If you buy management books online, you have probably encountered Robert Morris, a Texas-based management consultant with a background in business, education, and government. Morris is an Amazon Top 10 reviewer (so voted by customers who have found his comments helpful) and one of very few among that august company who focus almost exclusively on business books. Morris estimates that he has read more than 1,500 management tomes and reviewed more than 900 for Amazon and other Web sites. (He says that Peter Drucker once complimented his reviews for not giving away the plot.) And while such voracious consumption helps Morris in his business, it is chiefly a labor of love. “I just finished Juice and Managing for the Long Run,” the critic recently enthused. “Who wouldn’t get excited about books like those?” How do you decide which books are worth your time? The best management writers ask an important question and answer it with solid research. Jim Collins asks, “How can a good company become a great company?” Jason Jennings asks, “What traits do America’s best-performing companies share?” When I pick up a book, I expect the introduction to tell me what question the author intends to answer. Then I look at what is emphasized—usually in boldface or italics—to see whether the author stays focused on that question. I also appreciate it when the author explains how the book is organized, because that affects how easy it is to assimilate the information. And I want to know which companies were studied. You read so much; isn’t a lot of the material redundant? Yes, but I am constantly amassing pieces of a larger picture. Jack Welch, for example, has explained why he admires small businesses: They communicate better internally, they move faster, they are less bureaucratic, and the leaders have less camouflage—all of which rings true. Then you read in Michael Gerber’s E-Myth Mastery that out of 1 million U.S. small businesses started in 2005, more than 80% will be gone within five years and 96% in ten. Together, those thinkers give me two pieces of the puzzle. I better understand the advantages small businesses have. And I have learned that few know how to achieve—and then sustain—those advantages. As many management ideas have come to naught, have you become more cynical or cautious? I am more cautious about extravagant claims, not so much because the theories are problematic but because the content rarely supports them. Also, I keep in mind that the biggest ideas are often still wet behind the ears when they debut. Years after publishing Reengineering the Corporation, Michael Hammer is still correcting misunderstandings and clarifying key points. Many other important ideas such as EVA, the total learning organization, the Balanced Scorecard, customer evangelism, and experiential marketing have spawned cottage industries to refine, improve, and fill in the gaps of the original idea. Any tips for getting the most from a business book? My favorite strategy is to convert the table of contents into a study guide. That is, look at the chapter titles: What questions do they address? Then make sure you get the answers. So, for example, I created a study guide for Seeing What’s Next by Clayton Christensen, Scott Anthony, and Erik Roth. And as I read, I asked myself, “What are the signals of change?” “How do you size up competitors?” and “Which nonmarket forces affect innovation?” Such questions guide me to the answers. What are your favorite management books? Some books have hit me like a revelation: for example, Jeffrey Pfeffer and Robert Sutton’s analysis of the “knowing-doing gap,” Malcolm Gladwell on intuitive decision-making, and Emanuel Rosen on “buzz.” There are also classics I re-read every year: Joel Mokyr’s The Lever of Riches, Thomas Kuhn’s The Structure of Scientific Revolutions, Peter Drucker’s On the Profession of Management, Eric Drexler’s Engines of Creation, and Albert Borgmann’s Holding On to Reality. I also strongly recommend that leaders read The Iliad and The Odyssey, Antigone, the four Gospels and St. Paul’s letters to the Corinthians, Julius Caesar,The Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin, Walden, To Kill a Mockingbird, Death of a Salesman, The Crucible, and The Heart Aroused. Books such as these really do change lives!
