Books like Good to Great

01

Built to Last: Successful Habits of Visionary Companies

Jim Collins and Jerry I. Porras · Business

Built to Last is Jim Collins and Jerry Porras's six-year research project into what separates companies that endure for decades from those that simply perform well for a season.

Both dig into leadership.

02

Zero to One: Notes on Startups, or How to Build the Future

Peter Thiel · Business

Zero to One began as notes from a Stanford course Thiel taught on startups in 2012, assembled into a book with co-author Blake Masters.

A kindred business read.

03

Start with Why

Simon Sinek · Business

Start with Why is Simon Sinek's argument that the most influential leaders and organizations in history didn't succeed because they made better products or ran smarter campaigns.

Both dig into leadership.

04

Outliers: The Story of Success

Malcolm Gladwell · Psychology

Outliers is Malcolm Gladwell's argument that exceptional success is less a product of individual genius or drive than it is of hidden advantages, timing, and accumulated opportunity.

A kindred business read.

05

The Lean Startup

Eric Ries · Business

The Lean Startup is Eric Ries's argument that the biggest cause of startup failure is not building the wrong product — it's spending months or years building something before finding out whether anyone wants it.

A kindred business read.

06

Beyond Entrepreneurship

Jim Collins & William Lazier · Business

Beyond Entrepreneurship is Jim Collins's first major book, co-written with William Lazier and published in 1992, before the research that produced Built to Last and Good to Great.

Shares leadership and strategy with Good to Great.

07

Good Strategy Bad Strategy

Richard Rumelt · Business

Good Strategy Bad Strategy is Richard Rumelt's indictment of the strategic planning process as it is practiced in most organizations, and his articulation of what genuine strategy actually requires.

Shares leadership and strategy with Good to Great.

08

Loonshots

Safi Bahcall · Business

Loonshots is physicist and biotech CEO Safi Bahcall's argument that the most transformative innovations — the kind he calls loonshots, after the eccentric northern bird — are fragile ideas that look foolish or impossible until they suddenly aren't, and that organizations systematically kill them long before they get a chance to prove themselves.

Shares leadership and strategy with Good to Great.

09

Management

Peter F. Drucker · Business

Management is Peter Drucker's most comprehensive statement on what managers do, why organizations exist, and what separates effective management from the appearance of it.

Shares leadership and strategy with Good to Great.

10

Managing

Harold Geneen · Business

Managing is Harold Geneen's account of the principles that governed his twenty-year tenure as CEO of ITT, which he transformed from a modest international telephone company into one of the largest conglomerates in the world.

Shares leadership and corporate culture with Good to Great.

11

No Rules Rules: Netflix and the Culture of Reinvention

Reed Hastings and Erin Meyer · Business

No Rules Rules is Reed Hastings's account of the management philosophy that has governed Netflix since the company pivoted from DVDs to streaming and built one of the most watched entertainment platforms in the world.

Shares leadership and strategy with Good to Great.

12

Powerful: Building a Culture of Freedom and Responsibility

Patty McCord · Business

Powerful is Patty McCord's account of the people philosophy she developed as Chief Talent Officer at Netflix between 1998 and 2012.

Shares leadership and corporate culture with Good to Great.