Hey,
These are my favorite business books (not in order). I keep them on my iPad and read them year after year. For my favorite China business books, you can sign-up on the right.
Competition Demystified – by Bruce Greenwald
I give this book to people all the time. Really clear logic. I also like his book Value Investing.
Thinking, Fast and Slow – by Daniel Kahneman
Like most people, this book blew my mind. Impossible to think about thinking the same way after reading.
The Innovator’s Dilemma – by Clayton Christensen
Like the previous, this book changed how I thought, this time about innovation.
Berkshire Hathaway Letters to Shareholders (2017) – by Berkshire Hathaway and Max Olson
These are important reading. You can get them free online at the Berkshire website.
Other good Buffett books are The Snowball (Alice Schroeder), the Warren Buffett Way (Robert Hagstrom) and Inside the Investments of Warren Buffett (Yefei Lu). I have also gone through the 10Ks of all his companies, which was really helpful.
Damn Right: Behind the Scenes With Berkshire Hathaway Billionaire Charlie Munger – by Janet Lowe
An entertaining story. Lots of details and thinking from the other Berkshire iconoclast.
Valuation: Measuring and Managing the Value of Companies – by McKinsey & Company
I rely on this book in my class on valuation. It’s not 100% my approach but I think it is comprehensive. Always worth re-reading for various details.
Dead Companies Walking: How a Hedge Fund Manager Finds Opportunity in Unexpected Places – by Scott Fearon and Jesse Powell
Very helpful for identifying specific problems in companies.
King Icahn: The Biography of a Renegade Capitalist – by Mark Stevens
Such a good book. If Buffett is the king of buying great companies, Icahn is the king of investing in bad or problematic ones. Well worth studying both approaches.
Elon Musk: Tesla, SpaceX and the Quest for a Fantastic Future – by Ashlee Vance
Not my area but an inspiring story.
Zeckendorf: The autobiograpy of the man who played a real-life game of Monopoly and won the largest real estate empire in history – by William Zeckendorf
I found this really helpful for thinking about real estate. Told in the first person, it details decade after decade of real estate deals by William Zeckendorf.
Platform Revolution – by Sangeet Choudary (and others)
A really good book on platforms. Another good one is Invisible Engines by David Edens.
The Psychology of Influence – by Robert Cialdini
Charlie Munger sends this book to tons of people. So that makes it worth reading as far as I am concerned.
Dream Big: The Brazilian trio behind 3G Capital – by Cristiane Correa
This is the most effective business strategy I know for operating in places like China. People say in the West, you should just copy Warren Buffett (it will save you time). In China and developing economies, when in doubt just copy 3G capital. If you want more details, you can look at the book Double Your Profits by Bob Fifer.
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Other books I really like – and that aren’t about China or business are:
– Anything about Richard Feynman. And really anything about physicists, who are my real heroes.
– Faraday, Maxwell and the Electromagnetic Field by Nancy Forbes
– Einstein by Walter Isaacson
And just for fun
– Living With a Seal – by Jesse Itzler.
