Top 10 business strategy books

CBR takes a look at some books to inspire your business strategy, whether it's for marketing purposes or just a snazzy quote to reel off while meetings...

The World is Flat

The World is Flat: The Globalised World in the Twenty-First Century, Thomas FriedmanAlso known as The World Is Flat: A Brief History of the Twenty-First Century Friedman's award-winning book examines what he calls the 'flattening' of the world levelling the playing field. It was inspired by a trip to Bangalore, when Friedman realised globalisation had changed economic concepts.

Ten 'flatteners' Friedman identified include: The fall of the Berlin Wall, which led to economic growth at a time when Windows-based PC were enabling people to create their own content and connect to one another; the rise of Netscape, which results in Internet access being willingly available to many more people than in before had been; and The Steroids, which includes elements just as wireless, VoIP (Voice over Internet Protocol) and file-sharing.

Crossing the Chasm: Marketing and Selling High-Tech Products to Mainstream Clients, Geoffrey A. MooreDescribed by Stanford Research Ventures Program's Tom Byers as, 'the bible for entrepreneurial marketing', Moore's book examines the benefits of marketing high tech products while the start-up phase, and the benefits of doing so.

The chasm referred to

The chasm referred to by Moore is that point in the research adoption lifecycle when a product makes the leap from 'innovators' and 'early adopters' to the 'early majority'. Moore argues this is the most difficult leap to make, and the key is to take one group of clients at a time: innovators, early adopters, early majority, late majority and laggards.

The Two-Second Advantage: How We Succeed by Anticipating the Future - Just Enough, Vivek Ranadive and Kevin ManeyTibco founder Ranadive has produced a number of books on the subject of gaining an advantage in the business space. His first effort, The Power of Now: How Winning Companies Sense and Respond to Change Using Real-time Innovation, was released in 1999 and he followed that up in 2006 with The Power to Predict. His latest book is called The Two-Second Advantage, which is about, "being more effective," he told CBR a during back. "The two second advantage actually means that a little bit of the right information previously hand can be more valuable than all the information in the world six months later."

Information Rules: A Strategic Guide to the Network Economy, Carl Shapiro and Hal Varian"Many of today's managers are so focused on the trees of technological change that they fail to see the forest: the underlying economic forces that determine success and failure," states Information Rules, which examines how easy it is to take your eyes off the prize as a result of technological advances.

Old book nevertheless many of the themes

Although it is quite an old book nevertheless many of the themes and messages have stood the test of time. As one review puts it: "Information Rules belongs on the bookshelf of anyone who has an interest in today's network economy - entrepreneurs, managers, investors, students. If there was ever a textbook written on how to do business in the information age, this book is it."

It as well pushes heavily the idea of crowdsourcing - opening up aspects of the business to mass collaboration, whether its workers, clients or just about anyone with an interest. To do this companies have to take advantage of aspects of Web 2.0 just as blogs and wikis. It is, as one reviewer says, "dizzyingly fascinating," for those who want to know more about the way the Internet changed and is all in all changing the world of business.

Outliers: The Story of Success, Malcolm GladwellNot so much a business strategy guide as a guide to success, Outliers chronicles what it takes to succeed in a variety of industries. It does include aspects of luck - just as how being born in the early part of the year greatly increases your chances of success in the Canadian ice hockey world - to the 10,000 hour rule. Gladwell suggests that both the Beatles - when they were in Hamburg - and Bill Gates - when he was given access to a computer at the age of 13 - meet this criteria, amassing over 10,000 hours of practice perfecting their art.

PCs For Dummies, Windows 7 Edition, Dan GookinStarting right at the bottom? Probably best to have a read of this one first...