More recommended books on general business topics - not quite up to the best, but still well worth considering.
 

R. Meredith Belbin

Management Teams: Why they succeed or fail.
A classic, analysing the team in depth. A highly recommended buy, only failing to make the core list because it's a little old, and a little oriented to theory.

Roger Bennett

Organisational Behaviour.
Not an absolutely thrilling read, as it's set out more as a text book than a business book, but a comprehensive and up-to-date look at organisational thinking. Takes in jolly new topics like post-modernism and the learning organisation. If you need to understand how organisations work (and you ought to), this is a sound buy.

Frederick P. Brooks

The Mythical Man Month.
Although specifically describing the business of computer project management, this classic is equally applicable to all areas of business. It describes the dangers of calculating input to a project by man month, and hence of assuming that throwing lots of people into a project will mean a faster completion.

Michael Colenso

High Performing Teams.
Books that try to present the state of the art in a subject are in danger of dating, and aren't always convincing, but this manages to give a good picture of current thinking on teamwork, with plenty of case studies and checklists. It's surprising there isn't more on personality profiling (Myers Briggs, Insights etc.), but with this proviso it's very good. New 7 April 1998

Stephen Covey

The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People.
A huge best-seller. While it's arguable that a lot of it is common sense, and the book has been inflated out of all proportion, this is a very sensible set of principles. Probably best appreciated in the audio tape version, which is shorter and easy to absorb.

The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People.

Edward de Bono

  The Six Value Medals.
Another of de Bono's set of six (like Six Thinking Hats) - this time groupings of values - the attributes that can be used as criteria in making decisions - providing a structure for making things happen. A good idea, and clever use of the six materials to identify the categories of values, though not the greatest book in the world.

Paul Dickinson and Neil Svenson

Beautiful Corporations.
Running a business is much more than getting the goods on the shelves, providing the right service, or manufacturing the right products. Dickinson and Svenson argue that good design and style have just as much to do with business success as traditional effectiveness.

Stephen Few

  Show me the Numbers:.
Subtitled "designing graphs and tables to enlighten" this is a practical and highly informative book on the mechanics of presenting data. Sadly, given it's a book about getting information across well, the author has done anything but that. This is a superb subject for a book, the author clearly knows his stuff, and all the information you need is in there - it's just distinctly tedious to dig it out. New 13 October 2004

David Firth

The Corporate Fool (with Alan Leigh).
What is a corporate jester, and what difference can it make to a company? Firth and Leigh set out to explore the role of the jester and how such a person can point out errors in high places that no one else would dare to. New 21 January 2005

How To Make Work Fun.
A powerful concept, well examined - by making work fun, everyone can win. The employer gets more out of the employee; the employee gets more out of the job. The A to Z format seems a little forced occasionally, but well worth checking out.

 Brad Forsythe

Bulletproof Your Business.
Risk and risk management is a major concern for the large organization. Smaller businesses tend to ignore it. But they do so at their peril. Risk management is just as important for the smaller company, it's just less likely to have the experience and resources to do it. Enter Brad Forsythe with Bulletproof your Business. This thick ringbound volume (nearly 300 letter size pages) is packed with practical advice for SMEs to manage their risk. It strongly follows US practice, but the vast majority of the book is equally applicable anywhere - you'll just need to take advice where there are local legal implications, for instance with employee agreements. For the right audience, this is a must-have book. See detailed page for buying information. New 8 February 2005

Paul Goodwin & George Wright

  Decision Analysis for Management Judgement
A scholarly and thorough guide to the role of decision making in business. In essence, making decisions is what management is all about (you don't need managers if there are no decisions to make) - so an essential topic, well covered. New 5 February 2005

John Hammond et al

 Smart Choices: A Practical Guide to Making Better Decisions
Slick and effective guide to the decision making process, focussing particularly on business, from the Harvard Business School stable. Probably one of the best guides to getting decision making right New 5 February 2005

Dave Hemsath & Leslie Yerkes

301 Ways to have Fun at Work.
As the title suggests this is a compilation of tricks and techniques to add zest and fun to working life. It is a great book for dipping into. New 26 March 98

Darrell Huff

 How to Lie with Statistics
This classic on the use and misuse of statistics may be 50 years old (so the examples can creak a little) but the message in terms of the way statistics can baffle and confuse where they should explain is as fresh as ever. New 5 February 2005

Andy Law

Open Minds.
The story of the remarkable UK advertising agency St Lukes, Open Minds describes a different way of doing business, where the employees aren't employees but the business in its entirety. The book's style wanders occasionally, but it highlights just why St Lukes is different, and the implications for a new style of business. If you like this one, you'll also be interested in DisOrganization. New 9 December 98

David Molden

Managing with the Power of NLP.
Neuro-linguistic programming (NLP) is probably the most contraversial management theory to hit the shelves in a long while. NLP is based on the theory that the ways that you decide to behave can have an effect on the ways that you perceive the world and hence the ways that you behave. Whether or not you finally agree, it's worth studying.

Pierre Mornell

45 Effective Ways for Hiring Smart.
Probably the best guide around on reading people at interviews. Reader recommendation - "Quite possibly the best £16.00 I've ever spent. The book is full of 'oh yeah!' and 'why didn't i think of that?' kind of common sense suggestions that will make a massive difference to my recruitment from now on, with very little additional time. I'll be reading this one again and again!". New 27 August 1999

Ed Peppitt

Six of the Best.
Interviews with six 'business leaders' (more accurately members of the British business establishment from the percentage of titles), giving insights into the likes of leadership and managing change, but particularly into the nature of these six individuals: Sir Michael Bichard, Sir John Tusa, Lord Karan Bilimoria, Sir Digby Jones, Dianne Thompson and Andy Green.

Tom Peters

Thriving on Chaos.
ToC is rather overlong (though nowhere near as bad as Liberation Management), but has some very powerful prescriptions for excelling in a world of constant change. His five key areas are Responsiveness, Innovation, People Power, Leadership and Systems for a World Turned Upside Down. There are plenty of gems in there if you are prepared to mine.

David A. Ricks

Blunders in International Business.
This book is a wonderful concept. Uplifting stories of business success are all very well, but there's nothing we like better than a good mistake, and they're a great source of learning. In practice, I don't think it works quite as well as the theory. It's too much a list of item after item - I'd rather than had been less of them but more detail given and more lessons learned directly. Even so it's a very easy to read business book, packed full of remarkable stories of how not to undertake international business - highly recommended. New 10 November 2001

Derek Rowntree

  Statistics without Tears
Understanding statistics is an essential to dealing with business information and intelligence effectively. This is a simple introductory guide to the subject that does what it says in the title. New 5 February 2005

Jon Smith

Smarter Business Startups.  
Getting going with a new business requires a lot of creativity and business initiative. Perhaps the key word here is "differentiation" - not calculus, not even rocket science, but making you and your business different from the competition. Otherwise, why should a customer choose you? This is a great collection of ideas and suggestions to help a new business get off the ground. We do need to get one slight objection out of the way, though. The average age of someone starting a business is 40 - but this gives the impression of being aimed at late teens and 20-somethings. For instance, there's a chapter titled "What you think all the guns is for?" (sic) which includes the remark "In business, attitude is all about having bags of confidence, not bling." Yeh, right - business development according to Ali G. Frankly this is a bit condescending - you have to be prepared to look around it (luckily it's not all like this) to get to the good material underneath. New 31 December 2004

Tony Spinks & Phil Clements

Practical Guide to Faciliation Skills.
Faciliation - getting the best out of a group of people - is a skill that extends far beyond the consultant to every manager and team leader. This guide gets the main points across well.

David Taylor

  The Naked Leader.
In The Naked Leader the reader is guided through the essays on different tracks dealing with topics like 'leadership of self', 'leadership of teams' and so on. At the end of each section you jump to somewhere else in the book - you'll either love the structure or be deeply infuriated by it. Behind Taylor's book is the fundamental assumption that you can achieve whatever your heart is totally set on. He admits that he comes across people who come forward with dreams that are impossible but claims that in most such cases it's not really the central burning desire of the individual. Having seen Pop Idol on TV, though, it's hard to believe there aren't plenty of people who desperately want to achieve something theoretically practical, but will never ever do it. Don't let's end on such a downbeat note, though. There are plenty of home truths that are largely ignored in business contained in Naked Leader's easily consumed pages - so give it a try. New 10th September 2003