Recently, I was asked: “What’s your favorite business book of all time?”. I thought about this for a long time before I finally came to the realization that I couldn’t come up with just a single book. So while it’s probably a cop out, here are my top three business books and the reasons why I recommend them.
Mastering the Rockefeller Habits by Verne Harnish
If you are a business leader and you haven’t heard of Verne Harnish, you should add him to your list of people to follow. I was introduced to this book very early in my career at PTG and it shaped our business planning process. There are countless people who have used his methodology to rapidly grow their businesses. The book is an “easy” read – but not because the topics aren’t deeply discussed. On the contrary, I found it easy to read because Verne lays out an exact blueprint to follow. Verne has since published Scaling Up, which is basically the replacement to Mastering the Rockefeller Habits. You can’t go wrong with either one – but Mastering is my favorite. So much so that we gave copies to all of our customers for Christmas a few years back.
Simple Numbers, Straight Talk, Big Profits! by Greg Crabtree
I am a data and numbers junkie. In my next life I would love to come back as a financial analyst. Crabtree’s book spoke to me about the key financial levers I should be watching to make sure the business was running efficiently. I won’t spoil it here, but he outlines 4 things that you should be watching to impact your business. A small teaser: He uses a “Salary Cap” methodology that we use at PTG to help us determine how, when, and how much to hire. This is a great book for start-ups and established businesses as well.
The One Page Marketing Plan by Allan Dib
Right after finance, sales and marketing is next on my list of favorite things to study. There are some really great marketing books (Building Your StoryBrand by Donald Miller is a must read and was also a customer Christmas gift) and some really bad marketing books. Dib’s book on marketing simplifies the art and science of marketing onto a single page. Following the process outlined in this book, you can distill your entire marketing plan into 9 simple boxes. If you are further along in your marketing journey, this probably isn’t the right book for you. But if you are just getting started with marketing – this is where you need to start!
There you have it – those are my favorite business books! Full disclosure: I reserve the right to update this list at any time as I am constantly reading.
RW
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