- If going to business school isn't an option right now, you can get a prime education on your own.
- Professors at Harvard, Stanford, and other institutions shared the books on their syllabi this year.
- Among the top choices are "Who Moved My Cheese?" and "Good to Great."
Want a sneak peak at the reading lists for MBA programs around the US? Insider tapped business schools nationwide — including elite programs such as Harvard Business School, Stanford University's Graduate School of Business, Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern, and Indiana University's Kelley School of Business — to see what titles top professors are assigning to their fall 2019 students.
Here are some of their favorite picks:
Robert L. Joss, Dean Emeritus at Stanford University's Graduate School of Business
Books assigned: "Shackleton's Way: Leadership Lessons from the Great Antarctic Explorer" by Margot Morrell and Stephanie Capparell
Joss assigns many articles but only one book to his class, which he has used for the past 18 years as a case study.
"It is a useful summary of a classic leadership story," Joss explains. "As a class we explore the what, how, and why of Shackleton's various moves to earn the trust and respect of his men and get them all back alive after being shipwrecked in the ice."
Joel Peterson, Robert L. Joss Adjunct Professor of Management at Stanford University's Graduate School of Business
Books assigned: "Authentic Leadership: Rediscovering the Secrets to Creating Lasting Value" by Bill George, "True North: Discover Your Authentic Leadership" by Bill George and Peter Sims, "Living Into Leadership: A Journey in Ethics" by Buzz McCoy, "Good Boss, Bad Boss: How to Be the Best ... and Learn from the Worst" by Robert Sutton,"The Hard Thing About Hard Things" by Ben Horowitz
In addition to the above reading list for his leadership class, Peterson, who is also a chairman of JetBlue and author of "The 10 Laws of Trust," also regularly recommends that his students read the following:
- "Who Moved My Cheese?: An A-Mazing Way to Deal with Change in Your Work and in Your Life" by Spencer Johnson. In Peterson's words, this book is "a very simple yet powerful parable about responsibility and attitude in running a business."
- "Good to Great: Why Some Companies Make the Leap ... And Others Don't" by Jim Collins. Peterson says this is "one of the best management books out there. Jim and his research team explain how and why certain companies grow and others stall out."
- "Difficult Conversations: How to Discuss What Matters Most" by Douglas Stone, Bruce Patton, and Sheila Heen. Says Peterson: "A very important read for aspiring leaders. Highly competent people fail to lead simply out of fear of having difficult conversations."
Joesph Fuller, Professor of Management at Harvard Business School
Books recommended: "George Marshall: Defender of the Republic" by David Roll, "Loonshoots: How to Nurture the Crazy Ideas That Win Wars, Cure Diseases, and Transform Industries" by Safi Bahcall, "Grace Will Bring Us Home: The Charleston Church Massacre and the Hard, Inspiring Journey to Forgiveness" by Jennifer Berry Hawes
In addition to being a HBS professor, Fuller co-leads the HBS initiative, Managing the Future of Work, and teaches Harvard Business School Online's Management Essentials. Fuller doesn't assign these books specifically, but highly recommends his students read them.
"The biography of Marshall is the best of those I've read (including Pogue's multi-volume official biography) in giving the reader a sense of the man," he says. "I believe he was a brilliant manager and judge of talent. I find our students often learn more from reading books about historical figures and reflecting on their attributes as managers and decision makers."
Fuller describes Bahcall's book as "a work of genius" and says it "brilliantly conveys multiple lessons about problem solving, group dynamics, and the value of thought and reflection in an immensely entertaining way."
Hawes' book, he adds, is "a beautiful testimony to the human spirit and helps put some tragic current events in some context."
Rebecca Henderson, John and Natty McArthur University Professor at Harvard Business School
Books recommended: "Red Plenty" by Francis Spufford, "Why Nations Fail: The Origins of Power, Prosperity, and Poverty" by Daron Acemoglu and James Robinson, "The Passions and the Interests: Political Arguments for Capitalism Before Its Triumph" by Albert Hirschman
Henderson, who has a joint appointment at HBS in the General Management and Strategy units and also teaches Sustainable Business Strategy for the HBS Online division, calls the books above "top hits from my list." She describes Spufford's book as "a beautifully written novel about why central planning cannot 'work,' told from the perspective of the young Russian idealists of the 1950s-60s who thought they could build a world without poverty using the new tools of optimization — and computers!"
She calls "Why Nations Fail" "a gripping account of the difference between 'inclusive' and 'extractive' institutions, complete with hugely interesting historical accounts of how institutions change."
In summarizing Hirschman's work, Henderson says: "How did greed become socially acceptable as a motive for action? Why was the move an improvement over the feudal/honor based society it replaced? A very short and very interesting book."
Mihir Desai, Mizuho Financial Group Professor of Finance at Harvard Business School and Professor of Law at Harvard Law School
Books recommended upon graduation: "How Much Land Does a Man Need" by Leo Tolstoy, "O Pioneers!" by Willa Cather, "Strangers Drowning: Impossible Idealism, Drastic Choices, and the Urge to Help" by Larissa MacFarquhar
Desai says that along with the words "Sic Transit Gloria Mundi," he recommends Tolstoy's short parable to stay grounded, Cather's 1913 novel to stay humble, and MacFarquhar's book to stay generous.
Philip Cochran, Professor of Management at the Indiana University Kelley School of Business
Books recommended: "Factfulness: 10 Reasons We're Wrong About the World — and Why Things Are Better Than You Think" by Anna Rosling Rönnlund, Hans Rosling, and Ola Rosling
Cochran, also a Thomas W. Binford Chair of Corporate Citizenship, is recommending "Factfulness" as a relatively new read this semester for his MBA students. "In this book, Rosling and his co-authors argue that most people have an overly pessimistic view of the world," he explains. "Markets in developing countries are actually becoming richer and more sophisticated at an astonishing pace. Students and business executives who recognize the world for what it is will in the long run be significantly more successful than those who don't."
Cochran also recommends to his students the 2011 blockbuster, "Thinking Fast and Slow" by Daniel Kahneman.
"The central focus of Kahneman's book is the proposition that humans have two modes of thinking," says Cochran. "'System 1' is fast, intuitive, and emotional. 'System 2' is our ability to reflect, reason, and reach considered judgments, which makes humans unique. The point of having MBA students read this book is to encourage them to learn when they have to engage System 2: When they have to pause, think, and calculate."
Julie Hennessy, Clinical Professor of Marketing at Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern University
Books assigned: "Kellogg on Branding in a Hyper-Connected World" by The Marketing Faculty of The Kellogg School of Management, Northwestern University
Hennessy teaches this book in her Core Marketing Management class. "I selected this because both the concepts and the examples in this book are absolutely up-to-date, new, and relevant to students," she says. "Also, reading the articles in this book provides an introduction for my students to other faculty in the Marketing Department, with which they can take higher level elective courses."
Tim Calkins, Clinical Professor of Marketing at Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern University
Books assigned: "How to Wash a Chicken — Mastering the Business Presentation" by Tim Calkins
"Creating effective presentations is critical for business leaders," says Calkins, who uses his book "How to Wash a Chicken" in his introductory marketing class at Kellogg. "This book has a step-by-step process for laying out a story. Sometimes I think we do a better job teaching students how to develop a strategy than how to communicate one. This book has practical advice to help students create persuasive recommendations and sell their ideas."
Nicholas Pearce, Clinical Associate Professor of Management & Organizations at Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern University
Books assigned: "The Purpose Path: A Guide to Pursuing Your Authentic Life's Work" by Nicholas Pearce
"My students are one of the primary reasons why I wrote 'The Purpose Path,'" shares Pearce about the book he wrote and now teaches in his Leadership in Organizations course. "Many students are trying to figure out why they're on the planet, what they should do about it, and how to pursue their authentic life's work — 'The Purpose Path' is a guide to help them along that journey."
Harry Kraemer, Clinical Professor of Leadership at Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern University
Books assigned: "From Values to Action: The Four Principles of Values-Based Leadership" by Harry Kraemer, "Becoming the Best: Build a World-Class Organization Through Values-Based Leadership" by Harry Kraemer
Kraemer, like Pearce and Calkins, wrote his own literature to help his students, which he leans on in his Leading a Global Company course. "I select 'From Values to Action' because it focuses on what each student and executive needs to do to become a values-based leader," says Kraemer. "I also assign students 'Becoming the Best' since it focuses on what students and executives need to do to develop a values-based organization."
Vassilis Dalakas, Professor of Marketing and Chair of the Department of Marketing at California State University San Marcos and Visiting Professor of Sports Marketing at San Diego State University Sports MBA
Books assigned: "Yes! 50 Scientifically Proven Ways to Be Persuasive" by Noah J. Goldstein, Steve J. Martin, and Robert Cialdini, "The Choice Factory: 25 Behavioural Biases That Influence What We Buy" by Richard Shotton, "Perfect Pitch: The Art of Selling Ideas and Winning New Business" by Jon Steel
Dalakas has been assigning "Yes!" and "The Choice Factory" to his marketing classes since last spring semester. "Both of these books do an excellent job of summarizing all the important research in consumer psychology and social psychology in a succinct and interesting manner," he says. "More importantly, they offer practical, actionable takeaways that enable the students to connect the knowledge to real-world issues."
Dalakas describes "Perfect Pitch" as "a fantastic book that reframes how presentations should be given and helps students get past the traditional (typically uninspiring) information-giving PowerPoint presentations and become engaging storytellers."
Subimal Chatterjee, SUNY Distinguished Professor of Teaching and Professor of Marketing at Binghamton University School of Management, State University of New York
Books recommended: "Everybody Lies: Big Data, New Data, and What the Internet Can Tell Us About Who We Really Are" by Seth Stephens-Davidowitz
According to Chatterjee, "The book illustrates how we can apply big data to uncover private and uncomfortable consumer sentiments that are typically not picked up by traditional market research, and use the trends as leading indicators of unanticipated disruptions that typically catch us unaware and unprepared."
Surinder Kahai, Associate Professor at Binghamton University School of Management
Books assigned: "The Basics of Bitcoins and Blockchains: An Introduction to Cryptocurrencies and the Technology that Powers Them" by Antony Lewis
Lewis' book is one Kahai assigns in his course on e-business at Binghamton. "I normally don't use a textbook for this course and use press articles to cover my material," says Kahai. "But I decided to increase the level of coverage of blockchain technology to about 40% this semester and felt the need to go beyond popular press articles." Kahai says he increased blockchain coverage "to respond to greater demand for blockchain knowledge and skills in the business world."
Charlene Walters, Vice Provost for the Digital Entrepreneurship MBA program at Strayer University
Books assigned: "Leaders Eat Last: Why Some Teams Pull Together and Others Don't" by Simon Sinek, "Naked Economics: Undressing the Dismal Science" by Charles Wheelan, "Unscaled: How AI and a New Generation of Upstarts Are Creating the Economy of the Future" by Hemant Taneja with Kevin Maney, "Storytelling with Data: A Data Visualization Guide for Business Professionals" by Cole Nussbaumer Knaflic, "Talk Like TED: The 9 Public-Speaking Secrets of the World's Top Minds" by Carmine Gallo
Walters explains that she picked "Leaders Eat Last" as required reading because it's "an essential book on leadership for entrepreneurs and business professionals." In it, she notes that "Sinek discusses the value of servant leadership and creating an environment of trust and inspiration in order to propel your business and your team forward."
On "Naked Economics," she says: "This book was selected because it's a straightforward, entertaining, and easy-to-digest book regarding basic economic principles with real-world applications that students can grasp and enjoy."
Walters loves "Unscaled" because, as she puts it, "it gives a tremendous amount of insight regarding the future outlook of specific industries and the entrepreneurial opportunities that will present themselves as a result."
"Storytelling with Data," says Walters, "was selected because it is so critical for business pros to be able to present data in a way that is digestible and entertaining in order to persuade/inform customers and other stakeholders."
And she assigns "Talk Like TED" because "this book is one of our favorites simply for the importance of mastering communication and persuasion as an entrepreneur and the wonderful examples and tips it provides."
David Townsend, Union Junior Faculty Fellow in Entrepreneurship at Virginia Tech
Books assigned: "The Innovator's Dilemma: The Revolutionary Book That Will Change the Way You Do Business" by Clayton Christensen, "Crossing the Chasm: Marketing and Selling High-Tech Products to Mainstream Customers" by Geoffrey Moore, "Smart Business: What Alibaba's Success Reveals about the Future of Strategy" by Ming Zeng
Townsend's goal behind assigning these three choices — two classics and one new book — for his course on Leadership in Technology-Based Organizations is to explore "the implications of automation and artificial intelligence for technology and innovation strategy."
Christoph Winkler, Hynes Endowed Professor of Entrepreneurship & Innovation and Founding Program Director of the Hynes Institute for Entrepreneurship & Innovation at Iona College
Books assigned: "Business Model Generation: A Handbook for Visionaries, Game Changers, and Challengers" by Alexander Osterwalder and Yves Pigneur, "Where to Play: 3 Steps for Discovering Your Most Valuable Market Opportunities" by Marc Gruber and Sharon Tal
Winkler describes "Business Model Generation" — which is a requirement in all entrepreneurship classes at the school — as "the go-to book for any entrepreneur or business leader as they develop or re-envision their business models."
He calls "Where to Play," which is a new addition to the curriculum, "a wonderful extension to the 'Business Model Generation' book. It allows entrepreneurs to examine market opportunities as they develop business models for their ideas and entrepreneurial ventures."
Rashmi Menon, lecturer and entrepreneur in residence at the Zell Lurie Institute for Entrepreneurial Studies at the Ross School of Business at the University of Michigan
Books assigned: "Bad Blood: Secrets and Lies in a Silicon Valley Startup" by John Carreyrou
For her Introduction to Entrepreneurship course, Menon is assigning her students to read the eye-opening 2018 bestseller about the multibillion-dollar rise and collapse of the biotech startup, Theranos, which she assigned for the first time last fall and is repeating this semester.
"I have my students read this book before class and we cover it at several points throughout the semester because it covers so many major aspects of entrepreneurship, like how to construct teams, the culture you want to set as the CEO, how you market your product, competitive differentiation, and customer need," says Menon. "I thought this was an interesting story because up until very late in the Theranos story, it looks like a success. But because of the way things develop, my students can ask themselves what questions they would need to ask if they were a funder and what questions weren't asked in this case; it brings up really good discussion points on that front. It's also a book that leads to very good discussions about corporate responsibility and the things you should care about when you're running a company."
This article was originally published on Business Insider August 29, 2019.
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