Many of life’s lessons are learned outside the classroom. Lessons can come from personal experiences, internship training or from putting in a little bit of elbow grease from time to time. However, learning new concepts by reading articles and books will help you grow as you go, too. Several of our professors here at JSOM have given their top reads for business majors to help students grow.
The books listed below apply to all business disciplines and focus on human decision-making for all business majors.
- Recommended by Dr. Howard Dover, director of the Professional Sales Concentration
- How to Win Friends and Influence People by Dale Carnegie
- Recommended by both Dr. Dover and Dr. Britt Berrett, director of the BS in Healthcare Management program
- The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People: Powerful Lessons in Personal Change by Stephen R. Covey
- Recommended by Dr. Berrett
- Leading Change by John P. Kotter
- Recommended by Judd Bradbury, information systems faculty member
- The Power of Habit: Why We Do What We Do in Life and Business by Charles Duhigg
- Recommended by John Barden, director of the BS in Accounting program
- Who Moved My Cheese: An A-Mazing Way to Deal with Change in Your Work and in Your Life by Spencer Johnson
- Rich Dad, Poor Dad: What The Rich Teach Their Kids About Money That the Poor and Middle Class Do Not! by Robert T. Kiyosaki
- The Power of Negative Thinking: An Unconventional Approach to Achieving Positive Results by Bob Knight
- Recommended by Dr. Kutsal Dogan, assistant dean for graduate programs
- Misbehaving: The Making of Behavioral Economics and Nudge: Improving Decisions About Health, Wealth, and Happiness by Richard H. Thaler
- Thinking, Fast and Slow by Daniel Kahneman
- Predictably Irrational, Revised and Expanded Edition: The Hidden Forces That Shape Our Decisions by Dan Ariely
- Recommended by Alex Edsel, director of the MS in Marketing program
- The Effective Executive by Peter F. Drucker
- Decision Traps: The Ten Barriers to Decision-Making and How to Overcome Them by Edward Russo
- Case Interview Secrets: A Former McKinsey Interviewer Reveals How to Get Multiple Job Offers in Consulting by Victor Cheng
- Getting to Plan B: Breaking Through to a Better Business Model by John Mullins and Randy Komisar
- Market-Driven Management: Strategic and Operational Marketing by Jean-Jacques Lambin and Isabelle Schuiling
- Recommended by Dr. McClain Watson, director of the Business Communication Center
- The Corporation: The Pathological Pursuit of Profit and Power by Joel Bakan
- Hard Times by Charles Dickens
- Recommended by Mary Beth Goodrich, accounting faculty member
- Lean in: Women, Work and the Will to Lead by Sheryl Sandberg
- Blink: The Power of Thinking Without Thinking by Malcolm Gladwell
- The World is Flat 3.0: A Brief History of the Twenty-first Century by Thomas L Friedman
- Recommended by Tom Kim, assistant dean of the Career Management Center
- Now, Discover Your Strengths by Marcus Buckingham and Donald O. Clifton
- Customer Mania!: It’s Never Too Late to Build a Customer-Focused Company by Kenneth Blanchard and Jim Ballard
- Good to Great: Why Some Companies Make the Leap…And Others Don’t by Jim Collins
- The Lean Startup: How Today’s Entrepreneurs Use Continuous Innovation to Create Radically Successful Businesses by Eric Ries
- Rework by Jason Fried
Now that you’ve gotten a list of top books to read for business majors, take the time to read in between the lines so you can pick up on the messages. Tread forward with these teachings in your back pocket and use the ideas to set yourself up for success.
