“Summer Bookends” … It’s a good time to pick up two essential reads!
Many of us enjoy the ritual of tucking a set of books in the bag for our summer getaways. For me, the infinity of interesting topics is daunting and exciting to contemplate, focus, decide and then enjoy. If you are in the process of gathering your literary bundle and are sorting out the data within and outside your enterprise, I suggest two bookends for you. I call them bookends, because each, for me, represent as the beginning of two different eras of insight and the exciting hunger they each precipitated. I consider them among my top 10 must reads (for different reasons that I leave for you to discover).
The first is “Managing” written in 1984 by Harold Geneen, the former CEO and Chairman of ITT (ISBN-13: 978-0385174961). It is the seminal text on how to manage an enterprise and may well have many, many years of shelf life to go. It is refreshing, in your face, and supported by the experiences of a brilliant master of business execution. It has applicable value for any decision maker in your enterprise. I will call it Ying.
The other summer bookend is “The Black Swan: The Impact of the Highly Improbable” by Nassim Nicholas Taleb, written in 2007 (ISBN-13: 978-1400063512). If you have been burned by the flames of this last year’s economic wildfire, and wonder why, read this book. If your enterprise bases important decisions on models built on the data and experiences of the last 20 years, read this book. If you want a fresh lens and perspective on how to look at the challenges ahead, read this book. I will call it Yang.
I hope you agree that they were worth some of your time. For me, the returns on investment are still coming. I promise wonderful epiphanies from these two. For now, I’m off to the bookstore (again)!
