At work we got the idea of collaboratively building a list of great business-related books so we can all benefit from what we've each discovered. I'm a bit of a junky when it comes to this stuff so here are the books I added to our official list...
Linked - Explains how networks form, what they mean, emergent properties. See also 80/20 Principle.
80/20 Principle - Linked explains the why better, but this rule is simply everywhere you have a network. 80% of the wealth held by 20% of the population, etc.
Wisdom of Crowds - How groups of people can make better decisions than an individual and what are the cases where this breaks down?
Business Strategy
Innovators Dilemma - Probably the most important biz book of our time. Explains why/how startups consistently run over big entrenched players.
Management
Built to Last, Good to Great - Both by same author and cover same topic: how might you build a long lasting great company?
Gut Feelings - Explains where they come from and how effective gut instincts are as a decision making tool.
Sales
Influence: Psychology of Persuation - A study in all the techniques ever used to try and sell you something. Backed up with references to experiments, etc.
Investing/Econ
The Origin of Financial Crises - See previous post.
Fooled by Randomness, The Black Swan: Impact of the Highly Improbable - Both tell the same story, first one is better written. Financial crises happen far more often than people think, our models are wrong.
Predictably Irrational - Fun stories about how humans aren't the "rational" actors economists assumed they were.
