Been behind on my reading because of travel and the rest of it. I recently finished two business books which both rocked. I don’t read many business books so when I do I endure them to a rigorous screening process.
1. The Ultimate Question: Driving Good Profits and True Growth by Fred Reichheld — This really got me thinking in a new light about measuring and categorizing customer satisfaction.
The Ultimate Question is simple: "How likely is it that you would recommend this company to a friend or colleague?" Everything flows from there. I’d say more but instead check out Chris Yeh’s detailed notes on the book (which is why I bought it). You needn’t buy the book to get the point — just read the notes.
2. Financial Intelligence: A Manager’s Guide to Knowing What the Numbers Really Mean by Karen Berman and Joe Knight — Everything you wanted to know but were afraid to ask. Despite being geared toward a middle manager in a big organization, it still is packed with Finance 101 insights. The financial/accounting side of business is a big weakness, so elementary books like this help me out a lot. If you are a marketing / technology / products kind of entrepreneur, but realize that understanding the underpinning financial drivers of the business is critical (and you’re clueless like me), read this book.
"You needn’t buy the book to get the point — just read the notes." ??? I know someone who’d disagree 🙂
Yes I noticed my own contradiction from my earlier post when I typed that. Ha. I guess I’d say it depends. For The Ultimate Question I *do* think you could get away with just notes or a summary, since it’s not deep at all, and it’s uni-faceted. Anything deeper than this and I would argue that you should read it to reflect while reading.