A Few Business Books

"The Five Dysfunctions of a Team: A Leadership Fable" by Patrick Lencioni
"It's also a novel and a quick read. It teaches a model of teamwork that's based on trusting one another enough to hold each other together as a team – while you debate and have vigorous conflict around each idea. We're following this model, and we've had huge breakthroughs – growth in market segments where we didn't have a clear plan."

"It's Your Ship: Management Techniques From the Best Damn Ship in the Navy" by D. Michael Abrashoff
"It's about a Navy ship that was constantly under-performing and, through culture, became what they called 'the best damn ship in the Navy.' This book swept through the organization. Now we talk about it routinely: How do we become the best damn division in the company? We want to be the best damn supplier to our customers."

"Kanban Made Simple: Demystifying and Applying Toyota's Legendary Manufacturing Process" by John M. Gross and Kenneth R. McInnis
"People used this as a practical guide. It had examples, it came with a disk they could use. They took a part of our business that ran six days a week and started running it five days a week."

"Ideas Are Free: How the Idea Revolution Is Liberating People and Transforming Organizations" by Alan G. Robinson and Dean M. Schroeder
"Competitors can copy big ideas, so you need a systematic approach to generate as many small ideas as you can, and you need to measure them… It's a natural fit with an employee-owned company. You're an owner, and this is what you should be doing – coming up with ideas that benefit us all."

"The Gold Mine: A Novel of Lean Turnaround" by Freddy Ballé and Michael Ballé
"This business novel tells the story of a manufacturing company. It's a lean-manufacturing transformation story. There's a lot of human story, but it teaches practical tools, like making only as much [of the product] as the customer wants to buy, at the rate they want to buy it."

"How to Get Rich" by Felix Dennis, the founder of Dennis Publishing
"An insightful and entertaining book of going from dirt poor to filthy rich."

"The SAIC Solution" by J. Robert Beyster, the founder of SAIC, and Peter Economy
"This is a combination autobiography and business book, with the emphasis on the latter. Mr. Beyster grew the business from nothing to 45,000 employees over 30 years at the top. Lots of interesting advice and lessons for entrepreneurs, particularly those in the technology sector."

"The Big Box Swindle" by Stacey Mitchell
"This is about how an independent business can succeed in competing against corporate giants through collaborative efforts."