Seth Godin is wondering – do business books work? My answer – not as well as they used to. In fact I wonder why anybody in business publishes a book these days. Back in the days of Porter’s Competitive Strategy business books were rare, well edited, and almost always well worth the read. Not true today. There’s so much crap being published – most of it catering to a very low common denominator.
So with this in mind I recently decided to put together my own list of
the top five business books that every marketer should not just read, but
devour, dog ear, write in the margins and weave into the fabric of
their everyday existence. Call it Smock’s Alternative List of Marketer’s Must Reads. Most marketers will find the list daunting to say the least. Which is why the
list forms a golden opportunity for those marketers with the hearty
appetite necessary to devour the contents. Here’s the list:
MARKETING: STRATEGY
Sun Tzu – The Art of War Shambhala/Thomas Cleary version.
WHY MARKETERS SHOULD READ: Because Sun Tuz is the ultimate marketing
strategist. Learn how to win without fighting. And when you do have to
fight – how to kick ass and win.
MONEY QUOTE: Therefore use these assessments for comparison, to
find out what the conditions are. That is to say which political
leadership has the Way? Which general has the ability? Who has the
better climate and terrain? Whose discipline is effective? Whose troops
are stronger? whose officers and soldiers are the better trained? Whose
system of rewards and punishments clearer? This is how can know who
will win. (Pg. 46)
MARKETING: TACTICS
Machiavelli – The Prince Mentor Book’s version with forward by Christian Gauss.
WHY MARKETERS SHOULD READ: Because Machiavelli delivers a great
primer on dealing with unethical tactics – like blog swarms, short
sellers, social activists, corrupt competitors, media relations, etc.
MONEY QUOTE: A new prince has never been known to
disarm his subjects, on the contrary, when he has found them disarmed
he has always armed them, for by arming them, these arms become your
own, those that you suspected become faithful, and those that were
faithful remain so, and from being merely subjects become your
partisans. (Pg. 105)
MARKETING: CAMPAIGNING
The Fighter Pilot Who Changed the Art of War Robert Coram’s biography of John Boyd.
WHY MARKETERS SHOULD READ: Because Boyd articulates the secret to
successful campaigning. Boyd’s O-O-D-A Loop and thoughts on organic
command and control should be mastered by all marketers.
MONEY QUOTE: For a time, Boyd and Spinney were reluctant to
fully explain the O-O-D-A Loop; it was far too dangerous. If someone
truly understands how to create menace and uncertainty and mistrust,
then how to exploit and magnify the presence of these disconcerting
elements, the Loop can be vicious, a terribly destructive force,
virtually unstoppable in causing panic and confusion and – Boyd’s
phrase is best – "unraveling the competition." This is true whether the
Loop is applied in combat, in competitive business practices, in
sports, or in personal relationships. (Pg. 334)
MARKETING: CRISIS
The Second World War, Volume 2: Their Finest Hour Winston Churchill’s WWII chronicles.
WHY MARKETERS SHOULD READ: Because everything you read today about
crisis management is wrong. Churchill’s personal experiences leading up
to and during WWII provide a practical foundation for dealing with
crisis.
MONEY QUOTE: There never was an occasion when powers were
abrogated or challenged, and anyone in this circle could always speak
his mind; but the actual war direction soon settled into a very few
hands, and what seemed so difficult before became much more simple –
apart of course, from Hitler. In spite of the turbulence of events and
the many disasters we had to endure, the machinery worked almost
automatically, and one lived in a stream of coherent thought capable of
being translated with great rapidity into executive action. (Pg. 17)
MARKETING: FUNDAMENTALS
Competitive Strategy: Techniques for Analyzing Industries and Competitors Michael Porter’s classic.
WHY MARKETERS SHOULD READ: Porter provides a fundamental primer on
competition including practical tools and techniques that are even more
important today than they were 25 years ago.
MONEY QUOTES: One broad approach is to use superior resources
and capabilities to force an outcome skewed toward the interest of the
firm, overcoming and outlasting retaliation – we might call this brute
force approach. This sort of approach is possible only if the firm
possesses clear superiorities, and it is stable only as long as the
firm maintains these superiorities, and as long as competitors do not
misread them and incorrectly attempt to change their positions. (Pg. 91)
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