A Guide to Business Continuity Planning

The recent terrorist attacks in New York and Washington, D.C., demonstrate the need for all businesses to have an effective recovery plan. Whether staff or a consultant is responsible for your contingency operations, a detailed plan must be in place before disaster strikes. This how-to book covers the gamut: facilities, data, staff recovery, planning, implementing and testing.

James Barnes, John Wiley & Sons, April 2001

Barnes, a consultant with Deloitte & Touche, has written and tested more than 300 disaster-recovery plans - 12 of which have been exercised successfully. He has worked with clients such as Citibank, the Chicago Stock Exchange, The MONY Group and Johnson & Johnson.

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The Attention Economy: Understanding the New Currency of Business

How do employees keep up with the gushing stream of data that flows into their realms each day? Many don't. Workplace information overload translates into misplaced priorities, decreased focus and limited time for analysis, and it increases the likelihood decisions will be made without key information. This book outlines a plan for diagnosing overload and resolving it.

Thomas Davenport and John Beck, Harvard Business School Press, June 2001

Both writers are executives at the Accenture Institute for Strategic Change. Davenport, a business professor at Dartmouth College in Hanover, N.H., has penned several other knowledge management books, including Mission Critical: Realizing the Promise of Enterprise Systems and Process Innovation: Reengineering Work through Information Technology. Beck is a visiting professor at the Anderson School of Management at the University of California at Los Angeles.

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The Change Monster: The Human Forces That Fuel or Foil Corporate Transformation & Change

While every company copes with change differently, Jeanie Daniel Duck advises managers to embrace a theory that structures change into five phases: stagnation, preparation, implementation, determination and fruition. By identifying and adopting this theory, she argues, you'll better manage change. And not just the introduction of new technologies, but the emotional and social factors rarely considered, yet frequently responsible for torpedoing your new systems.

Jeanie Daniel Duck, Crown Business, May 2001

Duck is a senior vice president at The Boston Consulting Group.

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Profit from the Core: Growth Strategy in an Era of Turbulence

A 10-year-long Bain & Company study uncovered that only 10% of businesses achieved sustained growth and provided shareholder satisfaction. The authors argue that most companies veered off course from their core business into adjunct markets without redefining their core market strategy. Without clearly defined strategies, the move into adjunct businesses hurt, rather than helped, most companies. Chris Zook and James Allen say companies fare better when they concentrate on customer loyalty, channel dominance, product superiority and value.

Chris Zook and James Allen, Harvard Business School Press, March 2001

Zook is a global strategy director at consultancy Bain & Company. Allen, a former Bain executive, is CEO of eVolution Global Partners, a global high-tech venture capital firm.

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Good to Great: Why Some Companies Make the Leap... And Others Don't

Before this book even published in October 2001, preorders landed it among Amazon's top 50 bestsellers. Its premise is that a great corporate culture determines outstanding business returns. Collins studied nearly 1,500 companies, analyzing the traits of those that performed significantly better over time. The gotcha for IT executives is that by naming corporate culture the quintessential quality, the book's followers may demote the importance of other factors - including great technology.

Jim Collins, HarperCollins, October 2001

Collins co-authored the 1994 million-copy best-seller Built to Last. A former faculty member of the Stanford University Graduate School of Business, where he received the Distinguished Teaching Award, Collins is an independent business management consultant and researcher.

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The Myth of Excellence: Why Great Companies Never Try to Be the Best at Everything

Consumer research compounded with business insight equals, "Don't try to be all things to all people." The authors lead you through the why and how of finding the unique value of your business to the market. After surveying 5,000 consumers, the book offers thought-provoking research that will make you reevaluate how your company should position itself.

Fred Crawford and Ryan Mathews, Brown Publishing Group, June 2001

Crawford and Mathews are marketing consultants with Cap Gemini Ernst & Young and FirstMatter, respectively.

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What the CEO Wants You to Know: How Your Company Really Works

The same business principles that guide the global corporation behemoth also guide the successful street vendor. By understanding the fundamentals of business, you too will be able to contribute to your company's health, regardless of your job title. This book can help every IT employee in your department generate new ideas and improve upon work processes.

Ram Charan, Crown Publishing, March 2001

Charan is an expert business strategist who authored Boards At Work and co-authored Every Business Is A Growth Business and E-Board Strategies.

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Speed Is Life: Street Smart Lessons from the Front Lines of Business

Bob Davis' account of the rise of Lycos teaches branding, audience development and that ever-elusive dot-com goal: how to make a profit. Realistic business advice offered not just by Davis, but other visionaries - including Vince Lombardi, Tom Brokaw and Steve Case - present a great place to start.

Bob Davis, Doubleday/Currency, May 2001

Davis founded Lycos in 1995 and was CEO until the Terra Lycos merger this year. He is now a partner at Highland Capital Partners, a venture capital firm.