By Suzanne Gaspar
Network World, 11/13/00
K eeping abreast of the latest thinking on business and technology processes should be part of an IT executive's routine. But we know no one has time to read all the published works on these topics, so Network World Associate Features Editor Suzanne Gaspar scoured the bookshelves for you and came up with this short list of must-reads.
Click on the book covers for more information.

Living on the Fault Line:
Managing for Shareholder Value in the Age of the Internet

If you're having a hard time convincing upper management of your importance, this is the book for you. You'll find fodder for your argument in the author's explanation of why the IT group is one of a company's most important assets. Plus, you'll learn survival skills for outsourcing and how to build your company around innovation, competence and collaboration.

Geoffrey Moore, HarperBusiness, May 2000
Moore is chairman of The Chasm Group, a marketing strategy service, and a partner with Mohr Davidow Ventures, a venture capital firm. Previously published works are Crossing the Chasm and Inside the Tornado.

My Years at General Motors

In this perennial favorite, Alfred Sloan, a longtime GM CEO, provides a classic management lesson. Sloan's analysis and attention to detail will help you focus on the issues of decentralized management, the institution of financial controls, the perspective of the entire market, and the importance of variety, commitment to research and vertical integration. Gain insight on how to move in new directions today from Sloan's explanations of how GM grew successful companies in nonautomotive lines of business.

Alfred Sloan, Doubleday, February 1996
Sloan was GM CEO from 1923 to 1956.

The Age of Spiritual Machines:
When Computers Exceed Human Intelligence

Keeping your company perched at the edge of change means learning how to deal with "conscious machines" that can achieve their goals without human assistance, or so theorizes Ray Kurzweil, the artificial intelligence expert who authored this book. Follow his thought processes to see the logical outgrowths of trends in today's technological evolution and some new possibilities you can consider for moving your business forward.

Ray Kurzweil, Penguin Books, January 1999
Kurzweil is a well-respected and much-honored AI expert. Accolades include the 1994 Dickson Prize, Carnegie Mellon University's top science award; and designation as 1998 Inventor of the Year by MIT and the Boston Museum of Science. He's also authored The Age of Intelligent Machines.

The Social Life of Information

This book proposes that collaboration, narration and improvisation are important to your technological future. Read it and you'll learn how to step out of your role as a technologist. You'll be versed on what role sociability plays in knowledge and learning, and find out how this principle can be applied informally at your firm.

John Seely Brown and Paul Duguid, Harvard Business School Press, February 2000
Brown is chief scientist at Xerox and director of the Xerox Palo Alto Research Center. Duguid is a research specialist in Social and Cultural Studies in Education at the University of California at Berkeley.

Only the Paranoid Survive:
How to Exploit the Crisis Points That Challenge Every Company and Career

In this business classic, you get invaluable first-hand insight into the philosophy and strategic thinking that enabled Intel Chairman Andrew Grove to lead his company through a successful change in business models. Read this and you'll know the power of paranoia - of constantly reviewing and revising the way your company does business.

Andrew Grove, Bantam Books, October 1996
Grove is co-founder and chairman of Intel.

Built to Last: Successful Habits of Visionary Companies

In this book, you'll find out what six characteristics visionary companies such as 3M, Boeing, Sony, Walt Disney and Wal-Mart share. The authors' analysis of these and 15 other companies that consistently beat the competition and outperform the general stock market will help you pinpoint core values that never change. Learn about a purpose beyond profits, acquire a relentless drive to change and improve everything except core values, and get cultlike devotion from your employees along the way.

James Collins and Jerry Porras, HarperBusiness, January 1997
Collins is a management consultant and co-author of Beyond Entrepreneurship. Porras is a professor of Organizational Behavior and Change, and director of the Leading and Managing Change Executive Program, at Stanford University Business School Executive Education. He authored Stream Analysis: A Powerful Way to Diagnose and Manage Organizational Change.

In this great how-to, you get common-sense advice about ways to beat the competition. Read chapters titled "Create Like a God," "Command Like a King" and "Work Like a Slave," and move through exercises to reinforce what you've learned. At the end, you should understand how to catalyze and then market innovation.

Guy Kawasaki and Michele Moreno, HarperBusiness, February 1999 Kawasaki is CEO of garage.com, a firm that helps high-tech start-ups find seed capital. He and Moreno also co-authored How to Drive Your Competition Crazy.

Unleashing the Killer App:
Digital Strategies for Market Dominance

Your CEO has handed you the mandate to turn your company into a powerhouse of the technology-driven New Economy: Now here's some fresh perspective on how to do that. Follow this book's 12-step digital strategy and you'll be on your way to rewriting your rules of business, exploiting change and even creating your own killer applications.

Larry Downes and Chunka Mui, Harvard Business School Press, May 1998
Downes is a law professor at Northwestern University and a visiting fellow of the Diamond Exchange, an executive learning forum. Mui is a partner with Diamond Technology Partners, director of the Diamond Exchange, and executive editor of the business journal Context.

The Innovator’s Dilemma:
When New Technologies Cause Great Firms to Fail

Read this BusinessWeek bestseller to find out how great companies fail by only excelling at commonly accepted management practices. You'll learn a formula that will help you guard against failure, create new markets and find new customers.

Clayton Christensen, HarperBusiness, May 2000
Christensen is an associate professor of business administration at Harvard Business School.

Digital Capital:
Harnessing the Power of Business Webs

If maximizing your company's effectiveness is on your priority list, then a new business model may suit you. Learn from the likes of eBay, Cisco, Dell and Charles Schwab about reducing costs and inefficiencies by partnering laterally with other product and service providers. You get a six-step "b-web" strategy to follow, and advice on five types of business Webs.

Alex Lowy, Don Tapscott and David Ticoll, Harvard Business School Press, May 2000
The authors are executives of the Alliance for Converging Technologies, an international research and consulting group that advises on digital economy strategy. Tapscott has authored Growing Up Digital: The Rise of the Net Generation and The Digital Economy: Promise and Peril in the Age of Networked Intelligence.