Books to Improve Your Competitive Position

There are actions and strategies you can adopt to enhance your competitive position. You can develop a business plan. You can read business magazines and make a list of ideas gleaned from the articles you have read. You can go to conferences and see what other companies are doing, and you can speak to other business leaders to pick their brains.

These are all good options, but I think good business books can provide more substantive insights than magazines and conferences.

Although I have written five books, I tend to read a lot of other people's books for ideas that I can apply to the companies I run and advise. The books I like most are books that take a totally different approach to solving a problem, how-to books by experienced professionals and biographies -- not autobiographies. I don't like autobiographies because the CEOs that write them are not very forthcoming about their failures and shortcomings.

Each quarter, I will make recommendations on books that I think can improve your competitive position. ...