Showing items tagged with "Clayton Christensen" - 1 found.
Our book shelf is bulging with books collected over the last thirty years. What is interesting is how many new books are like old wine in new bottles. Few truly ground breaking books have been published in the last few years, possible exceptions being Thomas Piketty’s Capital in the 21st Century. Instead of buying any new books over the past few months we have been re-reading some golden oldies. Here is our pick of the top five. If you have not read them, they should be on your holiday reading list.
- The 7 habits of Highly Effective People by Stephen Covey. Covey helps you understand yourself, your goals and the world within which you operate. He provides templates and guidelines to enable you to build on your strengths and overcome your weaknesses which may be holding you back.
- The Innovator’s Dilemma by Clayton Christensen. Christensen demonstrates how a new unforeseen technology break through can knock existing established players out of the game. Written 1997 it is still highly relevant. Witness the demise of the Blackberry when the iPhone arrived.
- The Dilbert Principle by Scott Adams. It will keep you sane and make you laugh in these trying times when the news is all doom and gloom.
- The Age of Unreason by Charles Handy. First published in 1989, it remains the bible for anyone who wants to understand organisational culture, how they work and change how to flourish in the different types of culture.
- Competitive Strategy by Michael Porter. First published in 1980 it provides a simple but fundamental five point model to identify an organisation’s strengths and weaknesses and how they can be used to gain and maintain competitive advantage. Thirty years on it remains unsurpassed in the insight it provides into the core principle of creating organisational competitive strategy. Unless of course an unknown innovator comes along but if you read Competitive Strategy you might be able to pre-empt them.
What are your golden oldies?
Tags: Books of note, Charles Handy, Clayton Christensen, Michael Porter, Scott Adams, Stephen Covey
