A Vision for Venture Capital: Realizing the Promise of Global Venture Capital & Private Equity
by Peter A. Brooke (MBA ’54) with Daniel Penrice
(New Ventures)

This book chronicles the career of Peter Brooke, who has been called “the Johnny Appleseed of venture capital” for his role in the industry’s growth from a small base in the U.S. North-east in the 1960s to today’s highly visible role in economies all over the world. Brooke lays out his vision for the industry as an essential element of economic growth and development.

What’s Next, Gen X? Keeping Up, Moving Ahead, and Getting the Career You Want
by Tamara Erickson (MBA ’78)
(Harvard Business Press)

Erickson shows how members of Generation X — the 30–45 age cohort sandwiched between Boomers (who refuse to retire) and Gen Ys (with their relentless confidence and demands for attention) — can move forward in their careers. She explains the forces affecting attitudes and behaviors in each generation and analyzes the implications of organizational and technological changes for their future.

Numbers Rule Your World: The Hidden Influence of Probability and Statistics on Everything You Do
by Kaiser Fung (MBA ’01)
(McGraw-Hill)

Fung explores the hidden world of statistics that rule individuals’ lives, jobs, commutes, vacations, food, health, money, and success. Statistics are how engineers calculate a person’s quality of life, how corporations determine individual needs, and how politicians estimate public opinion. These are numbers one never thinks about, even though they play a crucial role in most aspects of life.

Seizing the White Space: Business Model Innovation for Growth and Renewal
by Mark W. Johnson (MBA ’96)
(Harvard Business Press)

Johnson identifies four fundamentals of successful business models and illustrates how companies use innovative business models to achieve transformational growth by fulfilling customer needs in current markets; serving new customers and creating new markets; and responding to shifts in market demand, government policy, and technology. He lays out a structured process for designing a new model and developing it into a profitable and thriving enterprise.

The Loudest Duck: Moving Beyond Diversity while Embracing Differences to Achieve Success at Work
by Laura Liswood (MBA ’76)
(Wiley)

This book takes its title from a Chinese parable about how “the loudest duck gets shot.” Compare this with the American saying “the squeaky wheel gets the grease,” and it’s clear that different cultures teach different values, which often translate into distinct ways of doing business. In today’s global business world, understanding the cultural and gender viewpoints of our colleagues is a major key to healthy, conflict-free work environments.

The Design of Business: Why Design Thinking Is the Next Competitive Advantage
by Roger Martin (MBA ’81)
(Harvard Business Press)

Martin believes most companies rely too exclusively on analytical thinking. But to innovate and win, companies need design thinking, rooted in how knowledge advances from inchoate mystery to codification, thereby causing productivity to grow and costs to drop. Martin shows how companies like Procter & Gamble and Cirque du Soleil use design thinking to push knowledge through the stages in ways that produce breakthrough innovations and competitive advantage.

Broke: What Every American Business Must Do to Restore Our Financial Stability and Protect Our Future
by John B. Mumford (MBA ’71)
(Wiley)

If the business of America is business, then it’s up to its business leaders to solve the mess the country is in. This book offers practical, nonpolitical, and nonpartisan solutions to the problems of public debt, the environment, and international relations that business leaders can implement today for a better tomorrow: practical steps to limit future risks, strengthen every business, stabilize the current economy, and help turn the country around.

The Power of Many: Values for Success in Business and in Life
by Meg Whitman (MBA ’79) with Joan O’C Hamilton
(Crown)

Whitman, the former president and CEO of eBay, identifies ten core values that can steer leaders to success without ethical compromise. Values like trust, authenticity, courage, and validation can go hand in hand with traditional business practices. She illustrates the origins of her values and the bases of her approach with stories from her career and her down-to-earth upbringing.

Wisdom on Value Investing: How to Profit on Fallen Angels
by Gabriel Wisdom (OPM 26, 1998)
(Wiley)

Wisdom shows how to capitalize on value plays where the fundamentals are strong but the “general wisdom” about the security has turned negative. Most promising are the stocks Wall Street has marked down without regard to their under-lying value. Wisdom shows how such value discounts provide a margin of safety during hard times and a reward for those who find them early enough.

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