Management books

Recommendations for management books

Recommendations for management books. As we all know, the fear of future uncertainty is one of our deepest fears as human beings, so many people want to know which ones there are. Management readings, so do you know what management books I recommend to you? Let’s take a look together

Management books 1

1. Classic readings

A long-selling management book

“We should know how to use the strengths of our bosses, which is also the key to effective work of subordinates.”

Book Name: The Effective Manager

Author: [US] Peter Drucker

Note: Drucker is considered to be the person who pioneered management (making it a discipline) .

Comment: Drucker’s classic work emphasizes effectiveness. He even believed that an effective manager has nothing to do with his intelligence, talent, and imagination, but requires deliberate training. He lists relevant principles in this book: time management, being good at grasping the key points, paying more attention to results, and being good at benefiting people's strengths. . . . . etc.

He also gave some specific operational principles. For example, when it comes to effective decision-making, he said that effective managers need the results of decision-making, not decision-making skills; what they need is reasonable decision-making. Rather than looking like a smart decision. To make decisions, you need to be able to distinguish the nature of things, whether they are accidental or frequent; what you want is the correct decision, not the decision that people can accept; what you need is a decision that incorporates action rather than just talking on paper.

"Try to respect those who are capable, and let those who are incompetent go away."

Book title: Win

Author: [US] Jack Weir Odd, Susie Welch

Note: The author is the meritorious CEO of GE, and Susie is his third wife.

Comment: Jack Welch is a practical man (Susie Welch is his wife and served as the editor-in-chief of Harvard Business Review). This book touches on all aspects of management, from mission to values; from recruitment, assessment to dismissal; from strategy, budgeting to crisis management; mergers and acquisitions, how to get along with bosses, and even managing work-life balance. In fact, there is no innovation in management theory, but its application is extreme.

This book is very direct, and Welch’s convincing views and practices will be directly told to readers. Let’s give a few examples: When it comes to motivation issues, the author will tell you straightforwardly that money is of course a very important means of motivation. “Because as a boss, you’ve seen how effective money can be in igniting enthusiasm—even for people who say they don’t care about money! Money really plays a big role in motivating employees. "Look." Although he is mainly talking about other motivation methods, you must be an effective reader when reading and don't overlook some passing words. Another example is the last-place elimination system that he highly recommends, just like the sentence excerpted above, "Try to respect those who are capable, and let those who are incompetent go away." Welch’s 2-7-1 theory (employee composition: 20% of the best, 70% of the average, 10% of the poor, the 10% that are constantly being eliminated) became popular around the world because of his admiration, and many Chinese science and technology networks Companies are implementing it.

Welch also called pursuing an MBA a "waste of time." This book can be read simultaneously with "The Autobiography of Jack Welch".

2. Popular academic readings

Popular readings for academic research, easy to understand

"People who have done good things for you are better than those who have suffered The people you are kind to will be able to help you again."

Book title: Influence

Author: [American] Robert Cialdini

Note: The author also has a similar book called "Persuasion"

This book "Influence" is very influential. The author also has a book "Persuasion". You can read these two books together. , because it is based on the same theoretical basis. These are two psychological works, written in combination with a lot of psychological research, but written in a popular way and very interesting to read.

The author summarizes several principles that can improve influence/persuasion, many of which are widely used in social and business fields. For example, let’s take the “principle of conformity” (that is, following what everyone else does) as an example. The book says that the hotel puts a sign in the room that says “Most guests in the hotel reuse towels at least once during their stay.” This slogan can effectively increase the number of guests repeating their stay. Towel ratio. There are also counter-examples. A certain public garden put up a sign that said "Too many people pick flowers here, you shouldn't do this." The result was counterproductive, and more people picked flowers. In fact, this is a technique that is often used in the business field. Think about the slogans you often hear in advertisements, such as those that are far ahead in sales, circle the earth hundreds of times, and are used by millions of people every day. These are all taking advantage of herd. Principles provide psychological cues to consumers.

Another example is the "labeling technique" to improve influence/persuasion, which is to publicly put a "label" on others to indicate their personality, attitude or other characteristics, and then propose suggestions that match the characteristics of the label. Require. In order not to live up to his reputation, he will agree to your request. For example, praising children for their hard work can often lead to positive feedback. But as the author says, these techniques must be used honestly, that is, the labels must be factually correct. Of course, I don’t think readers will abuse this technique, because I know that you are a good person.

"Giving someone a number first will seriously affect the subsequent transaction price. The more you ask for, the more you get."

Book title: Priceless

Author: [American] William Poundstone

Title: The Price Game

Author: Leigh Caldwell

Comment: These are two books that study pricing issues from a psychological perspective. Prices are everywhere in your and my lives. This book can take you to peek into those interesting price magics and help you understand the true meaning of money and prices.

Product pricing is an unavoidable issue in business management. Price issues generally fall under the category of marketing in management classification.

Let's give a few examples, such as the "price anchoring" mentioned in "Priceless". You often see that the original price of something is the current price, which is the use of price anchoring. The first few pages of the restaurant's menu are full of dishes priced at one to two hundred or two to three hundred yuan. When I flip to the back, a dish costs seven or eighty yuan, and I suddenly feel that it's quite cheap, so I'll order the one at the back. If you remember Luo Yonghao's speech when he launched the mobile phone, you should remember the scene: first he proposed "how to build a high-quality 5,000 yuan mobile phone", then explained the hardware and software, and finally at the price announcement stage he proposed "how to make a 5,000 yuan mobile phone." Can a mobile phone with a price of 3,000 yuan be sold well?" This is the price he announced, and this is the application of the price anchoring principle.

Another example is the "differential pricing" mentioned in "The Price Game" (although the author does not seem to use this term). Why is it that the first-class cabin on an airplane has wider seats and better service, but the price is several times more expensive? Why do software companies such as Microsoft have family packages, business packages, and student discounts for their products? This is the differential pricing strategy. The principle is that people's price valuation of goods is subjective. Everyone's subjective valuation of a commodity is different due to different needs and incomes. But it is difficult to sell products at a different price to each consumer. But in order to make more profits, merchants want to identify those who are willing to pay higher prices. What should they do? Provide some added value. First class, economy class, high-end, low-end, high-end and low-end cars, and various membership levels are all designed to do this. Note that the basic services must be satisfactory (any cabin on the plane is delivered to the destination, all cars are guaranteed to run, and the software can run basic functions no matter what package it is), and then add some added value, and someone is willing to pay, because Everyone values ??goods differently. There is a saying that "you get what you pay for, two cents for what you pay, and three cents for one dollar." This is the truth. Merchants add a little added value, but the price increases a lot, just to attract people who are willing to pay more. Screen it out.

There are many techniques mentioned in the book, such as "If you buy this product, you will receive a free bonus worth 1,000 yuan." Please be sure to write clearly how much the value is, and don't just write that it is a great value, etc. ; Why should the consulting company’s service quotation be quoted in three packages: low, medium and high? The price ratio should be set to 1:2:8. In fact, the main recommendation is the mid-range package; customers will naturally think that the products placed on the right hand side are better than those placed on the left hand side. Expensive; the 2,000 yuan microwave oven placed in the mall is not for sale, it just hints to consumers that the 600 yuan microwave oven next to it is actually not expensive.

3. Academic readings

Purely academic works, usually used as teaching materials

“The purpose of the generous salary of the managing director is to motivate his subordinates to be poor and hungry. A young new employee, and this salary has very little to do with his own performance."

Book title: The Economics of Personnel Management

Author: [American] Edward Lacy. Er

Note: The author's name is now more translated as Edward Raziel.

Comment: Edward P. Lazear is known as the "Father of Managerial Economics". He was the chairman of President George W. Bush's Council of Economic Advisers. He is a favorite to win the Nobel Prize in Economics almost every year. Unfortunately, he passed away on November 23 last year (2020). He has a Chinese doctoral student, Liang Jianzhang, the chairman of Ctrip and a demographic economist.

This book "Personnel Management Economics" is his classic book. It is not easy to buy in China and has only been introduced as a teaching material.

As a textbook-level book, this book covers all aspects of personnel management and explains it clearly. Different from other management books, this is an academic research work that uses economic theory to analyze human resource issues. Empirical research clearly answers the following personnel management questions: how to recruit good employees, how to lay off employees, when and how to conduct appraisals, how important is money compared with other factors? Should we promote internally or introduce talents from outside, etc. This is a systematic work.

Lazier has many interesting theories. For example, he believes that CEOs do not need incentives and will work hard on their own. He also believes that in order to increase employee motivation, it is necessary to create more hierarchical positions within some companies.

Compared with actual contributions, many companies will have such a phenomenon: the salary of young employees is low (compared with actual contributions), while the salary of older employees is high (compared with actual contributions). Razer explained this: In order to motivate young employees, companies often promise them that they can easily receive high salaries in the future until retirement. While it's difficult to measure employee performance directly, there's always a chance that slackers will be fired, so employees work hard because they know that if they keep doing the job well, they'll be rewarded in the future.

He even explained "Why are company executives paid very generously?": The company executives are paid very high salaries. This is not to motivate them, but to motivate their poor and hungry young new employees. The compensation has little to do with the executive's own performance, as his or her productivity contribution is long overdue, and is intended to motivate would-be successors desperate for the rewards of the top job.

It’s a bit interesting. Friends who are interested can pay more attention to this scholar.

“The relationship between superiors and subordinates is based on asymmetry, which makes it difficult to implement the norms of reciprocal cooperation. Therefore, a successful bureaucracy is composed of actors who can find a large number of orders The way people convince themselves that they keep their word is to cooperate."

Title: Management Dilemmas

Author: Gary J. Miller

How can members of an organization be motivated to move beyond the self-interested behaviors that lead to abdication of responsibility? This is an academic work on organizational decision-making theory. In the way of human organization, corporate bureaucracy is considered to be an organizational form that replaces the market (Coase). But at the same time, the question also arises. In the corporate hierarchy, how to clearly define the output of each person in team production? How to avoid free riding among team members? How to clearly define reasonable labor remuneration? Enterprises use incentive systems to stimulate and supervise, and administrative authority to manage and restrict, but "at least one person is always motivated to persist in doing things that lead to inefficiency in the organization."

That is to say, the original purpose of bureaucracy is to reshape incentives "so that individuals in team production situations feel that it is no longer in their interest to shirk responsibility." However, abuse of power and short-term behavior. . . . . . Etc. seems to be forever ineradicable. Has the bureaucracy also failed? what to do? This is the management dilemma discussed in this book.

Miller analyzed various management dilemmas in company bureaucracies through the framework of new institutional economics and game theory. He also integrated the perspective of organizational behavior and finally put forward an important conclusion to solve management dilemmas: Corporate culture and leadership. Humans are not machines, and there is no perfect "input-feedback" path (operate exactly as instructed and achieve expectations). Therefore, leadership and informal systems (corporate culture) are needed to solve management dilemmas. Examples and culture are needed to inspire mutual trust and willingness to cooperate among employees. That is to say, it is indeed possible for leaders’ credible commitments and cliques to motivate and constrain employees, thereby solving the dilemma of bureaucratic management.

Although the above two books are academic management books, they are basically considered must-read books for managers. Therefore, I recommend it to everyone, although it is indeed not as good as popular books.

IV. Reflective readings

Reflecting on management works can also help you understand the overall development of management ideas

“It is not that managers learn those management ideas and then apply them , but managers use existing management ideas because they want to implement certain policies."

The myth of management consulting

Comments: The first two books each have subtitles: "Management Gurus: World-Class Management Thoughts" and "Corporate Witch Doctors: An Introduction to Contemporary Management" "The Most Authoritative Commentary on Masters and Thoughts" was probably added by the Chinese bookseller for the sake of sales (the original English subtitle did not mean what it was written in Chinese at all). However, in these two books, you can indeed see the mainstream management ideas in the world, but this is not its purpose. The purpose is to explain by sorting out these management ideas: why these management ideas are welcomed, best-selling, and popular stand up. From Taylor and Fayol to Drucker and Kotler, how did they become management masters?

"Management Master" also explains why successful inspirational books, 30-day management quick fix, and other seemingly greater management books are always popular in the business society. He wants to tell readers that the authenticity of ideas and their popularity are completely different things.

For example, the author mentioned that one reason is the needs of managers. It is not necessarily that the idea is really powerful, but it may be that managers think that the idea is "useful" to them, which makes it popular. Note “Useful” here does not mean that the idea can actually help business operations, but that it can find theoretical support for managers to implement the policies and strategies they want to implement and the actions they want to take, and it can play a role in publicity and promotion. For example, if a manager has an autocratic style of management, there is a theory that democratic decision-making and autocratic execution are better management methods. Then this manager may promote this idea in the company, "Everyone must read this book, it is well written" because it meets the manager's wishes.

The author talked about the promotion of management thought (just like a business, you have to sell your books and your ideas), the changes and inheritance of hot spots in management thought. It is those books that are easy to use, can always be "proven", are helpful for managers to manage, or promote how management is simple and easy to learn, which can sell well and become popular.

"Corporate Witch Doctor" is even more unkind (you can tell from the title). The author said that these masters publish various best-selling books and put forward various popular opinions just to make money. The author begins by criticizing the "corporate reengineering" theory that was extremely popular in the 1990s as an excuse for corporate layoffs; criticizes "The Pursuit of Excellence", saying that its author Tom Peters is a performer; and saying that Drucker's theory is a "management utopia." . In fact, like many other social sciences, many management theories are full of contradictions, and management scientists themselves have to admit it.

"The Myth of Management Consulting" tells the story of a person who has never studied management or MBA, who enters a consulting company and transforms into a management guru. He is confused and angry.

This book will take you to peek into the working status and operating methods of top consulting companies. What are they doing?

The author of this book is even more mean: Is management consulting a science or a business? Why are Jim Collins’s (author of Built to Last and Good to Great) such inferior books so popular? What is the raison d’être of business schools?

The author is very direct: modern management thinking is absolutely extremely wrong. It has led us into a dangerous situation; it makes us mistakenly seek scientific answers to unscientific questions; It offers false technical solutions to moral and political problems; it creates an easily exploitable illusion about the nature and value of managerial skills; it tempts us in our formative years to devote ourselves to tasks that do not exist subject training.

If you are a manager who has read a lot about management, and is someone who is really willing to face up to and delve into management, I recommend you to read these books.

Journalist Drucker made management a discipline. He said that for managers, "doing the right thing" is more important than "doing the right thing". The former is also business management. One difficulty: vision. As for whether it is correct or not, it seems that only afterwards can we know. Or, maybe, we won’t necessarily know after the fact.

Can we discover the absolute truth? Not sure. But even if we discover the truth, we cannot be sure that what we have discovered is the truth.

None of us can ensure that what we see, hear, smell, and touch is the real world. In our eyes, the world is vast and colorful, but physicists tell us that the world has no color, and color is not an attribute of the object itself. The smell of snail noodles (sour bamboo shoots) that makes you crave is actually the same smell (hydrogen sulfide) that makes you avoid other people's farts. The evolutionary process has given us visual wonders, auditory illusions, tactile engines, emotional feedback, and behavioral drivers to perceive the world. However, these perceptions and feedback are so harmonious with the real world that they allow us to survive and reproduce. This is nature’s masterpiece of giving our nervous system. Management books 2

1: "12 Must-Reads for Managers"

12Reads Xinhui Zhongzheng Leadership

Reason for recommendation: As a business manager As a reporter, you are also a professional. Facing the increasingly complex organizational environment and business background, how should you maintain your competitiveness and achieve a leap towards high performance? As a professional, your professional abilities will be your first step toward high performance and more achievements, but they are not enough. Obviously, in today's world where more emphasis is placed on people-oriented management and collaborative culture, you also need to have superior social skills. Therefore, the textbook "12 Must-Reads for Managers" believes that adhering to the dual cultivation of "professional abilities + interpersonal skills" is the magic weapon for your decisive battle in the workplace. However, how do you get all this? "12 Must-read Articles for Managers" gives detailed answers. The book "12 Must-read Things for Managers" has been a best-seller to this day and has influenced countless managers and management scholars. It cuts into the essence of management, provides an incisive and unique discussion on the role, duties, and functions of managers and the challenges they will face in the future, revealing the mysteries and practices of management.

2: "Wanda Philosophy: Wang Jianlin's first self-report on his management methods"

Wang Jianlin

Reasons for recommendation: 26 years of management scriptures, 60 years of life wisdom, words The words are all informative. Wang Jianlin wrote everything in manuscript, covering his life, business, and corporate transformation. Content introduction: Some people say that Wang Jianlin is an outstanding business opportunity hunter in this era. He discovered the thickest snow - the lucrative real estate industry, and the longest slope - several major opportunities for urbanization and consumption boom. Wang Jianlin's true experience in business management, his insight into human nature, and his keenness towards business trends can all be found first-hand in the book "Wanda Philosophy".

3: "Entrepreneurship is Difficult: How to Accomplish More Difficult Things"

(U.S.) Ben Horowitz

Reason for recommendation: Internet Ben Horowitz, King's founder Marc Andreessen's perfect partner for 18 years and venture capital mentor to the new generation of Silicon Valley upstarts, has more than 20 years of experience in venture capital.

Recommended by Mark Zuckerberg, Peter Thiel, Larry Page, and Dick Costolo! Content introduction: How to fire an executive? Should you poach people from a good friend’s company? Should we hire senior people? What should CEOs in good times and CEOs in war times do? How to plan your corporate culture? Should you sell your company? These are problems that entrepreneurs and business managers encounter every day, but they are never taught to you in business schools, and very few people sincerely tell you about the unimaginable hardships under the gorgeous coat of entrepreneurship. In Startup Hard: How to Accomplish Hard Things, Ben Horowitz gives practical advice on how to build and run a startup. While most management books tell you how to do the right thing without screwing up, Ben Horowitz also tells you what to do when things screw up.

4: "Redefining the Company: How Google Works"

(U.S.) Schmidt, etc.

Reason for recommendation: Eric, the head of Google Schmidt's first domestically introduced work. Google founder Larry Page wrote the preface and recommended it, and Kaifu Lee, Zeng Ming, Long Yu, and Ren Xianghui highly recommended it. Content introduction: Today's Google is the most iconic company in the world, making innovative breakthroughs in various fields and pushing towards the limits of technology. The authors of "Redefining the Company: How Google Runs" are Google Executive Chairman Eric Schmidt and former Senior Vice President Jonathan Rosenberg. They personally share the management inspiration they have learned in helping Google grow for more than ten years. : Technology is changing all aspects of business. The pace of change is unprecedented and is still accelerating. If companies want to gain a foothold in the Internet era, they must formulate new business rules.

5: "Influence"

(U.S.) Cialdini

Reason for recommendation: One of the 75 must-read business books highly recommended by Fortune magazine one! Popular around the world for twenty years! If you are working in marketing or sales, "Influence" is the first book you should read carefully from beginning to end. It will help managers make better decisions and use their influence wisely...

Content introduction: "Influence" has been the best-selling book since its publication. Because of its influence, persuasion became a science. Whether you are an ordinary person or someone lobbying for a product or cause, this is the most basic book and the cornerstone of your understanding of people's psychology. In this book, psychologist Robert? B? Dr. Cialdini explains why some people are so persuasive that we are so easily deceived. The six psychological secrets hidden behind impulsively obeying the behavior of others are the root of it all. Those who are masters of persuasion always use them skillfully to get us to comply.

6: "Give you a team, how can you manage it?" 》

Zhao Wei

Reason for recommendation: "Give you a team, how can you manage it?" "Half a year after the first volume was launched, the cumulative sales reached 500,000. In response to reader demand, the second practical version is now available! For the first time, the winning concept of "Team Index" is proposed to teach you how to turn a mediocre team into an ace team with high efficiency! General Electric, Toyota, Lenovo, Apple, Microsoft and other Fortune 500 companies are all learning!

Content introduction: In response to managers’ confusion in team building, the author, through years of research and practice, has summarized a measurement standard that is widely applicable to efficient teams - the team index. Regardless of the size of the team, managers can use this to determine the health index of the team, identify problem areas, and propose practical solutions. In addition, the author provides team leaders with legal and practical guidance on team cohesion, execution, team connections, team psychology, leadership and other aspects to deal with problems that have already occurred in the team and avoid possible problems in the team. issues and guide managers to create an excellent team with efficient operation and healthy development. The main purpose of this book is to use vivid cases and in-depth analysis of team management to enable managers to make efficient team plans with high hopes and high morale, and to build mediocre teams into teams with ace combat effectiveness.

7: "Crossover: Opening up a new trend in the integration of the Internet and traditional industries"

Tencent Technology Channel

Reason for recommendation: The first comprehensive interpretation of the Internet and traditional industries Writings on cross-border trends and opportunities. Tencent Technology spent half a year conducting in-depth industry research on 80 companies in 9 industries.

If you don't read "Crossover", you will be eliminated by the times. Content introduction: Mobile Internet is the current trend of the times and has become unstoppable. The Internet of Things is the industry trend in the next 10 years. The dawn of the Internet era has arrived, and the world will bid farewell to the information age we have just become familiar with. In China, giants led by BAT have begun a series of mergers and acquisitions in response to cross-border trends, including even the cultural industries we are familiar with. Alibaba has started crowdfunding movies. Can you imagine that in future movies, everyone will be able to star in whatever they like? This is just the tip of the iceberg of change. Internet finance is ushering in spring, smart hardware has become a new driving force for wealth creation, online education is sprouting, and everyone is embracing the Internet for food, drink and entertainment... The mobile Internet trend is sweeping traditional industries with unprecedented momentum. Between integration and collision, horizontal integration and vertical reshaping of the industry are ongoing. The book "Crossover" explains for you the current landscape and changing trends of China's mobile Internet industry, helping you see through the clouds and seize development opportunities.

8: "Business Adventure: 12 Classic Stories from Wall Street"

(U.S.) John Brooks

Reason for recommendation: Three important books since the 21st century Financial books: "Business Adventure", "From 0 to 1", "Capital in the 21st Century", a favorite business book by Bill Gates and Buffett, ranked No. 1 on the recommended must-read list at the 2015 TED Conference, and swept the bestseller list A blockbuster work. Content introduction: This book narrates the adventurous moments of 12 companies/institutions. At the moment when danger and opportunity coexist, these entrepreneurs use all their wisdom to plan and face the challenge with the most fearless spirit. Some people are defeated and others are successful. When playing a song of victory, some people fail and succeed, while some people learn their shame and then become brave. Such tragic or brilliant dramas are performed every day on the business stage. Business success comes from taking risks, while failure comes from ignorance.

9: "Growth Hacking: User and Revenue Growth Secrets for Startup Companies"

Fan Bing

Reason for recommendation: How does the entrepreneurial team face the number of users and profits? Growth and many other challenges? This is the wisdom you so desperately need! The pioneer book that introduces the concept of Growth Hacker in China! Chen Danian, Feng Dahui, Wu Jiang, Liu Chengcheng... dozens of celebrities from the five major technology media, the top ten VCs, and BAT3M jointly recommended it! Tim Draper, the founder of viral marketing and legendary Silicon Valley investor, recommended the foreword. Content introduction: There are a large number of books on the market about how Internet companies do marketing, but most of them fall into the two methods of "burning money" and "manual labor". In fact, in Silicon Valley on the other side of the ocean, a brand new profession - growth hacking - is gradually leading and reshaping the concepts of marketing and growth in the Internet industry. The concept of "growth hacker" has emerged in the American Internet entrepreneurial circle in recent years. It is a new team role between technology and market. It mainly relies on the power of technology and data to achieve various marketing goals, rather than relying on smashing in the traditional sense. Money is used to acquire users for marketing roles. They can comprehensively consider the factors affecting product development from a perspective that single-line thinkers often overlook and from a height that is difficult to reach, propose transformation and development strategies based on the product itself, and achieve user growth with practical basis, low cost, and controllable risks. , increased activity, increased income and other business purposes. To put it simply, it is to use "technology" at low or even zero cost to achieve effective growth of products.

10: "I am a micro-businessman: Cultivation notes of micro-business with a monthly income of 500,000 yuan"

Xu Dongyao

Recommended reason: super best-seller, Chinese micro-business The business association mentor, the popular micro-business mentor, and the "Voice of Dongyao" radio host publicly shared his growth and success experience for the first time, and has helped 5,000 companies and millions of people embark on the micro-business path. Content introduction: This book is the most persuasive, practical and technical book in the field of micro-business. This book is an in-depth summary of the author's personal growth and practical experience. It is for all small businesses who want to do micro-business and those who have just started to do micro-business. The partners provide a systematic approach and a wealth of rare techniques.