As a writer and avid consumer of business advice, I have to admit, most of it is bullshit. Business people have some success and then turn around and tell everyone why they had that success. Unfortunately we are likely to attribute success to things that fit our self conception. It’s like the really good looking guy who is awesome at lacrosse telling you the secret to his success is hard work.
I don’t say skip all business books. They have nuggets of information but buyer beware. Those ideas should spark thinking and not be taken too seriously. Here are few categories of books to look out for:
Pseudo Science: First up is pseudo scientific bunk that uses faulty research to try to show empirical results. Jim Collins is the top practitioner of this. His books Good to Great and Built to Last claim to be scientific but the methods are wholly suspect. I’m sorry to say there is no evidence for Level 5 leadership, Big Hairy Audacious Goals, and any of the other stuff in his books.
Lots of the companies in Good to Great went from great to crap: Wells Fargo, Fannie Mae, Circuit City, and Pitney Bowes. It’s true that a few others like Walgreens have done well and others are about the same as the S&P 500 but the batting average ain’t good. Even when you look past the company selection issue Collins has multiple problems including:
Survivorship bias: Did other companies that didn’t do as well do the same things that his Good to Great companies did?
Astrology/Barnum Effect1: getting the right people on the bus, being humble, setting big goals. These factors suffer from the astrology problem. They are so vague that basically anything qualifies.
Clear Counter Examples: Was Steve Jobs a Level 5 leader? The guy built the biggest company in history and by all accounts was just downright mean and arrogant. I wouldn’t call early Bill Gates a treat to deal with either.
Halo Effect: This is a bias where we allow a positive trait of a person or a thing to shape our impressions of their other traits. So because that lacrosse player is good looking he must also work hard.
Ra Ra Bullshit: This is where I put hustle porn and its ilk. This is Gary V, side hustles, and stories about how lifting more weights or running farther will make you rich. I actually had someone who coaches hundreds of entrepreneurs tell me that you can’t grow your company unless you deal with your fitness. I mean, what? Have you seen Warren Buffett, Charlie Munger, Reid Hoffman, and Marc Benioff to name a few. Buffett drinks cherry coke and eats at McDonalds every day. Hustle if you want and you should care about your fitness but for you not because it improves EBITDA.
Anecdotal: This category of business advice is probably the most prevalent but is less dishonest than the pseudo science or ra ra methods. I think the people practicing this type of advice believe it. I know because I happen to be one of them. In this category, a business owner or consultant solves an issue using some method and that person then extrapolates that method as some kind of universal solvent. I’d put Mike Michalowicz’s books in this category like Profit First and Fix This Next.
Manifesto: These are books that take a new idea that might work in a limited circumstance and then claim it’s the solutions to all business problems. It’s very similar to the Anecdotal category but Manifesto includes a certain religious zeal.
Most of the stuff about Inbound marketing qualifies for this. It works in certain circumstances for certain industries but not always. As I’ve written before, marketing is a dark art and figuring out what works in your industry is the key to unlocking growth. There are very few universals here. I’d also say that books that take trends from software development or venture capital fit here. Agile and lean startup have some good ideas but don’t necessarily apply to your business.
System: I’d put Scaling Up and Traction in here. Maybe books like Blue Ocean Strategy as well. This is a category that that says, follow my system and you’ll succeed. In reality, you’ll succeed or fail despite these books. Of course Scaling Up and Traction can get you to think about some issues you might not have otherwise. But both books have big gaps around strategy, finance, and sales. Blue ocean strategies are great but lots of people make big money just fighting it out in the red ocean as well. Sometimes the investment to get the blue ocean ain’t worth it.
In the end if you are going to read in this genre you’ve got to do so fore warned and fore armed. There are lots of hucksters out there that will waste your time and money pursuing these things. I have read business books that changed how I operate (ie Straight Talk, Simple Numbers, Big Profits) but I mostly found them when I was struggling with a particular issue and I saw that that book had nuggets that would be directly applicable. Just realize your going to have to wade through a morass of shit to find those few nuggets. Good luck!
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Barnum_effect