Beckwith, Harry, Selling the Invisible, A Field Guide to Modern Marketing
Beckwith shares many great examples of how to go the extra mile in terms of service. The author helps the reader think differently about service and what customers expect.
Blanchard, Ken and Bowles, Sheldon, Raving Fans, A Revolutionary Approach to Customer Service
The authors provide a simple but commonsense approach to customer service. Written as an easy-to-read parable, the story revolves around a golfer and his fairy godmother who guides him through several encounters with outstanding service in a variety of business settings.
Blanchard, Ken, Leadership Smarts, Inspiration and Wisdom from the Heart of a Leader
Leadership Smarts contains approximately one hundred easy to understand quotes with a brief explanation of how to apply each one in everyday life. This book is a quick read that can be finished on even the shortest of plane rides.
Charan, Ram, What the CEO Wants You to Know
Charan captures the essence of what is important when running a business. He does this by cross-referencing his family’s street merchant businesses in India during his formative years.
Charan, Ram, Profitable Growth is Everyone’s Business, 10 Tools You Can Use Monday Morning
This book presents ten easy-to-understand ideas that the author claims the reader can start implementing the day after they are read. Don’t expect anything profound but it is an easy read with some good thoughts
Citrin, James and Smith, Richard, The Five Patterns of Extraordinary Careers, The Guide for Achieving Success and Satisfaction
The five patterns referenced in this book’s title include, Understanding the Value of You, Practice Benevolent Leadership, Overcome the Permission Paradox, Differentiating Using the 20/80 Principle of Performance, and Find the Right Fit. As an added bonus, these authors refer the reader to a Web site that allows the reader to take a test to evaluate their personal performance within the five patterns.
Connellan, Tom, Inside the Magic Kingdom, Seven Keys to Disney’s Success
Connellan writes a nice parable about four executives who visit Disney World in Florida to find the secret of the parks' success. Their Disney Guide introduces them to seven keys that can be used to assist success.
Covey, Stephen R., The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People
If you don’t already know about this book, where have you been? My favorite habit is the fifth. It states, Seek First to Understand, then be Understood. Covey includes several personal stories that bring the book to life.
Covey, Stephen R., The 8th Habit, From Effectiveness to Greatness
Almost twenty years after the first 7 habits, Covey introduces the 8th. It’s about finding your voice and adds nicely to the original.
Friedman, Thomas, The World Is Flat, A Brief History of the Twenty-first Century
The author doesn’t really think the world is flat, but he does shed tremendous insight on how it is shrinking through globalization and new technologies such as the internet. This book includes great stories about India and China. One of its most interesting revelations involves the fact that these countries are now graduating approximately ten times more engineers each year than the United States.
Godin, Seth, Purple Cow
The goal of the Purple Cow is to teach people to seek out and find things that are remarkable. The title parable is based on how boring cows are because they are common and there are millions of them. A purple cow! Now that would be remarkable.
Goldratt, Eliyahu, The Goal
The Goal is a parable about a struggling manufacturing company that has been focusing on efficiencies without really understanding the underlying problems within their manufacturing plant. Enter Jonah, a former professor of the plant’s General Manager. Jonah reminds his student that he should be finding the bottlenecks and constraints if he wants to increase productivity at the plant. Of course, there is a happy ending.
Harry, Mikel and Schroeder, Richard, Six Sigma: The Breakthrough Management Strategy Revolutionizing the World’s Top Corporations
This book introduced the world to the DMAIC (Define, Measure, Analyze, Improve, and Control) method of Six Sigma problem solving
Hutson, Harry and Perry, Barbara, Putting Hope to Work
The authors argue very nicely that optimistic companies are better at Innovation than pessimistic ones.
Johansson, Frans, The Medici Effect, What Elephants and Epidemics can Teach us About Innovation
The Medici Effect focuses on finding the intersection of various ideas that when brought together produce something special. The author illustrates his thoughts with many interesting examples.
Kim, Chan W. and Mauborgne, Renée, Blue Ocean Strategy, How to Create Uncontested Market Space and Make Competition Irrelevant
The main concept of this book is that organizations should be focusing on creating new value rather than continually obsessing about competitors. The title comes from the idea that organizations should seek new oceans to swim in, rather than fighting for scraps in the bloody red ocean of competition.
Maxwell, John C., Running with the Giants, What the Old Testament Heroes want you to know about Life and Leadership
This book provides Maxwell’s view of what some of the greatest leaders in the Bible would advise, if you were privileged enough to have a conversation with them.
McCarty, Tom; Daniels, Lorraine; Bremer, Michael; Gupta, Praveen, The Six Sigma Black Belt Handbook
This book is recommended only as a reference guide for Six Sigma practitioners or people about to introduce continuous improvement to their organization
Nightingale, Earl, Lead the Field
Earl Nightingale is one of the fathers of motivation and Lead the Field contains several worthy nuggets of information for the would-be leader and entrepreneur.
Perkins, Dennis, Leading at the Edge, Leadership Lessons from the Extraordinary Saga of Shackleton’s Antarctic Expedition
Perkins uses a very novel approach to get his message across by reliving the leadership skills of Ernest Shackleton’s nautical adventure to the South Pole
Pink, Daniel, A Whole New Mind, Why Right Brainers will Rule the Future
Pink argues in A Whole New Mind that the future belongs to the creative right-brain thinkers. This is a good thing for the traditional industrial powerhouses of the West because most left-brain jobs are, according to the author, going overseas or being automated.
Rosenfeld, Robert, Making the Invisible Visible,
Rosenfeld covers the human side of Innovation in a completely different but equally compelling way to The Balanced Innovator. He also suggests ways in which companies can organize their Innovation efforts through the use of champions and advocates.
Sanborn, Mark, The Fred Factor, How Passion in your Work and Life can Turn the Ordinary into the Extraordinary
The Fred Factor tells a story of a postal worker named Fred. Fred delivers such great service that the author is compelled to write about the extraordinary levels of service some people seem to deliver naturally.
Sjodin, Terri, New Sales Speak, The 9 Biggest Sales Presentation Mistakes and how to Avoid Them
This author is also one of my favorite speakers. She discusses the nine most common mistakes people make when delivering presentations.
Stacey, Ralph D., Strategic Management and Organizational Dynamics
Stacey was a professor at the University of Hertfordshire when I was studying for my MBA. He has a unique view on chaos and uncertainty that more than pricked my curiosity. This book is a mix of personal views and university text book.
Toler, Stan, Minute Motivators for Leaders, Quick Inspiration for the Time of Your Life
For all the same reasons I recommended Ken Blanchard’s Leadership Smarts, I recommend this book. It is short and simple, combining great quotes with practical advice.
Warren, Rick, The Purpose Driven Life, What on Earth am I Here For
Pastor Rick Warren explains how each of us should live a life of purpose by developing a forty-day plan that creates a personal mission statement for each of our lives. More than one hundred million readers can’t be wrong. The style is easy to read, and the messages are spiritual and inspiring.
So there are my recommendations and a brief synopsis on books that you should add to your list, or you could simply read The Balanced Innovator and start to turn your ideas into reality.
Robert Carter
Robert Carter is a businessman, author, poet, creative innovator, motivational speaker and wannabe rock singer (watch out Simon Cowell). He is the creator of The Balanced Life Personal Development Program. and the author of The Balanced Innovator, Turning Ideas into Reality.
The Balanced Life
The Balanced Innovator
the goal: the goal book
the goal: goal the movie
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