Leaders In London

This is the first of six book recommendations from Luke Johnson, who multiplied PizzaExpress’s share price by twenty-fold before selling that company, who started his first company at the age of 18 and has been growing and selling them ever since, and who is coming to Leaders in London 2008 to tell us how to lead for business growth.

“There are huge numbers of business books published, but most are unreadable and written by non-entities. That does not apply to my magic half-dozen.

“The first choice is a sort of cheat, in that it is an anthology of essays and articles by legendary figures in commerce and industry. It is called The Book of Business Wisdom, edited by Peter Krass. It includes incisive and revealing pieces by pioneers such as Andrew Carnegie, the steel baron, and Thomas Alva Edison, the inventor and entrepreneur, as well as Sam Walton’s rules for success and Thomas J Watson, who built IBM, on selling with sincerity. There is David Ogilvy on leadership, Intel’s Andrew Grove on time management and Benjamin Franklin on the ‘way to wealth’.

Here, for example, is Franklin on laziness and industry: ‘Sloth, like rust, consumes faster than labor wears, while the used key is always bright. Dost thou love life? Then do not squander time, for that’s the stuff life is made of’.

Or Sam Walton 250 years later recommending his 10 rules for building a business but also pointing out: ‘They are some rules that worked for me. But I always prided myself on breaking everybody else’s rules, and I always favoured the mavericks who challenged my rules. In the end I listened to them a lot more closely than I did the pack who always agreed with everything I said’.

All in all, The Book of Business Wisdom is a classic collection of brilliant business minds…”

The Book of Business Wisdom
Classic Writings by
The Legends of Commerce and Industry
Edited by Peter Krass

Recommended by: Luke Johnson, Chairman of Channel 4 and Capital Risk Partners, who will be presenting at Leaders in London 2008 .

More like this? Luke Johnson’s recommended reads is a regular item in the Leaders in London monthly tips and insights email, called Taking The Lead, which you can sign up to for free. There’s a link over on the right, near the top of this page, where you can sign up for the free email newsletter if you want.

Posted on behalf of
Leaders in London
by
Phil Dourado of
The Leadership Hub

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