The 100 Best Business Books of All Time

5-4-3, An E-Book Recommending Business Books

2012-01-03T16:11:25Z

Five years ago, we chose The 100 Best Business Books of All Time. Since then, thousands of business books have been published.

Today we are presenting a new ebook, 5-4-3, to celebrate the paperback version of The 100 Best, now available digitally and updated with expanded reviews, new informative sidebars, a fresh introduction, and a closing manifesto.

In 5-4-3, we chose four books from each year since completing The 100 Best that are worthy of your time and suggest three ways you can experience each of them.

The 100 Best and 5-4-3 are the perfect pairing to inspire yourself and others in the new year.

Enjoy, and thank you!

Jack Covert & Todd Sattersten

CONTACT US

2008-10-27T01:03:27Z

We'd love to hear from you.

Jack and Todd
Jack is available at jack (at) 800ceoread (dot) com.
You’ll find Todd at todd (dot) sattersten (at) gmail (dot) com.

Media Requests
Find the latest coverage of The 100 Best here. Any media requires can be directed to Barbara Cave Henricks at barbara (at) cavehenricks.com.

Events
Interested in an event? Find details here. And drop Jon a note, jon (at) 800ceoread (dot) com.

MEDIA

2008-10-27T00:38:25Z

Who's talking about The 100 Best...

Kevin Kelly's Cool Tools:"Best Biz Advice Source" (3/19/10)
"A triumph of good intent" - ReportOnBusiness (5/13/09)
"Good Gurus Never Get Old" - Financial Post (4/3/09)
"Add These Books To Your Reading List" - Machinery Lubrication (March 2009)
"Review of Bo Peabody's Lucky or Smart" - Official Buziness (3/26/09)
Review at Author Exposure (3/24/09)
Review by John Spence (3/23/09)
"Entrepreneurship: Start It Up!" - SmallBizTimes (3/20/09)
"Business Books I'd Like To Read" - Entrepreneur.com (3/5/09)
"10 Tips From The Best In Business" - Fortune (2/25/09)
Interview on BlogTalkRadio with Zane Safrit (2/25/09)
The 100 Best Business Books of All Time - Rothacker Reviews (2/23/09)
Learning From Heroes - Harvard Business Review (2/19/09).
The Online Photographer (2/19/09).
Michael Fitzgerald at BNET (2/18/09).
Brian Moore at the New York Post (2/16/2009).
Mike Kanazawa at Big Ideas to Big Results (2/16/09).
One of Tom Peters' Cool Friends (2/12/09).
Andrea Useem at The Washington Post (2/12/09).
John Moore at Brand Autopsy (2/10/09).
Dan Heath at Made to Stick (2/9/09)
Mark Graban at Lean Blog (2/9/09)
Kai Ryssdal at NPR Marketplace (2/8/09).
Michael Fitzgerald at BNET (2/5/09).
Seth Godin on his blog (2/8/09).
Harvey Mackay at The Arizona Republic (2/8/09).
Geeta Sharma-Jensen at The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel (2/7/09).
ChangeThis (2/5/09).
John Forrister at The David Allen Company (2/5/09; register to access site).
Daniel Akst at CNNMoney.com (2/5/09).
Matthew May at Elegant Solutions (2/4/09).
Lisa Haneberg at Management Craft (2/4/09).
Andrea Learned at Learned On... (2/2/09).
Gloria McDonough-Taub at CNBC (1/30/09).
Hardy Green at BusinessWeek (1/29/09).
Eddie Evans at Reuters (1/29/09).
McLoughlin At Work at Web Talk Radio (1/29/09).
Michelle Kerns at Examiner.com (1/26/09).
Greg Hack at Kansas City Star (1/26/09).
Listed in CIO Insight's top 15 books to read (1/09).
Maureen Mackey at Reader's Digest (1/16/09).
Steve Jagler at Small Business Times (12/15/08) .
Mark Howell at Strategic Central (12/11/08).
Andy Sernovitz at Damn! I Wish I'd Thought of That! (11/26/08).
Jackie Blais over at CEO Update.
Matt Kinsey of Ad Age looks forward to future reading.

Media-related questions?
Talk to Barbara Henricks of Cave Henricks Communications, barbara (at) cavehenricks.com.

To help spread the word, a few tools..

The press kit.
Photos: Jack and Todd (both). Jack and Todd (individually).
Credit to Kat Berger.
The cover of The 100 Best Business Books of All Time.
The list of The 100 Best books in .CSV format.

For booksellers and authors...

Use this emblem to promote books in The 100 Best on your website, book designs, and wherever else you like.
For booksellers, here's a Shelf Talker for your business section and here's the list of the 100 books with their ISBNs.

THE 100 BEST STORE

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Welcome to the 100 Best Store. Here you can find everything related to The 100 Best. To buy a copy (or several) of The 100 Best, go to:

800-CEO-READ
Barnes & Noble
Amazon
IndieBound, to buy through your local independent bookstore

BUY THE DIGITAL BOOK!
For your Kindle.
For your Nook.
Adobe Reader
ePub eBook

BUY THE AUDIO BOOK!
To download the book in audio format, visit the book's page on Audible.com.

BOOKS IN THE 100 BEST
To buy one of the books featured in The 100 Best, you can find the list here.

THE 100 BEST LOOT
A little bit of loot for a whole lot of books.

Posters
Alongside The 100 Best, we commissioned four of our favorite artists to create posters for The 100 Best. Each poster revolves around a different theme: Drive Pushes, Passion Pulls; Manage Actions, Not Time; Every Industry is Ripe for Reinvention; Be Remarkable. You can also buy all four as a set.

Enjoy! And thank you for stopping by.

Can't find something? Give us a ring. Happy to help. 800-236-7323.

EVENTS

2008-10-27T00:14:14Z

The tour has begun! We're traveling around the country to talk about business books as solutions. Sitting at the educational crossroads of “I know nothing about this” and “Let’s hire a consultant,” good business books contain a high value proposition for twenty dollars and two hours of your attention. We believe business books can change your life, if you let them.

So far, we've visited the folks at Stone Creek Coffee, Northwestern Mutual, Stanford University, Harvard University, CEO Clubs - Dallas, and Lamplight Farms. Check out a bit of the speech here. If you'd like us to come speak to your organization or would like more details about a specific event, drop Jon a note, jon (at) 800ceoread.com.

Here's what's up next. If you're in the area, please join us and say hello.

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TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 15th, 2009, 7pm
Kenosha Public Library - Kenosha, WI
7979 38th Avenue
Kenosha, WI

Author talk and book signing.

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BOOKS IN THE 100 BEST

2008-10-27T00:04:10Z

All the books in the 100 best, separated by chapter.

You
Improving your life, your person and your strengths.

Flow by Mihaly Csikzentmihalyi
Getting Things Done by David Allen (also available in CD and audio)
The Effective Executive by Peter Drucker
How to Be a Star at Work by Robert E. Kelley
The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People by Stephen R. Covey (also available in audio)
How to Win Friends & Influence People by Dale Carnegie (also available in audio)
Swim with the Sharks Without Being Eaten Alive by Harvey B. Mackay
The Power of Intuition by Gary Klein
What Should I Do with My Life? by Po Bronson (also available in audio)
Oh, the Places You’ll Go by Dr. Seuss/Theodore Geisel (also available in audio)
Chasing Daylight by Eugene O'Kelly

- - - - - - - - -

Leadership
Inspiration. Challenge. Courage. Change.

On Becoming a Leader by Warren Bennis
The Leadership Moment by Michael Useem
The Leadership Challenge by James M. Kouzes and Barry Z. Posner (also available in CD)
Leadership Is an Art by Max De Pree (also available in CD and audio)
The Radical Leap by Steve Farber
Control Your Destiny or Someone Else Will by Tichy and Sherman (also available in CD)
Leading Change by John P. Kotter (also available in CD and audio)
Questions of Character by Joseph L. Badaracco, Jr.
The Story Factor by Annette Simmons
Never Give In! Speeches by Winston Churchill (also available in audio)

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Strategy
Eight organizational blueprints from which to draft your own.

In Search of Excellence by Thomas J. Peters and Robert H. Waterman, Jr.
Good to Great by Jim Collins
The Innovator’s Dilemma by Clayton M. Christensen (also available in audio)
Only the Paranoid Survive by Andrew S. Grove
Who Says Elephants Can’t Dance? by Louis V. Gerstner, Jr. (also available in audio)
Discovering the Soul of Service by Leonard Berry
Execution by Larry Bossidy and Ram Charan (also available in CD and audio)
Competing for the Future by Gary Hamel and C. K. Prahalad

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Sales and Marketing
Approaches and pitfalls in the ongoing process of creating customers.

Influence by Robert B. Cialdini, PhD
Positioning by Al Ries and Jack Trout
A New Brand World by Scott Bedbury with Stephen Fenichell
Selling the Invisible by Harry Beckwith (also available in CD and audio)
Zag by Marty Neumeier
Crossing the Chasm by Geoffrey A. Moore
Secrets of Closing the Sale by Zig Ziglar (also available in CD and audio)
How to Become a Rainmaker by Jeffrey J. Fox (also available in CD and audio)
Why We Buy by Paco Underhill (also available in audio)
The Experience Economy by B. Joseph Pine II and James H. Gilmore (also available in audio)
Purple Cow by Seth Godin (also available in audio)
The Tipping Point by Malcolm Gladwell (also available in CD and audio)

- - - - - - - - -

Rules and Scorekeeping
The all-important numbers behind the game.

Naked Economics by Charles Wheelan
Financial Intelligence by Karen Berman and Joe Knight
The Balanced Scorecard by Robert S. Kaplan and David P. Norton

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Management
Guiding and directing the people around you.

The Essential Drucker by Peter Drucker
Out of the Crisis by W. Edwards Deming
Toyota Production System by Taiichi Ohno (also available in CD)
Reengineering the Corporation by Michael Hammer and James Champy
The Goal by Eliyahu M. Goldratt and Jeff Cox (also available in CD and audio)
The Great Game of Business by Jack Stack with Bo Burlingham
First, Break all the Rules by Marcus Buckingham and Curt Coffman (also available in CD)
Now, Discover Your Strengths by Buckingham and Clifton (also available in CD)
The Knowing-Doing Gap by Jeffrey Pfeffer and Robert I. Sutton
The Five Dysfunctions of a Team by Patrick Lencioni (also available in audio)
Six Thinking Hats by Edward De Bono

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Biographies
Seven lives. Unlimited lessons.

Titan by Ron Chernow
My Years with General Motors by Alfred P. Sloan, Jr.
The HP Way by David Packard
Personal History by Katharine Graham
Moments of Truth by Jan Carlzon
Sam Walton: Made in America by Sam Walton with John Huey
Losing My Virginity by Richard Branson

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Entrepreneurship
Seven guides to the passion and practicality necessary for any new venture.

The Art of the Start by Guy Kawasaki (also available in CD and audio)
The E-Myth Revisited by Michael E. Gerber (also available in CD and audio)
The Republic of Tea ** by Mel Ziegler, Patricia Ziegler, and Bill Rosenzweig
The Partnership Charter by David Gage
Growing a Business by Paul Hawken
Guerrilla Marketing by Jay Conrad Levinson (also available audio)
The Monk and the Riddle Randy Komisar with Kent Lineback

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Narratives
Six industry tales of both fortune and failure.

McDonald’s: Behind the Arches by John F. Love
American Steel ** by Richard Preston
The Force by David Dorsey
The Smartest Guys in the Room by Bethany McLean and Peter Elkind
When Genius Failed by Roger Lowenstein
Moneyball by Michael Lewis (also available in audio)

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Innovation & Creativity
Insight into the process of developing new ideas.

Orbiting the Giant Hairball by Gordon MacKenzie
The Art of Innovation by Tom Kelley with Jonathan Littman (also available in audio)
Jump Start Your Business Brain by Doug Hall
A Whack on the Side of the Head by Roger Von Oech
The Creative Habit by Twyla Tharp
The Art of Possibility by Rosamund Stone Zander and Benjamin Zander

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Big Ideas
The future of business books lies here.

The Age of Unreason by Charles Handy
Out of Control by Kevin Kelly
The Rise of the Creative Class by Richard Florida
Emotional Intelligence by Daniel Goleman (also available in CD and audio)
Driven by Paul R. Lawrence and Nitin Nohria
To Engineer is Human by Henry Petroski
The Wisdom of Crowds by James Surowiecki (also available in audio)
Made to Stick by Chip Heath and Dan Heath (also available in CD and audio)

- - - - - - - - -

Takeaways
What everyone is looking for.

The First 90 Days by Michael Watkins (also available in CD and audio)
Up the Organization by Robert Townsend
Beyond the Core by Chris Zook
Little Red Book of Selling by Jeffrey Gitomer (also available in CD and audio)
What the CEO Wants You to Know by Ram Charan
The Team Handbook by Peter Scholtes, Brian Joiner, and Barbara Streibel
A Business and Its Belief by Thomas J. Watson, Jr.
Lucky or Smart? by Bo Peabody (also available in audio)
The Lexus and the Olive Tree by Thomas L. Friedman (also available in CD and audio)
Thinkertoys by Michael Michalko
More Than You Know by Michael J. Mauboussin

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** To buy The Republic of Tea, visit their site.
** American Steel is presently out-of-print. Your best bet is to head to your local library.

MEET JACK & TODD

2008-10-26T21:46:40Z

After years of reading, evaluating, and selling business books, Jack Covert and Todd Sattersten are two of the most respected experts on the category.

Meet Jack

Jack is the founder of and chief mentor for 800-CEO-READ, now an independent company, but longtime partner of the Harry W. Schwartz Bookshops. Hired twenty-five years ago by the late David Schwartz to promote business and computer books to the Milwaukee business community, Jack used his considerable sales skills and innate business acumen to grow that 3-shelf business section into a 7 million dollar specialty business book retailer.

How Jack Became the Author of The 100 Best

If you’ve ever met Jack, you’ll know he has a lifetime full of fascinating stories. But he was reluctant to write about them despite being in the book business, happier to drop a good story during a lunch than to put them down on paper. But he began to write book reviews called “Jack Covert Selects,” where each month he would pick the notable business books newly released and write short reviews to be sent to papers around the nation. When Todd Sattersten joined the company, he talked Jack into documenting all that he had learned from reading thousands of business books over the previous twenty-five years.

Meet Todd

Todd currently runs BizBookLab, a company that identifies, develops, and launches business books around the world from Portland, Oregon. Previously, he was president of 800-CEO-READ, spent six years at GE and three years working with his father in the family sheet metal fabrication business. Todd received his BS in mechanical engineering from Michigan Technological University and his MBA from Marquette University.

How Todd Became the Author of The 100 Best

Todd continued writing even after the days of composing term papers and briefs were over. He started a weblog in 2003 called A Penny For…, one of the first business blogs on the internet. This led him to self-publish a compilation of essays from online writers called More Space. Convinced that there are good business books if you know where to find them, he was inspired to team up with Jack to direct interested and curious readers to the best of the best. He strives to become a better writer and has become enamored with the craft.

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Photos thanks to Kat Berger.

ABOUT THE 100 BEST

2008-10-26T21:10:00Z

The updated and expanded version of The 100 Best Business Books of All Time is now available in paperback!

Thousands of business books are published every year. Far too many for any reader to sift through single-handedly. Here are the best of the best.

After years of reading, evaluating, and selling business books, Jack Covert and Todd Sattersten are the most respected experts on the category. Now they have chosen the 100 best business titles of all time - the ones that deliver the biggest payoff for today's busy readers.

The 100 Best puts each book in context, so that readers can quickly find solutions to the problems they face, such as how best to spend The First 90 Days in a new job or how to take their company from Good to Great. Many of the choices are surprising - you’ll find reviews of Moneyball and Orbiting the Giant Hairball, but not Jack Welch’s memoir.

At the end of each review, Jack and Todd direct readers to other books both inside and outside The 100 Best. And sprinkled throughout are sidebars taking the reader beyond business books, suggesting movies, novels, and even children's books that offer equally relevant insights.

This book will appeal to anyone, from entry-level to CEO, who wants to cut through the clutter and discover the brilliant books that are truly worth their investment of time and money.

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Get a feel for the book. Start with the introduction (download the PDF). Then check out a review from both of us:

Jack's review of The Essential Drucker (download the PDF)
Todd's review of To Engineer is Human (download the PDF)

For more on the 100 best books of all time, follow us on our blog.

THE BLOG

2008-10-01T19:30:43Z

Zach Karpinski