversations with America’s Business
Trailblazers*/
*John Eckberg* (Sterling & Ross, 2006)
John Eckberg sticks to his journalistic roots with this effort,
providing fast-moving Q&A snapshots with more than 40 entrepreneurs and
innovators. The Cincinnati Equirer business columnist shares insights
from a wide range of individuals, including household names like Donald
Trump, Deepak Chopra, Jerry Springer and Cincinnati Bengals coach,
Marvin Lewis. The book also includes a conversation titled ‘Risk’ with
Tami Longaberger, head of the Longaberger Company and chair of the
National Women’s Business Council. Eckberg even offers a glimpse at the
personalities behind the names, sharing their “books on the nightstand”
and “CDs in the changer.”
------------------------------------------------------------------------
/*The Starfish and the Spider: The Unstoppable Power of Leaderless
Organizations*/
*Ori Brafman and Rod Beckstrom* (Portfolio Hardcover, 2006)
You can’t kill a starfish by chopping off a tentacle; it simply grows a
new one. That’s the metaphor driving this argument for the power of
decentralized organizations. The authors examine many cases of
decentralized firms, like eBay, Craigslist, and Napster. They use these
examples to argue that decentralized leadership based on peer networking
can help foster more creative, flexible, and innovative organizations.
------------------------------------------------------------------------
*/Economic Turbulence: Is a Volatile Economy Good for America?/*
*Clair Brown, John Haltiwanger and Julia Lane* (University of Chicago
Press, 2006).
In some ways, economic turbulence is a clear by-product of an
entrepreneurial economy. As entrepreneurs wreak creative destruction,
other firms are closed and people are put out of work. This book takes a
deeper look at the process: how volatile is the US economy and is this a
good thing? The authors don’t sugarcoat the costs of volatility, but
they conclude that our economy is stronger, more flexible, and more
innovative because of such churn. The study is data-driven (based on new
Census Bureau data sets), but don’t let that scare you away. It’s a good
read with lots of compelling information.
------------------------------------------------------------------------
*/Mellon: An American Life/*
*David Cannadine* (Knopf, 2006)
The old so-called “Robber Barons” are generating a lot of interest these
days. In the past few years, we’ve seen new biographies of Rockefeller,
Morgan, Carnegie (see more below), and now Andrew Mellon. While many
have heard of Mellon, his exploits are probably less well-known than his
fellow industrialists. Instead of building a steel or oil empire, Mellon
made his money in more modern way—in the real estate and financial
sectors. Mellon also engaged in the world of politics, and served as
Treasury Secretary under three Administrations (Harding, Coolidge, and
Hoover). We can also thank Mellon for the National Gallery of Art, which
was built around his private art collection.
------------------------------------------------------------------------
*/Dynasties: Fortunes and Misfortunes of the World’s Great Family
Businesses/*
*David Landes* (Viking Adult, 2006)
When we think about entrepreneurship, we often fail to think about the
importance of family-owned businesses. When we consider these
family-owned firms, we often picture the classic small Mom-and-Pop
operation. Yet, many family owned firms were and are world-class
operations. After all, Ford, Toyota, and Morgan all started as family
enterprises. Landes, a renowned economic historian, is a big fan of
family enterprises. He argues that these firms perform better in the
market, and in terms of supporting employees, than do firms run by
professional managers and outsiders. The book covers the landscape of
family business dynasties going back to the 17th century, and includes
lots of great stories and vignettes.
------------------------------------------------------------------------
/*Purpose: The Starting Point of Great Companies*/
*Nikos Mourkogiannis* (Palgrave MacMillan, 2006)
For Mourkogiannis, purpose is your “moral DNA,” i.e. what you believe at
your core. He contends that great companies, just like great people, are
built on a strong sense of purpose. The book profiles five
entrepreneurs—Henry Ford, Sam Walton, Warren Buffett, Thomas Watson, and
Siegmund Warburg---who used their purpose to innovate and build
world-class companies. The bottom line is that successful entrepreneurs
should not make a choice between their values and success.
------------------------------------------------------------------------
*/Andrew Carnegie/*
*David Nasaw* (Penguin Press, 2006)
Andrew Carnegie’s legacy is two-fold. As an entrepreneur, he built US
Steel and one of the world’s greatest fortunes. After this feat, he
revolutionized the world of philanthropy and his impact is still felt
today. This massive biography (weighing in at over 800 pages) tells the
complete story of Carnegie and his impact on his times.
------------------------------------------------------------------------
/*Outside Innovation: How Your Customers Will Co-Design Your Company’s
Future*/
*Patricia Seybold* (Collins, 2006)
Seybold is a customer relations guru. Her new book follows on recent
research (e.g. see Eric Von Hippel’s Democratizing Innovation) that
describes and recommends an innovation process where ideas and inputs
come from multiple points in the process. Seybold calls for intense
customer engagement: encouraging passionate and knowledgeable customers
to engage in produce and service design. As the book notes, you no
longer win by hiring the smartest scientists or engineers. You win by
engaging the smartest customers.
------------------------------------------------------------------------
*/Mavericks at Work: Why the Most Original Minds in Business Win/*
*William C. Taylor and Polly G. LeBarre* (William Morrow, 2006)
Taylor is a co-founder of Fast Company magazine and LeBarre is a
long-time editor there. So it’s no stretch for them to write a book
about mavericks in the business world. And, if you like Fast Company,
you’ll like this book, too. The book profiles a number of fascinating
businesses and entrepreneurs, such as Cirque de Soleil, Commerce Bank,
Anthropologie, and Craigslist, and offers a set of lessons learned. They
might be summarized in this way: be passionate, be original and be true
to yourself.
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*/Untapped: Creating Value in Underserved Markets/*
*John Weiser, Michele Kahane, Steve Rochlin, and Jessica Landis*
(Berret-Koehler, 2006)
This book mines the same vein as Prahalad’s Fortune at the Bottom of the
Pyramid. It argues that too many corporations are failing to
aggressively target low-income customers. Untapped focuses on this
market in the US, with particular emphasis on inner-city locations and
the growing Latino population. The book includes case studies as well as
tips for how to enter and succeed in these emerging markets.
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