Titan, The Life of John D. Rockefeller, Sr. by Ron Chernow (Vintage, 2004)

The book was published in 1998, but the story and the lessons are timeless. Chernow likes and respects his subject, but doesn’t hesitate to outline Rockefeller’s ruthless business tactics. Chernow also refutes many of the rumors that were generated as Rockefeller built his empire. It was fascinating to learn that oil producers in the late 19th century did not have a firm grasp on their costs, but Rockefeller had an uncanny sense for detail and numbers. He knew his costs and was able to buy out many producers through savvy pricing and using the railroads to move product. The Standard Oil story is presented with engrossing detail.

We also see life in a different time when Rockefeller had time to spend with his family, teach his children about life and money (the kids were kept on strict allowances), and tend to his religious life. It’s hard to imagine an executive’s similar use of time in today’s world.

His philanthropy and the development of his philosophy on how to give money has resonance today. Surely Bill and Melinda Gates have read this book. There are striking parallels between the Gates Foundation and Rockefeller’s approach to giving money. The stories of how Rockefeller funded medicine to cure hookworm first in the United States and then the world to establishing the University of Chicago were new and enthralling to me.

Chernow is a gifted writer and is able to hold the reader's attention. The book reads almost like a novel. I am currently reading his latest biography, Alexander Hamilton and find it equally interesting.

SUSAN KNOX is a CPA, financial planner, and the author of Financial Basics: A Money-Management Guide for Students.

Execution: The Discipline of Getting Things Done by Larry Bossidy, Ram Charan, Charles Burck (Crown Business, 2002)

Most CPA firms struggle with eternal "FTI" issues within their firms (Failure To Implement). In this book, the authors provide pragmatic advice on how to bring strategy to life and actually begin to achieve desired business results. It’s an easy read (USA Today as opposed to The New York Times) and offers several tool, tips and tricks for readers to use to begin "getting the job done." I really recommend it for any partner in a public accounting firm. In fact – we've given it as a holiday gifts to many our clients!

JEFFREY S. PAWLOW is the Chief Executive Officer and Managing Shareholder of The Growth Partnership. 

Managing Customer Value: Creating Quality and Service That Customers Can See by Bradley T. Gale (Free Press, 1994)

It is becoming apparent that many commercial organizations are shifting from growing customer sales to increasing customer economic yield. They are realizing that it is much more expensive to acquire new customers than to retain existing ones. Also, as their products and standard service-lines become more commodity-like, which by definition precludes gaining a competitive edge, companies are shifting to differentiation in customer service as their competitive edge. Also, the Internet is shifting power, irreversibly, from suppliers to buyers. As a result of these forces, metrics like "customer lifetime value" are becoming mainstream. Bradley Gale's book goes beyond the basics about improving customer satisfaction and quality improvement programs. Since I have substantial experience with activity-based costing (ABC) for measuring how profitable a customer is, I find Gale's book useful for me to consider how valuable a customer is ... which is a forward-looking predictive view.

GARY COKINS is an internationally recognized expert, speaker, and author in advanced cost management and performance management systems. He is a strategist with SAS Institute, Inc.

Today Matters: 12 Daily Practices to Guarantee Tomorrow's Success by John C. Maxwell (Warner Faith, 2004)

John [Maxwell] outlines a very practical approach for developing character that will withstand the tests of tomorrow by focusing on what can be done today. John covers the core decisions that each of us make to define who we are. In a time where we see a lot of discussion in the media about the concept of "moral values" but seldom the practice of it, it is refreshing to see John walk his readers through a series of daily practices to develop moral muscles.
 
EVA M. LANG, CPA/ABV, ASA currently serves as the Executive Director of the Financial Consulting Group, L.C., an alliance of business valuation and consulting firms in the U.S.

How to Become a Great Boss by Jeffrey J. Fox (Hyperion, 2002)
Power of Full Engagement by Jim Loehr and Tony Schwartz (Free Press, 2003)

How to Become a Great Boss provides short sound bites that are extremely applicable to everyday management. Good for anyone who supervises people. Power of Full Engagement puts a new spin on how to get things done. Engaging employees is becoming one of the hottest topics related to hiring and retaining top talent. Many respected HR and Management consulting firms are showing a direct correlation between an engaged workforce to satisfied customers and ultimately leading to better financial results.

DAVID ADAMS is Vice President of Training for Ajilon Professional Staffing in North America.

What Clients Love: A Field Guide to Growing Your Business by Harry Beckwith (Warner Business Books, 2003)

For accounting and finance professionals who hope to demonstrate their value to clients (or employers), I consider it a "must-read" along with Harry's other two books. Your clients, colleagues, and bosses judge you on the basis of what's important to them, and if you have no idea what's important to them, you're in big trouble. Harry has a gift for explaining why others act towards us the way they do by forcing us to look at ourselves from the perspective of those we work for and with. Every SmartPros reader can find some way to reap tangible benefits from What Clients Love in 2005.
 
BRUCE POUNDER, CMA, CFM, is President of Leveraged Logic, a professional service firm that provides education and consulting services to accounting and finance professionals.

Moneyball: The Art of Winning an Unfair Game by Michael Lewis (W.W. Norton & Company, 2003)

Because it's the best kind of business book . . . people first, story second, and business third.

MIKE BREWSTER is the author of Unaccountable: How the Accounting Profession Forfeited a Public Trust and co-author of King of Capital: Sandy Weill and the Making of Citigroup.

The Tipping Point: How Little Things Can Make a Big Difference by Malcolm Gladwell (Back Bay Books, 2002)

The book addresses how social phenomenon happen and what is the tipping point that makes certain people and products successful while others don’t make it. In my field of business ethics, it provides tremendous insights as to what motivates a workforce to change and the impact of social context in compliance.

DAVID GEBLER is President of Working Values and Senior Vice President of SmartPros.

Six Thinking Hats by Edward De Bono (Back Bay Books, 1999) 

The book discusses six ways of looking at an issue from facts and figures, emotions, being cautious, speculative, creative and organizing. During meetings participants are usually thinking in one of these six ways. To maximize a meeting, De Bono suggests that we look at a problem through one of these perspectives at a time.

AUGUST J. AQUILA, PhD, is Director of Practice Management Consulting.

Minding the Store: A Memoir by Stanley Marcus (University of North Texas Press, 2001)
The Witch Doctors by John Micklethwait (Crown Business, 1996)

Stanley was a son of one of the founders of Neiman-Marcus. He is certainly one of the fathers of the customer service revolution in the USA. This is a brilliant book for the many lessons it teaches about customer service. Marcus started working in the store in 1926, and during the Great Depression every customer was worth gold, and you had to do everything possible to keep one. This book is a predecessor to the Total Quality Service (TQS), customer loyalty, and Customer Relationship Management (CRM) movements now taking place in the business world. We have forgotten so much that our predecessors knew so well about customer service and loyalty. Wisdom is timeless, and this book will open the eyes of anyone about how far service standards have deteriorated in this country. Marcus was fond of pointing out that if salespeople don't want to take the time to help customers and understand their needs, they could easily be replaced by vending machines. Given the sorry state of service in many establishments today, I think this may be a worthwhile idea.

The Witch Doctors: This book takes on the infant (and often puerile) management consultant industry. I reread it this year (it was published in 1996) after I got involved in a debate with a few of the consultants to the CPA profession, who seem to be more concerned with their public image and feelings rather than a search for the truth. I forgot exactly how prescient and precise it is. The authors are editors at The Economist, and they level four devastating charges against the immature discipline of management gurus:

Management theory, according to the case against it, has four defects: it is constitutionally incapable of self-criticism; its terminology usually confuses rather than educates; it rarely rises above basic common sense; and it is faddish and bedeviled by contradictions that would not be allowed in more rigorous disciplines. The implication of all four charges is that management gurus are con artists, the witch doctors of our age, playing on business people's anxieties in order to sell snake oil. The gurus, many of whom have sprung suspiciously from the “great university of life” rather than any orthodox academic discipline, exist largely because people let them get away with it. Modern management theory is no more reliable than tribal medicine. Witch doctors, after all, often got it right--by luck, by instinct, or by trial and error.

These charges have never been adequately refuted by any of the management consultants. I couldn't agree more with this assessment. I should point out the authors do have tremendous respect (as do I) for Peter Drucker, the one true management consultant who doesn't promote fads, and is by far the deepest thinker among this often intellectually sterile group. This book is essential for anyone who has ever hired a consultant, or suffered through reading a boring business book.

RON BAKER, CPA, is the founder of VeraSage Institute, a think tank dedicated to teaching Value Pricing to professionals around the world, and co-author of The Firm of the Future: A Guide for Accountants, Lawyers, and Other Professional Services.  

October Sky: A Memoir by Homer Hickam (Dell, 1999)

October Sky is set in Coalwood, WV, during the late 1950s. After watching the Russian satellite Sputnik stream across the heavens, it inspired him to build some rather sophisticated model rockets using modern propulsion theories used by Dr. Wernher Von Braun, one of the world's first and foremost rocket engineers and a leading authority on space travel. Hickam would later work in NASA’s Space Shuttle program decades later. It’s not a business book, per se, but the life lessons it imparts can definitely be applied to the small business arena. Growing up in a mining town, Hickam has to be inventive about how to muster the materials for his space-age pursuits. That’s no easy feat, especially in this poor rural setting. His true-life adventures can be directly applied to today’s entrepreneurs who are blazing new trails of their own, developing niche markets through hard work and ingenuity. As Albert Einstein observed, "Imagination is more important than knowledge." And small business owners, like the aspiring rocketeer Hickam, have plenty of that essential ingredient.

STEPHEN PAREZO is Media Manager for Fiducial and Small Business Insights columnist.

Client at the Core places an asterisk behind what it takes to market a professional services firm and its offerings. The book offers a multitude of processes and tools that provide consultants with a step-by-step approach to letting clients, referral sources, and prospects know exactly the value these consultants can provide for them. Rather than scratching the surface, the authors provide comprehensive advice and counsel.

CORAL RICE is Director of Organizational Development and Training, The Growth Partnership.

The Code of the Executive: Forty-Seven Ancient Samurai Principles Essential for Twenty-First Century Leadership Success by Don Schmincke (Plume Books, 2000)

This book just keeps on giving. I read the book in just a couple of hours and I constantly refer back to certain sections. Schmincke uses 47 ancient Samurai principles and applies them to the 21st century business environment. His application of these principles is fantastic and provides an excellent learning opportunity for any leader in today's business world. The book even suggests additional learning opportunities once you've completed your reading.

CHARLES HYLAN is a shareholder, The Growth Partnership.

Integrity Selling for the 21st Century: How to Sell the Way People Want to Buy by Ron Willingham (Currency, 2003)

In working with CPAs I find internal obstacles to rainmaking. Willingham talks about the internal psychological barriers to rainmaking. A fantastic read!

GALE CROSLEY, CPA, is founder and principal of Crosley + Company, and consults with CPA firms on revenue growth issues and opportunities.

Principled Profit: Marketing That Puts People First by Shel Horowitz (Accurate Writing & More, 2003)

It's just so discouraging that we even need a SOX law. If more people in business modeled their marketing and business operations ethically . . . we'd all be so much farther ahead. So, I really enjoy reading upbeat, positive approaches to making a business work for the owner, the staff, the customers and the community. This is a terrific book.

EVA ROSENBERG, a.k.a. "Tax Mama", is the author of the weekly Ask TaxMama newsletter.