Two years ago, I taught a Grade 12 Business Technology course and had my students choose a book from a list of options (shared below). Only having read half of the books on the list myself, I’ve been slowly picking away at the list since. Last week, I finally got around to reading iCon Steve Jobs: The Greatest Second Act in the History of Business.
The book is coauthored by Jeffrey S. Young and William L. Simon and was published in 2005. I’m always skeptical about coauthored books, but am slightly more forgiving when it is a work of nonfiction. Still, I was interested to read their disclaimer in the appendices about the challenges of writing a book together, saved by this: ”We were lucky to find each other and discover a mutual fascination with Steve Jobs that spanned more than twenty years.”
Indeed, Steve Jobs is intriguing to anyone owning an Apple product, and this book was enlightening. Of course I’d heard rumours that he could be difficult to work with but I didn’t know that he was a vegetarian practicing Zen meditation and voting Democrat. I applauded the attitude towards television: “‘When you’re young, you look at television and think there’s a conspiracy. The networks have conspired to dumb us down.’ For Steve, television is the ‘most corrosive technology’ ever. He prefers technology that spurs him to interact and think, and he has spent his life giving the world computers that enhance exactly that.” (305)
It is still incredible to think that Steve Jobs was ever excused from the executive offices of Apple, and it truly has been a remarkable return. I enjoyed having students read this book, not only for the brief history that it provided of the personal computer industry, but also the realization that if at first they don’t succeed, they really should try and try again.
Incidentally, for anyone interested, here are the other biographies, leadership books, classics, and corporate histories my students were able to select:
- Winning, Jack Welch
- Talking Straight, Lee Iacocca
- The Road Ahead, Bill Gates
- Leadership, Rudi Giuliani
- The Five Dysfunctions of a Team, Patrick M. Lencioni
- The Leadership Challenge, James M. Kouzes
- First, Break All the Rules, Markus Buckingham
- Leadership is an Art, Max DePree
- The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People, Stephen R. Covey
- Good to Great, Jim Collins
- Freakonomics, Steven Levitt
- The World is Flat, Thomas L. Friedman
- The Wealthy Barber, David Chilton
- The Tipping Point and Blink, Malcolm Gladwell
- How to Win Friends & Influence People, Dale Carnegie
- Fast Food Nation, Eric Scholsser
- The Long Tail, Chris Anderson
- The HP Way, David Packard
- The Cult of iPod, Leander Kahney
- Apple Confidential 2.0, Owen Linzmayer
- Inside the Magic Kingdom, Thomas K. Connelian
- Made in America, Sam Walton
- Grinding it Out: The Making of McDonalds, Ray Kroc
- The Company of Adventurers, Peter C. Newman
- Secret Formula: Coca-Cola, the Best-Known Product in the World, Frederick L. Allen
- For God, Country, and Coca-Cola, Mark Pendergrast
- Always Fresh: The Untold Story of Tim Hortons, Ron Joyce
Do you have any favourite business books that students may enjoy?
This is a really helpful list. My Chair just informed me I’d be teaching a Technical Writing course (typically for business students) next year. I’ll have to check out some of these.