Mark McDonald

It’s the end of the year and many will be coming out with lists of the “best of” for the coming year.  Here one from me – good business books that came out in  2009 in alphabetical order by the authors last name — my 10th grade english teacher would be proud.   This past year has been one of challenge and change creating tough questions that CIOs and business executives have had to address.

The following books have done a good job, in my opinion, in providing responses, tools and other insight for executives.

Change by Design: How Design Thinking Transforms Organizations and Inspires Innovation. New York, NY: HarperBusiness.  2009.

Authored by Tim Brown the CEO at IDEO, this book discusses the importance of design as a discipline for change and the design process.  Design is important concept and this book provides a detailed description of the design process and its application in a number of situations.

Here is a link to my original review of the book.  LINK

How The Mighty Fall: And Why Some Companies Never Give In New York, NY: HarperCollins.  2009.

Jim Collins, the author of Good to Great, has created a version of those concepts in the context of economic crisis creating a focused playbook in this circumstance.  The book highlights five stages of a company’s march down the slope.  It is included in this list as a framework for IT leaders to be aware of, particularly given Collin’s mind share with executives.

Here is a link to my original review of book: LINK

The Real Business of IT: how CIOs create and communicate value. Cambridge, MA: Harvard Business School Press.  2009.

Richard Hunter and George Westerman create a book that provides solid tools and approaches for IT to increase the business relevance and impact of their metrics.  Business relevant IT metrics is a persistent issue with CIOs and IT leaders and this book provides a solid view on how to do this.  This is more of a book for IT people than business exec’s but well worth the time.

Here is a link to the review on my blog:  LINK

The Upside of Turbulence: Seizing Opportunity in an Uncertain World.  New York, NY: HarperBusiness.  2009.

Donald Sull seeks to shake up managers and the way they are thinking about leading in turbulent times.  The book achieves this goal giving managers new ideas and tools to jolt them out of micromanaging the bottom line.  Some of the ideas in the book are not new, however Sull’s treatment of them and the supporting tools provided in this book make it a recommended read in my opinion.

Here is a link to the review on my blog: LINK

IT Savvy: What Top Executives Must Know to Go from Pain to Gain. Cambridge MA: Harvard Business School Press.  2009

MIT Center for Information Systems Research (CISR) researchers Peter Weill and Jeannie Ross have created a business book about IT with a clear and concise argument of the role, purpose and contribution IT makes to the enterprise.  This is a book executives should read because it clearly states mostly in business terms how executives should think about, lead and fund IT.

Here is a link to the review on my blog: LINK

I am sure that there are other great books that came out in 2009.  These are just the ones that I found to be particularly helpful this year.

What are your recommendations?

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Category: Book Review Strategy Tools     Tags: Book Review, Business, Economy, Innovation, Strategy and Planning

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