Sumit Dhar was kind enough to post the list of Recommended readings. Over the next few days, he will post the list for Finance and Accounting.
Managing Organizations

Here are some excellent books on Managing Organizations that were recommended by Prof. Paul Ingram. As always quite a few of them are good for laymen and no not require you to do an MBA to appreciate the concepts they talk about.

Warning: The last two, according to Prof. Ingram, are slightly dry academic tomes. Caveat Emptor!
  • Why Smart People Make Big Money Mistakes And How To Correct Them [Gary Belsky, Thomas Gilovich]
  • The Winner’s Curse [Richard Thaler]
  • Competing by Design [Nadler and Tushman]
  • The Visible Hand [Alfred Chandler]
  • Tree: A Life Story [David Suzuki]
  • No Gods No Masters [Daniel Guerin]
  • Filling the Glass : The Skeptic's Guide to Positive Thinking in Business [Barry Maher]
  • How we know what isn’t so [Tom Gilovich]
  • Organizations in Action [James Thompson]
  • Organization and Environment [Lawrence and Lorsch]
Entrepreneurship
As promised in the previous post, here are some good books on Entrepreneurship as recommended by Prof. Venkataraman. Once again, thanks to Thimmaiah Chendrimada for following up and patiently collating the list.

Prof. Venkataraman's List
  • Rita McGrath and Ian MacMillan, 2000. The Entrepreneurial Mind-Set. Harvard University Press.
  • Clayton Christensen, 1997. The Innovator’s Dilemma. Harvard University Press.
  • Clayton Christensen and Michael Raynor, 2003. The Innovator’s Solution. Harvard University Press.
  • Drucker, Peter. 1985. Innovation and Entrepreneurship. Harper & Row: New York.
  • Duncan Watts, 2003. Six Degrees. Norton Press.
  • Ronald Burt, 1995. Structural Holes (Chapter 1 and 3). Harvard University Press.
  • Scott Shane, 2003. A General Theory of Entrepreneurship. Edward Elgar Press.
  • Saxenian, Anna Lee, 1994. Regional Advantage. Harvard University Press.
  • Bhide, Amar. 2000. The Origin and Evolution of New Businesses. Oxford University Press: New York.
  • Sahlman, William, Stevenson, Howard, Roberts, Michael and Bhide, Amar. 1999. The Entrepreneurial Venture, Second Edition. HBS Press: Boston.
  • What do venture capitalists do? HBS Case 9-288-015
  • Sahlman, Structure and Governance of V.C. Investment, in Journal of Financial Economics, Vol. 27 (1990)
Strategy
Over the past year or so, Thimmaiah Chendrimada has been collecting a list of books that MBAs should read. Quite a few of them don't require an MBA to understand. Over the next week or so, I will be posting books that are eminiently readable.

Here is a list of books on Strategy. This list was compiled based on inputs provided by Prof. Aks Zaheer. Will be listing books on Statistics, Entrepreneurship, Management of Organizations, Accounting and Finance over the next few days.

Strategy Essentials:
  • Competitive Strategy, Michael Porter
  • Competitive Advantage, Michael Porter
  • The Competitive Advantage of Nations, Michael Porter
  • Competing for the Future, Gary Hamel and CK Prahalad
  • Gaining & Sustaining Competitive Advantage, Jay Barney

Competitive Interaction and Game Theory:
  • Coopetition, Adam Brandenburger and Barry Nalebuff
  • Thinking Strategically, Avinash Dixit and Barry Nalebuff

Global Strategy:
  • The Borderless World, Kenichi Ohmae
  • Managing Across Borders: The Transnational Solution, Chris Bartlett & Sumantra Ghoshal

Strategy and the Internet:
  • Information Rules, Shapiro and Hal Varian
  • Competing in the Age of Digital Convergence, D. Yoffie

Strategy Implementation:
  • Corporate Culture & Leadership, Ed Schein

Knowledge Management:
  • The Knowledge Creating Company, I. Nonaka & H. Takeuchi

Strategic Planning:
  • The Rise and Fall of Strategic Planning, Henry Mintzberg

Strategic Alliances:
  • Alliance Advantage, Gary Hamel and Yves Doz

Mergers and Acquisitions:
  • Managing the Acquisition Process, Philippe Haspeslagh and David Jemison

Trust and Networks:
  • Structural Holes, Ronald Burt
  • Trust in Organizations, Roderick Kramer

Other Classics:
  • My Years with General Motors, Alfred P. Sloan
  • The Art of War, Sun Tzu
  • Strategy and Structure, Alfred D. Chandler
General reading for Global Economics:

* john maynard keynes: the general theory of employment, interest, and money & the economic consequences of the peace
(after all he was the founder of macroeconomics...)
* friedrich august von hayek: the road to serfdom
(the dangers of government intervention. maggie thatcher's inspiration.)

* milton and rose friedman: free to choose
(more classical brainwashing, if you didn't get enough from me)
* john kenneth galbraith: the affluent society & a journey through economic time
(a sampling of the prolific writing of a high- priest of keynesianism, and a former ambassador to india, one written in 1958, and the other in 1994)
newer books...
* amartya sen: development as freedom (the human side of development. leftists, rejoice...)
* jagdish bhagwati: in defense of globalization
(rightists, rejoice...)
* martin wolf: why globalization works
(rightists, rejoice even more... wolf is one of the better economic writers around.)
* richard layard: happiness -- lessons from a new science
(wealth can't buy no satisfaction. integrates economics, psychology, anthropology, etc. to question if economic growth increases happiness.)
* thomas l. friedman: the world is flat & the lexus and the olive tree
(written by bangalore's paramour. overwrought metaphors, and gross generalizations, but what the heck, he's on the right track)
* robert e. lucas, jr.: lectures on economic growth
(technical, but the non-technical introduction is by itself a masterpiece, like everything else lucas writes.)
* v. s. naipaul: a house for mr. biswas (a novel)
(lucas calls it the great novel of economic development! read lucas' intro first.)
* angus maddison: the world economy -- a millenial perspective
(the authoritative source of historical facts of world development going back to 1 A.D. and earlier.)
* jeffrey sachs: the end of poverty -- economic possibilities for our time
(the heart is in the right place, but will it work?)
* william easterly: the elusive quest for growth
(sachs' bete noire. former world bank economist. if you read the book you'll understand the "former" bit...)
* jared diamond: guns, germs and steel & collapse
(geography and economic development and downfall)
* octavio paz: a tale of two gardens -- poems from india
(nothing to do with economics, so what?)
DVD:
* thomas l. friedman reporting: the other side of outsourcing (the discovery channel)
(the cultural side effects of outsourcing, reported from where else, bangalore...)
This list comes from THE GODDESS (a.k.a SIMBA)
1) The Mckinsey Way - Ethan Rasiel
2) Financial Sense - Prasanna Chandra (I think!!)
3) Wise and OtherWise - Sudha Murthy
4) MBA Handbook - Sheila Cameron


Stanford recommends Robert Anthony's Essentials of Accounting and Edward Dowling's Calculus for Business, Economics, and the Social Sciences
A familiarity with current events is also key - The Wall Street Journal, The Economist, Forbes, and The New York Times

General Management/Advice:

• The Goal By Eliyahu M. Goldratt and Jeff Cox
• If I Knew Then What I Know Now: CEOs and Other Smart Executives Share Wisdom They Wish They'd Been Told 25 Years Ago By Richard Edler
• The Minto Pyramid Principle: Logic in Writing, Thinking, & Problem Solving By Barbara Minto
• What They Don't Teach You at Harvard Business School By Mark H. McCormack
• What Color Is Your Parachute, 2000: A Practical Manual for Job-Hunters and Career-Changers By Richard Nelson Bolles


Wall Street/Investing:

• Barbarians at the Gate: The Fall of RJR Nabisco By Bryan Burrough and John Helyar
• Liar's Poker: Rising Through the Wreckage on Wall Street By Michael Lewis
• Monkey Business: Swinging Through the Wall Street Jungle By John Rolfe and Peter Troob
• A Random Walk Down Wall Street By Burton Malkiel
• Understanding Wall Street By Jeffrey B. Little and Lucien Rhodes
• The Wall Street Journal Guide to Understanding Money & Investing By Kenneth M. Morris, Virginia B. Morris, and Alan M. Siegel


Internet/E-Commerce:

• Internet: The Complete Reference Edited by Margaret Levine Young
• Net Gain: Expanding Markets Through Virtual Communities By John Hagel and Arthur G. Armstrong
• Net Worth By John Hagel and Marc Singer


Marketing:

• The Brand You 50: Fifty Ways to Transform Yourself From an "Employee" Into a Brand That Shouts Distinction, Commitment, and Passion! By Tom Peters
• Crossing the Chasm: Marketing and Selling High-Tech Products to Mainstream Customers By Geoffrey A. Moore and Regic McKenna
• Inside the Tornado: Marketing Strategies From Inside Silicon Valley's Cutting Edge By Geoffrey A. Moore
• Unleashing the Ideavirus By Seth Godin (www.ideavirus.com)

Consulting:

• Competitive Strategy: Techniques for Analyzing Industries and Competitors By Michael Porter

Disclaimer: The views expressed in this blog are my own.

[Since Feb 25 2005]