First Alternate for Business Book of the Year

We have been a big fan of Dan Roam and his book The Back of The Napkin. We wrote the Jack Covert Selects review in March. That same month, we published the lost chapter on ChangeThis. Dan Roam spoke at our LeaveSmarter series in Milwaukee. We also published an excerpt from the book with pictures and all.

In announcing the winners of the 800-CEO-READ Business Book Awards last week, The Back of the Napkin was absent from any of the lists and this omission has been on my mind.

In looking back at all of the selections, was BotN a sales book? Did the title improve the abilities of a leader? Did the book help you look at the world differently? The answer to all of these questions is 'yes'. And that is the problem. Roam's book didn't fit squarely into any of our categories. I guess I am saying it was a victim of the system. We didn't know where to put it and The Back of The Napkin fell through the cracks.

I think that is pretty lame though, blaming a glaring, problematic oversight on a arbitrary set of rules.

This left me with the problem of what to do about it.

Since we are not a company or awards program built on formalities, I decided to make something up.

So, I hereby declare The Back of The Napkin by Dan Roam the First Alternate for Business Book of The Year.

This title carries with it certain (just created) honors and responsibilities:

1. This is a very important book that should be read by everyone who participates in any form of commerce.
2. This title shares a similar level of importance to the 13 other category winners.
3. 800-CEO-READ reserves the right to name or not name a First Alternate in the following years of the Business Book Awards
4. If at any point, should the Business Book of The Year not be able to perform its duties as titleholder, the First Alternate will take its place with all rights and responsibilities of the top title.

P.S. If you are wondering at all about the sincerity of this post, understand that we are poking fun at ourselves rather than the book and we totally want you to read The Back of the Napkin.