What’s the best book to start with?

To be bothered to read this type of book at all took me over 45 years. They start off very lightweight, but are still useful despite that. These are in the order that I read them - a gentle start was much more conducive to carrying on the pursuit of this type of alien knowledge..

Big Brands Big Trouble by Jack Trout

The one that really got me started, and I recommend this to you as a starter in the business books world. I found this fun, and so did some of my engineer friends and family alike. It gives a very light anecdotal introduction to marketing, by demonstrating what big companies have done wrong. And in the process shows where mistakes were made, and good advice not listened to. Jack Trout is easy to read, and having read this, I started reading more of his more advisory text books, with a real cutting edge on how to make good decisions in advertising and other areas.

And I think that is the point at this stage – making good decisions. What have people done before? Where have they made bad decisions? What would have been the better decisions?

So don’t worry about the flack – go out and get some good sad peoples books on business, and read them. Find the ones that appeal to your style and sense of values.

Differentiate or Die by Jack Trout with Steve Rivkin

The issues in here come up again and again in business books - why and how are you or your products different from other peoples?

When you have found the differences, shout them out loud and market them to the hilt. Part of the key in business is finding your niche, where you can claim to be Number 1. Depending on your product or service, this may get very difficult. Even so, someone has to have a reason for buying from you instead of someone else. Tell them cleverly and loudly why they should by from you - how you are different - and if you can, how you are best!

A good example is perhaps in this web site! I can not say I am the best businessman, or best engineer, or best scientist.. But I can shout loudly, that I am a very good mix of engineer and businessman - perhaps the best!

A Genie's Wisdom by Jack Trout

This was good fun to read. It puts one in the hot seat of a CEO for a company, and as luck would have it, you have a marketing genie that can tell you all the answers to tricky questions that your Finance, Marketing and Sales teams might give you. Like all Jack Trout's books, it gives a sound scientific or researched basis for how business works, and thus how you can logically make a business work well.

Intermission

You need to learn how businesses work. How they work together, against each other, in competition and in partnership. What will they do to undermine your growth. What can you do to increase your growth if necessary at their expense? How tough can you be? How loudly can you shout? How can you get the confidence to say “Our product is the best in the world!”. A Genie's wisdom above starts down that road. To get into more business science, there are some harder to read books, but you may find them easier than I, that give some good strategy planning:

Strategy Maps by Kaplan and Norton

Some useful disciplines here..

Winning by Jack Welch/Suzy Welch and Straight from the Gut by Jack Welch

Some interesting thoughts and tips on management from a very successful businessman. Quite easy to read, but starts to get outside of the quietness and subtly thinking that is natural to engineers and scientists. Some of the big power hungry, money grabbing types of books annoy me - this isn't one of them, but it is getting closer to my tolerance level! I think that is one of my failings! Back to chapter 1 for me.. Straight from the gut was great, because it reinforced my belief, that the hunches I had before making good or bad decisions were actually very important - if it does not feel right, then don't do it! I should have listened to my hunches more than I have..

The Psychology of Selling by Brian Tracy

Gosh - now we are getting a bit scary! But actually it is a very good insight into something I thought I was very bad at. However, one the main things offered by Brian Tracy is that the conventional thinking of a salesman who is pushy, loud and annoying, is actually counter-productive. He suggests that the very best salesman have the abilities to listen, understand and then advise clients on the best products and services for them. Actually, much closer to how I think a lot of engineers might think of talking about a product. However, there is a bite to it - you have to then have the skills to follow through the interest and turn it into a sale, but in a nice way that the customer is happy and smiley about. In fact all the things I like to have when I am buying something! So do not get put off by sales books. Most of the best ones are advising normal sensible friendly clever stuff..

Successful Managers Handbook published by DK

I found this useful when trying facing management tasks that I did not have experience in, or feel naturally comfortable with. For example, interviewing, firing, reprimanding. I do not feel I am good at giving bad news.. The book is large, and contains information across the spectrum on how to approach most management tasks.

Re-Imagine by Tom Peters

Quite fun and some challenging ideas. Some quite relevant to the engineers way of thinking. However, I found the pissed off style of writing fun to start with, but my enthusiasm was waning half way through. You may well like his style if you are feeling pissed off!

Guerrilla Marketing by Levinson, and The Guerilla Marketing Handbook by Levinson and Seth Godin

Great books for doing clever stuff to compete with the big boys, but on a budget. Contains lots of useful skills and ideas that may be in other books, but deals with them from the point of view of the small business. The handbook contains examples to get you going for ads and other marketing media. Any of the Guerrilla series would be a benefit to anyone in business..

The Evolution of Useful Things by Henry Petroski

Not always easy to read, but very interesting to see how some great ideas and things evolved to where they are now. Particularly interesting to me was the considerable time that some ideas took to become viable profit making products - eg the Zip. The refinement and the long term view to get there.. eventually.. are well described and easy to relate to if you have been down that path.. For those that are starting out, it is therefore useful to see how long it can take for good ideas and products to actually take hold..