Bekker's Blog

Blog archive

Best Books for Business

Trust a crime writer to get business right. While at a used bookstore on vacation this summer, I picked up a 1977 novel by Elmore Leonard called The Hunted. In it, Leonard's got one of the pithiest descriptions of how to succeed in business that I've ever come across.

"In the business world, you don't prepare yourself for a certain job and that's it, like a bookkeeper, a tax accountant. You hire those people," one character, a successful businessman, explains to a marine, who is about to retire from the service and is looking for direction. "What you do, you keep your eyes open, you use a little imagination seeing how you can fit into a situation or how you can bend the situation around so it fits you."

Then again, this particular businessman is on the run from mobsters, so there you go.

What are your favorite books about business? Send titles to me at [email protected]. We're taking the kitchen-sink approach here, so include books that are partner-specific, market-specific, management tomes and even books that aren't obviously about business but inspire your work. When we get enough, we'll pull them into a list to share.

Posted by Scott Bekker on October 18, 2007


Featured

  • Microsoft Appoints Althoff as New CEO for Commercial Business

    Microsoft CEO and chairman Satya Nadella on Wednesday announced the promotion of Judson Althoff to CEO of the company's commercial business, presenting the move as a response to the dramatic industrywide shifts caused by AI.

  • Broadcom Revamps VMware Partner Program Again

    Broadcom recently announced a significant update regarding its VMware Cloud Service Provider (VCSP) program, coinciding with the release of VMware Cloud Foundation (VCF) 9.0, a key component in Broadcom’s private cloud strategy.

  • Closeup of the new Copilot keyboard key

    Microsoft Updates Copilot To Add Context-Sensitive Agents to Teams, SharePoint

    Microsoft has rolled out a new public preview for collaborative "always on" agents in Microsoft 365 Copilot, bringing enhanced, context-aware tools into Teams channels, meetings, SharePoint sites, Planner workstreams and Viva Engage communities.

  • Windows 365 Cloud Apps Now Available for Public Preview

    Microsoft announced this week that Windows 365 Cloud Apps are now available for public preview. This aims to allow IT administrators to stream individual Windows applications from the cloud, removing the need to assign Cloud PCs to every user.