I blogged earlier about Jack and Todd's new book, The Best 100 Business Books of All Time. Today is the publication date, so it is shipping from both Amazon and Jack and Todd's own company, 1800CEOread. We had a great little gathering last night at the d.school to celebrate the book, which was led by Todd (and organized by Kate from CEOread). There were about 50 people, and Todd led a little panel composed of authors of three of the books on the list: Randy Komisar of Monk and the Riddle fame, Chip Heath for Made to Stick, and Jeff Pfeffer and me for The Knowing-Doing Gap.
It was really fun, and I just loved hearing all the great stories, such as how Randy — who is an amazing blend of charming, self-deprecating, and brilliant — explained that when he agreed to do the book, he didn't know what it would be about and didn't know how to write a book — and expressed some confusion because it is not really a business book, even though it now has been honored as being among the 100 best! Chip was entrancing as usual, that guy can really tells stories. And he is scary smart. My favorite one was about how his mother gently intervened to help Chip and Dan deal with some brotherly tension during the writing process. Jeff and I teased each other as usual, and enjoyed telling the group how we fought so hard with our publisher against the title they wanted instead of The Knowing-Doing Gap — Louder Than Words. I sure am glad we fought for that one.
The book is fun and useful, and when you are done with it, you will feel as if you have read 100 books! The endless argument, of course, is about why some books were put on and others were left off. Hardy Green over at BusinessWeek write a pointed column, and the responses are fun — I added one too.
So, to ask the question, what is your favorite business book of all time? For me, it is Orbiting the Giant Hairball. My second favorite is Made to Stick, both of which Jack and Todd did pick.
Leave a Reply