Top Business Books We Recommend


 The Innovator's Dilemma by Clayton Christensen describes the concept of disruptive technologies and illustrates how companies need to think in order to redefine their competitive landscape. Christensen shows how innovative products cut into the low end of the marketplace and eventually evolve to displace high-end competitors and their reigning technologies.  This book also describes novel solutions for anticipating change in the markets. Crossing The Chasm: Marketing and Selling Disruptive Products to Mainstream Customers by Geoffrey Moore is a classic, must-read book for anyone responsible for introducing high tech products to market.  The Technology Adoption Life Cycle reveals how to target specific segments of the population based on their interest in adopting new technologies, rather than marketing directly to mainstream consumers.
 
Good to Great by Jim Collins gives readers a behind-the-scenes look at 11 highly-successful companies. Collins uses these examples to illustrate the Hedgehog Concept which is when a company creates a product or service that leads it to outshine its competitors while at the same time driving its economic engine. Other findings in the book regarding "Getting the Right People on the Bus" and humility in leaders are well worth reflecting upon.


We also highly recommend Blue Ocean Strategy by W. Chan Kim and Renee Mauborgne.  Unlike "red oceans," which are well explored and crowded with competitors, "blue oceans" represent "untapped market space" and the "opportunity for highly profitable growth.  Applying the concept of blue oceans is fundamental to achieving innovation in an organization. Our Iceberg Is Melting by John Kotter takes the complex concept of change and makes it understandable and meaningful through an enchanting fable. The book is useful to kickoff a major change effort, and can serve as a springboard for group discussions about corporate culture, group dynamics and the challenges of change. Traditional marketing and PR gurus who aren't yet up to speed on social media should read The New Rules of Marketing & PR by David Scott. It spells out in easy-to-understand format the benefits of communicating with customers and key stakeholders using tools such as blogs, podcasts, RSS feeds, and it provides some simple techniques for getting started.   



Strengths-Based Leadership by Tom Rath and Barry Conchie is an excellent book that helps leaders identify and understand their top five strenghts. It also provides detailed advice on the best ways for using these strengths to meet an organization's needs in the context of four Leadership Domains within a team: Strategic Thinking, Relationship Building, Influencing, and Executing. The 22 Immutable Laws of Marketing by Al Ries & Jack Trout is an all-time classic in the marketing field.  Not only does it contain highly-readable, business anecdotes, but the 22 laws it spells out are essential ideas in the marketing discipline.  Corporate executives and entrepreneurs alike should make sure this book is in their library.  Marketing High Technology by William Davidow is a marvellous book which should be required reading for everyone in the high-tech marketplace. The business theories and corresponding marketing models are highly-relevant today even though they were developed when Davidow was at Intel marketing chips.  The premise that engaging competitors is like warfare should resonate with every marketer.   




The Five Dysfunctions of a Team is an interesting, easy-to-read fictional story about a Silicon Valley company in a turnaround situation. At the heart of the book is a description of the five dysfunctions of a team(absence of trust, fear of conflict, lack of commitment, avoidance of accountability, and inattention to results), and a compelling model to address these dysfunctions.  This model maps closely to Antiphony's approach to team building.