When I teach graduate school seminars or business seminars, sooner or later someone asks the question “What would you consider to be your Top 10 business books?” Many editors have attempted lists like this, but they usually have their Top 100 books. I thought this would be an easy task, but found on my first pass of going through the most influential books in my library that I had 200 books on the list. After a considerable amount of culling and constantly asking myself the question “If I could only get someone to read ten books, what would they be?” I came up with the following list.

While the list represents the vital core books, in reality what I am recommending is the Top 10 authors. Each book on this list is the starting point for understanding each authors body of work. I capture the whole body of an author’s work in a separate section.

After arguing with myself about which books and authors should be in the Top 10, I came to the primary criteria for including something on the list – which books/authors have stood the test of time in terms of how the knowledge affects the work I perform each day – either designing businesses and information based products or training executives. Each of these books has important models, frameworks and ways of thinking that lead to extreme productivity and healthier businesses.