Of the many books I sampled this year, the one that most impressed me was The Snowball: Warren Buffett and The Business of Life.
It was compelling - mesmerizing actually - despite its hefty 838 pages of text. It was intelligent, clearly written and easy to read. I admired the author, analyst-turned-writer Alice Schroeder, for her diligence, deft flair with words and storytelling ability.
But I'm not picking it as the best book of the year.
In these columns, I try to share ideas and tips that can be put to good use in your career. And while there were certainly useful ideas on investing and business in The Snowball, I felt it was outclassed by two other books that were also intelligent, clearly written, easy-to-read, and compelling - as well as loaded with management advice.
These were Billion Dollar Lessons by consultants Paul Carroll and Chunka Mai, and Stall Points by Matthew Olsen and Derek Van Bever of Corporate Executive Board.
Both books also share another attribute: They are about what can go wrong in your business, and how to avoid the potential problem or fix it should it occur.
In the end, I leaned to Billion Dollar Lessons as the top business book of the year, because some of the pitfalls it illuminated stem from strategy that is widely accepted and can prove dangerously flawed.
Here is the top 10:
1 Billion Dollar Lessons
by Paul Carroll
and Chunka Mai (Portfolio)
The authors' study of colossal business failure found that strategy was invariably the cause. They pinpoint seven popular strategies that can lead a company off the rails: Foolhardy pursuit of synergy, financial engineering, rollups of mom and pop operations, steadfastly refusing to switch from a misguided course, moving into an adjacent market, riding the wrong new technology, and consolidation. The list is a catalogue of strategies that companies are routinely urged to follow and that can work - but also can lead to disaster. The authors provide sobering examples of failed companies as well as tough questions to ask when considering any of these strategies.
2
Stall Points
by Matthew Olsen
and Derek Van Bever
(Yale University Press)
This book looks at the near inevitability of fast-growing companies hitting a period where they unexpectedly stall and, if they aren't careful, crash. "It is common to stall, it is hard to see a stall coming, and it is extremely hard to recover from a stall," the authors state. "In fact, companies that did not recover quickly face long odds at returning to a sustainable growth track. Ever." Their research identified 42 root causes of stalls, but found that four categories accounted for more than half the swoons: Premium price position captivity, breakdown in innovation management, premature core abandonment, and talent bench shortfalls. The book offers advice on how to avoid, or minimize, these perilous plunges.
3
Change The Way You Lead
by David Herold
and Donald Fedor
(Stanford Business Books)
The writing in this book was stilted but I'm still placing it above The Snowball because change is so difficult for organizations to get right and the perspective in this book might help you. While many "change" books - notably the work of John Kotter - focus on how to lead change, these authors argue that you also need to think through carefully what needs to be changed and in what way, who is involved in the effort as leaders and followers, and the context in which it is happening. That seems obvious, but the book deserves attention because it integrates those issues with the matter of leading change. Mr. Kotter has a good book out this year, too, A Sense of Urgency (Harvard Business Press), that expands on his thinking and fans will relish, but Change the Way You Lead is the better buy.
4
The Snowball
by Alice Schroeder (Bantam)
