Truth is, you only need one or two self help books. Once you start reading more, you realize they all are a bit the same. The same goes for business books. You only really need a small amount of business books before you’re lost in a maze of everyone’s version of the next best way to do things before you start to feel saturated in repeated messaging.
The important part is choosing books that you know you’d actually do the things it says to do. However, we’re not different from other business leaders giving you their recommended list of what you should read. We only have 2 foundational books, and an additional add-on for those who want tactical advice.
Our foundational books are recommended readings to anyone who had been on our team previously, and for any of our clients. In hopes of them running better, more fulfilling businesses.
This is our unsponsored recommended reading list- that hasn’t changed for over 5 years.
Unreasonable Hospitality: The Remarkable Power of Giving People More Than They Expect
What it’s about
Written by the head of Eleven Madison Park, Will Guidara, Unreasonable Hospitality takes you through the internal and external struggles of his quest on having Eleven Madison Park become the best restaurant in the world and the changes he made to get there.
The changes weren’t about food at all, quite the opposite, as the same suggests. Will encourages the reader to find the magic in what they do as a business leader and ask themselves the question on how they can give more to their customers, not less.
From personal stories of his mother’s passing and its influence on how he gives to others, to real customer stories of going above and beyond any expectations one may have dining at his restaurant, and to contrast, the financials of figuring out how to make that work.
Why we recommend it
The business world can be saturated with leaders talking about how to get more value out of your audience. From people encouraging you to do less for your customers for more money, to people finding ways to make shortcuts so they can lookout for their bottom line only.
All of those things are great if you only care about money at the end of the day.
But this book is for the real leaders who deeply care about what they do and who they do it for. For those who are looking to break their internal notions about giving to others, and find ways to make it sustainable to give your clients and customers unreasonable hospitality, and life changing experiences that they will remember forever.
We love what we do at brandch, and when we stumbled upon this book we were looking for ways to create a studio focused so much on giving the best of what we had, but sustainably.
This book is a bedrock on which our process and working attitudes sit upon.
What to lookout for when reading it
Here are a couple of things to lookout for when you’re reading this book:
- The emphasis on team building and strong leadership. As a foundation, everyone has to care consistently in order to deliver outstanding service.
- Values being the course director. Not just overgiving because you can, but giving in a way that aligns with business values and direction.
- If you’re a business owner who has been struggling with being underpaid, or undervalued by the people they work with, you might struggle with this reading encouraging you to give more. Notice that internal struggle and ask yourself where it comes from, and how you can build systems to sustain giving.
- You might like the section of: Know your non-negotiables. Because you might be struggling with boundary setting.
Good Strategy vs. Bad Strategy: The Difference And Why It Matters
What it’s about
Authored by Richard P. Rumelt, a UCLA professor and leader who has interviewed the likes of Steve Jobs and U.S. Generals during war to create concrete accounts for strategy, writes about the distinguished nature of what strategy truly is.
Positioning that good strategy is often rare, and real strategy misunderstood. With most misinterpreting things like goals and plans for strategy.
Rumelt presents a key framework for good strategy called The Kernel. Composed of a diagnosis, a guiding policy and coherent actions to execute on. Noting key mistakes you can make and do your best to avoid when setting strategic business goals. With real time examples on how it has worked for other companies.
Why we recommend it
We’ve worked with a variety of businesses on strategy setting, growth, and advertising. We still do for a select few of clients, working on solving unique business problems from handling brand acquisitions, sub-brands, capital raising campaigns, and more.
Over time, we noticed that business leaders often struggled with what is actually a good next step with their goals, how to understand problems at hand, and inconsistencies with their commitment to goals. We’ve seen a few businesses go under because of this very problem.
From leaders who have changing ideas every month, to those who had set very big goals randomly without a foundation as to why… we struggled watching them struggle with the true problem at hand without ever noticing it. Eventually adopting the practices in this book to encourage those leaders to make better strategic decisions and keep themselves afloat.
This book offered us key frameworks we use to this day to help our clients set up business fulfillment frameworks, make brand decisions, understand their product evolution, and help businesses grow.
Every single project we complete goes through The Kernel framework. We use the strategy found from The Kernel to figure out the unique positioning of everything we do, and how to have it work to solve real business problems for our clients.
What to lookout for when reading it
Here are some things you should know about when reading this book:
- You might feel called out. I know we did. This book will really help set you straight if you take the advice well. Don’t avoid the struggle.
- You have to actually start implementing changes. Lookout for bad strategy in your business decisions and realign them with better strategic decision processes like The Kernel.
- Don’t make the mistake of thinking strategy is some big grand word. It is just a problem solving framework. Problem solving skills are a foundational principle for business leaders to have.
The 1-Page Marketing Plan
What it’s about
Allan Dib simplifies marketing into one unique framework to help you understand how to get customers in an actionable way. It uses a 3-3-3 grid that any business owner of any size can do and understand simply. This book is all about action, making changes to have better results in your marketing and businesses growth.
Why we recommend it
We use this book and the 3-3-3 grid toward our own business and toward our clients’ businesses. Marketing is a key part of growth, and knowing how to market effectively and easily is important.
The best parts about this book are how actionable and simple it makes marketing. The business world is riddled with fluff, and this book very quickly cuts through the clutter. Very early into reading you will start to make changes that will help your business grow. Each day you read, you’ll have something to work on.
This 3-3-3 framework is so easy to do, yet so impactful. The more simple your marketing can be, the more effective.
What to lookout for when reading it
Make sure you keep these things in mind when reading:
- You have to actually do the things in the book to get the benefits of it. Don’t read it expecting to chew on insights, but instead to do things that very day.
- Don’t read it to get technical details on how to do everything like open an ad manager, but instead understand customer economics and growth.
- Be wary of thinking that effective things have to be complicated. Often effective marketing is streamlined and simple. We leave this quote for you:
- “An idiot admires complexity, a genius admires simplicity.”
We hope you enjoy the reading
Most of these books are only 13 hour long reads. Meaning, if you made the time you can finish one a week!
We swear by these books for our studio, how we operate and how we work for our clients. If you’re a client of ours, we recommend you read them to help you run a successful and fulfilling business.
And if you’re an observing reader: these books won’t waste your time. If you care about business, strategy, growth and creating a lasting impact, use these books as your guide.