CEO Reading Lists Have Fewer Celebrities and More Big Ideas

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Don't expect a map to the future.
The latest business books, like those of prior years, promise to help managers do everything better -- from building strong teams and winning customers to achieving robust profits. But management reading lists this year don't include tomes by celebrity executives. Instead, readers are seeking advice on the nitty-gritty tasks of running companies, analyzing complex data to make smart decisions and expanding undervalued assets.
"We're in a back-to-basics era with the names of many of the same authors still on best-seller lists," says David Hathaway, a book buyer at Barnes & Noble in New York. "There's no book by a big personality like (former General Electric CEO) Jack Welch on the horizon, and it's a challenge trying to find the next big hit," he adds.
Some new titles, in fact, tend to debunk the myth of the superhero top executive. In "True North: Discover Your Authentic Leadership," Bill George, a Harvard Business School professor and the former CEO of Medtronic, and his co-author Peter Sims, got 125 executives to talk about their failures and personal tragedies, and how these setbacks shaped them as leaders.
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Novartis CEO Daniel Vasella recalled how he spent years of his childhood in hospitals -- and consequently learned resilience and the need for empathy in health care. Kevin Sharer admitted how unhappy he felt when he quit GE for MCI, since acquired by Verizon, and realized he couldn't reverse that move. He learned patience -- and went on to become chairman of Amgen. The book's message to readers: acknowledge your weaknesses and don't aim for perfection.
In a similar vein, executive coach Ram Charan asserts in his latest book "Know-How: The 8 Skills that Separate People Who Perform From Those Who Don't," that great leadership depends less on charisma or having a commanding presence than it does on knowing customer needs, changing ahead of rivals, and being willing to learn new things.
Executives who admit their vulnerabilities, however, may not survive long enough to be included in a business book. The revolving door of the corner office is proving problematic for some authors. In "Know-How," Mr. Charan cites Home Depot's former CEO Robert Nardelli's restructuring of the retail chain as an example of his leadership acumen. By the time "Know-How" was published early this year, Mr. Nardelli had been ousted for alienating shareholders and refusing to reduce his hefty pay package.
In recent years, management-oriented books have stressed the importance of being able to continuously improve results. Now, more books emphasize innovation over execution -- the principle and vision behind the plans. Among these, "Made to Stick: Why Some Ideas Survive and Others Die" by Chip Heath and Dan Heath, tackles the question of how to come up with original and worthwhile ideas.
Private-equity investor and bankruptcy expert Wilbur Ross thinks business books tend to be geared toward people in their early careers who are learning how to get along with bosses, motivate employees and advance. He cautions even these readers not to follow rigid prescriptions by big names. "What worked for Jack Welch won't necessarily work in other cultures," says Mr. Ross, known for restructuring failed companies. "You can't isolate qualities of leadership that work in one place and transfer them wholesale."
Other CEOs, when asked which business books they're turning to, cite titles published several years ago. Tom Swidarski, CEO of Diebold, says he still refers to "Good to Great" by Jim Collins and "Wooden on Leadership," by UCLA basketball coach John Wooden.
"I have dozens of books in my offices, but these two are the ones I've underlined and written in the margins in" he says.
Although Mr. Wooden isn't a CEO or business professor, Mr. Swidarski adds, "he addresses issues I relate to, such as how to position a team or company and know your potential."
Maynard Webb, CEO of LiveOps, a Palo Alto, Calif., call-center outsourcing company, and former COO of eBay, says he was inspired by journalist Thomas Friedman's perennial best-seller "The World Is Flat," which explores the digital revolution and global economy. He also likes "Freakonomics: A Rogue Economist Explores the Hidden Side of Everything," by Steven Levitt and Stephen Dubner, which details how many apparent mysteries of everyday life can be understood through economics.
Readers currently are snapping up copies of "The No Asshole Rule," by Stanford University business professor Robert Sutton. The book, which evolved from a popular article in the Harvard Business Review, addresses bullies who "do their best to destroy employees at work."
Mr. Sutton offers numerous accounts of these destructive bosses. He asserts that companies that eliminate such bosses are more productive and profitable than those that tolerate them.
What's missing from bookstores, it seems, are more titles that show how executives have reshaped businesses so they don't become obsolete in the digital landscape, and ones that explain the new rules of the corner office, where CEOs must cater to an array of constituents.