strategy + business Best Books of 2007

The folks over at strategy + business have chosen what they consider the best business books of the year. There were eight categories, and each one was assigned to an expert in that field for review. Each reviewer also delivered an essay on the books chosen, and they are all good reads. The categories were Behavioral Theory, Biography, Biotech, Capitalism, The Entrepreneurs, Human Capital, Innovation, and Strategy. If you'd like to learn more about the the reviewers, or would like to read their essays, you can find all of that on their website (membership is free). Here I will just list the books chosen, putting "s+p's Top Shelf" in bold and starring the books that made our shortlist as well. Behavioral Theory: reviewed by Howard Rheingold

Crowd of One: The Future of Individual Identity by John Henry Clippinger, PublicAffairs *Everything Is Miscellaneous: The Power of the New Digital Disorder by David Weinberger, Times Books The Social Atom: Why the Rich Get Richer, Cheaters Get Caught, and Your Neighbor Usually Looks Like You by Mark Buchanan, Bloomsbury USA

Biography: reviewed by James O'Toole

Andrew Carnegie by David Nasaw, Penguin Press Andy Grove: The Life and Times of an American by Richard S. Tedlow, Portfolio The Wizard of Menlo Park: How Thomas Alva Edison Invented the Modern World by Randall Stross, Crown

Biotech: reviewed by by Joe Flower

Intervention: Confronting the Real Risks of Genetic Engineering and Life on a Biotech Planet by Denise Caruso, Hybrid Vigor Press Science Business: The Promise, the Reality, and the Future of Biotech by Gary P. Pisano, Harvard Business School Press

Capitalism: reviewed by Diane Coyle

Good Capitalism, Bad Capitalism, and the Economics of Growth and Prosperity by William J. Baumol, Robert E. Litan, & Carl J. Schramm, Yale University Press *Grande Expectations: A Year in the Life of Starbucks' Stock by Karen Blumenthal, Crown Business The Most Important Fish in the Sea by Bruce Franklin, Island Press The New Capitalists:How Citizen Investors Are Reshaping the Corporate Agenda by Stephen Davis, Jon Lukomnik, & David Pitt-Watson, Harvard Business School Press Prophet of Innovation: Joseph Schumpeter and Creative Destruction by Thomas K. McCraw, Belknap Press

The Entrepreneurs: reviewed by Tom Ehrenfeld

Founders at Work: Stories of Startups' Early Days by Jessica Livingston, Apress Mommy Millionaire: How I Turned My Kitchen Table Idea into a Million Dollars, and How You Can, Too! by Kim Lavine, St. Martin's Press *No Man's Land: What to Do When Your Company Is Too Big to Be Small but Too Small to Be Big by Doug Tatum, Portfolio *Typo: The Last American Typesetter, or How I Made and Lost 4 Million Dollars by David Silverman, Soft Skull Press

Human Capital: reviewed by R. Gopalakrishnan

30 Reasons Employees Hate Their Managers: What Your People May Be Thinking and What You Can Do about It by Bruce L. Katcher with Adam Snyder, AMACOM Ego Check: Why Executive Hubris Is Wrecking Companies and Careers and How to Avoid the Trap by Mathew Hayward, Kaplan Business Five Minds for the Future by Howard Gardner, Harvard Business School Press Hot Spots: Why Some Teams, Workplaces, and Organizations Buzz with Energy — and Others Don't by Lynda Gratton, Berrett-Koehler The Truth about Being a Leader... and Nothing But the Truth by Karen Otazo, FT Press

Innovation: reviewed by Michael Schrage

Brilliant! Shuji Nakamura and the Revolution in Lighting Technology by Bob Johnstone, Prometheus Books Dreaming in Code: Two Dozen Pro-grammers, Three Years, 4,732 Bugs, and One Quest for Transcendent Software by Scott Rosenberg, Crown Books The Myths of Innovation by Scott Berkun, O'Reilly Media Sketching User Experiences: Getting the Design Right and the Right Design by Bill Buxton, Morgan Kaufmann

Strategy: reviewed by David Newkirk

Dragons at Your Door: How Chinese Cost Innovation Is Disrupting Global Competition by Ming Zeng & Peter J. Williamson, Harvard Business School Press Strategic Intuition: The Creative Spark in Human Achievement by William Duggan, Columbia University Press The Strategy Paradox: Why Committing to Success Leads to Failure (and What to Do about It) by Michael E. Raynor, Doubleday Unstoppable: Finding Hidden Assets to Renew the Core and Fuel Profitable Growth by Chris Zook, Harvard Business School Press Wal-Smart: What It Really Takes to Profit in a Wal-Mart World by William H. Marquard, McGraw-Hill

We're big fans of the strategy + business list and the essays they include each year. Todd has written a post on the list each year dating back to 2003. If you're interested in what titles they've chosen in the past, I've linked to those posts below. 2006 2005 2004 2003