No "Jack Welch" on the horizon

It's interesting how many inquiries we receive regarding "CEO" books. Not from customers, but from the media. There seems to be a fascination with the stories of heroic or villainous business gurus. Remember the sensation surrounding the release of Carly Fiorina's memoir? Conveniently released around the inquiries into HP's spying scandal. As it turns out, the latest trends in business book sales are not toward the famous CEO biographies (though, of course, we have seen success with titles like Tough Choices and Andy Grove), but toward the books that help people find answers to questions and solutions to problems. In today's Wall Street Journal, in the Marketplace section, the "In the Lead" column discusses the books that business people--even executives--are turning to, books that "promise to help managers to everything better--from building strong teams and winning customers to achieving robust profits." This latest wave of business books also stresses "the importance of being able to continuously improve results. Now, more books emphasize innovation over execution--the principle and vision beyond the the plans." A few titles mentioned in the article:

• True North: Discover Your Authentic Leadership (which actually debunks "the myth of the superhero top executive)
• Know-How: The 8 Skills that Separate People Who Perform from Those Who Don't
• Made to Stick: Why Some Ideas Survive and Others Die
• The World is Flat
• Freakonomics
• The No Asshole Rule