{"id":1004031504,"date":"2011-08-09T08:26:31","date_gmt":"2011-08-09T16:26:31","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.commercialsearch.com\/news\/?p=1004031504"},"modified":"2022-12-07T03:27:14","modified_gmt":"2022-12-07T11:27:14","slug":"recommended-reading-ceos-name-their-top-titles","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.commercialsearch.com\/news\/recommended-reading-ceos-name-their-top-titles\/","title":{"rendered":"Recommended Reading: CEOs Name Their Top Titles"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Paul Rosta<\/p>\n

Read any good books lately?<\/p>\n

We posed that very question to a varied sampling of company leaders and the director of a top university real estate program for the \u201cLeadership & Learning\u201d report in the August issue of CPE. Seeking executives\u2019 top reading choices, we asked them to name both contemporary and classic works that have given them insights into commercial real estate or business in general.\u00a0 The responses demonstrated wide-ranging curiosity about such topics as the 2008 capital markets meltdown, business strategies and the trends shaping the 21st<\/sup>-century global economy.<\/p>\n

That drive to understand the forces that influence their business was less surprising than the importance so many executives place on the actual act of reading books. In an age when the Internet and television often seem to reign supreme, the old-fashioned book clearly still carries authority. Fred Schmidt, president & CEO of Coldwell Banker Commercial Affilates L.L.C. and president of ONCOR International L.L.C., made an eloquent case for books:<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ve always been an avid reader. When I was growing up, my grandfather used to say to me that when you\u2019re with a good book, you\u2019re never alone,\u00a0 and I\u2019ve lived by those words my whole life. Early morning before the workday starts is a good reading time for me. Typically, I\u2019ll carve out time in the morning to read the major business journals and daily business newspapers. And if I\u2019m on the road or waiting for a plane, I\u2019ll make sure to use the time to catch up on important business reading as well.\u201d<\/p>\n

What follows is a complete list of recommendations from the executives queried. (Note: publication dates are for the original hardcover or paperback editions.)<\/p>\n

Paul Daneshrad, president & CEO, StarPoint Properties L.L.C.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Endgame: The End of the Debt Supercycle and How it Changes Everything, <\/em>by John Mauldin and Jonathan Tepper.\u00a0 John Wiley & Sons, 2011.<\/p>\n

Raving Fans: A Revolutionary Approach to Customer Service,<\/em> by Ken Blanchard and Sheldon Bowles. HarperCollins Publishers, 1993.<\/p>\n

The Road Less Traveled <\/em>by M. Scott Peck. Simon & Schuster, 1978.<\/p>\n

Rich Dad, Poor Dad: What the Rich Teach Their Kids About Money That the Poor and Middle Class Do Not,<\/em> by Robert Kiyosaki and Sharon Lechter. Originally published in 1997 by TechPress; \u00a0available in various paperback editions.<\/p>\n

Doug \u00a0Frye, president & CEO, Colliers International<\/strong><\/p>\n

Drive: The Surprising Truth About What Motivates Us, <\/em>by Daniel Pink. Penguin Group (USA), 2009.<\/p>\n

How: Why How We Do Anything Means Everything \u2026 in Business (and in Life),<\/em> by Dov Seidman.\u00a0 John Wiley & Sons, 2007.<\/p>\n

Open Leadership: How Social Technology Can Transform the Way You Lead, <\/em>by Charlene Li. John Wiley & Sons, 2010.<\/p>\n

Let My People Go Surfing: The Education of a Reluctant Businessman,<\/em> by Yvon Chouinard. Penguin Group (USA), 2005.<\/p>\n

Outliers: The Story of Success,<\/em> by Malcolm Gladwell.\u00a0 Little, Brown & Co., 2008.<\/p>\n

Richard Green, director, USC Lusk Institute for Real Estate at the University of Southern California<\/strong><\/p>\n

The Big Short: Inside the Doomsday Machine,<\/em> by Michael Lewis. W.W. Norton & Co., 2010.<\/p>\n

The Greatest Trade Ever: The Behind-the-Scenes Story of How John Paulson Defied Wall Street and Made Financial History, <\/em>by Gregory Zuckerman.\u00a0 Random House Publishing Group, 2009.<\/p>\n

Moneyball: The Art of Winning an Unfair Game,<\/em> by Michael Lewis. W.W. Norton & Co., 2004.<\/p>\n

The Black Swan: The Impact of the Highly Improbable,<\/em> by Nassim Nicholas Taleb. Random House Publishing Group, 2007; second edition published in 2010.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe Cost of Capital, Corporation Finance and the Theory of Investment,\u201d by F. Modigliani and M. Miller. Published in American Economic Review <\/em>48 (3): p. 261-297. Green\u2019s comment: \u201cI really don\u2019t expect people to read (Modigliani and Miller), but they should know the bottom-line finding about capital structure and value.\u201d<\/p>\n

Ed Indvik, CEO, Lee & Associates L.L.C. <\/strong><\/p>\n

Too Big to Fail: The Inside Story of How Wall Street and Washington Fought to Save the Financial System\u2014and Themselves, <\/em>by Andrew Ross Sorkin. Penguin Group (USA), 2009.<\/p>\n

Bailout Nation: How Greed and Easy Money Corrupted Wall Street and Shook the World Economy, <\/em>by Barry Ritholtz with Aaron Task. John Wiley & Sons, 2009.<\/p>\n

Reorganize for Resilience: Putting Customers at the Center of Your Business, <\/strong>by Ranjay Gulati. <\/em>Harvard Business Press, 2010.<\/p>\n

A Colossal Failure of Common Sense: The Inside Story of the Collapse of Lehman Brothers, <\/em>by Lawrence McDonald. Crown Publishing Group, 2009.<\/p>\n

The Social Animal: The Hidden Sources of Love, Character and Achievement, <\/em>by David Brooks. Random House Publishing Group, 2011.<\/p>\n

Citizens of London: The Americans Who Stood with Britain in its Darkest, Finest Hour,<\/em> by Lynne Olson. Random House Publishing Group, 2010.<\/p>\n

The Millionaire Next Door: The Surprising Secrets of America\u2019s Wealthy, <\/em>by Thomas Stanley and William Danko. MJF Books, 2002.<\/p>\n

The Warren Buffett Way: Investment Strategies of the World\u2019s Greatest Investor, <\/em>by Robert Hagstrom. John Wiley & Sons, 1997.<\/p>\n

Peter Roberts, CEO, Jones Lang LaSalle Americas<\/strong><\/p>\n

Too Big to Fail: The Inside Story of How Wall Street and Washington Fought to Save the Financial System\u2014and Themselves, <\/em>by Andrew Ross Sorkin. Penguin Group (USA), 2009.<\/p>\n

Reorganize for Resilience: Putting Customers at the Center of Your Business, <\/strong>by Ranjay Gulati. <\/em>Harvard Business Press, 2010.<\/p>\n

Good to Great: Why Some Companies Make the Leap \u2026 and Others Don\u2019t, <\/em>by Jim Collins. HarperCollins Publishers, 2001.<\/p>\n

The World Is Flat: A Brief History of the Twenty-First Century,<\/em> by Thomas Friedman. Farrar, Strauss & Giroux, 2005; expanded version published in 2006.<\/p>\n

Execution: The Discipline of Getting Things Done, <\/em>by Larry Bossidy & Ram Charan. Crown Publishing Group, 2002.<\/p>\n

Fred Schmidt, president & COO, Coldwell Banker Commercial Affiliates L.L.C., and president, ONCOR International L.L.C.<\/strong><\/p>\n

The Big Short: Inside the Doomsday Machine,<\/em> by Michael Lewis. W.W. Norton & Co., 2010.<\/p>\n

On China,<\/em> by Henry Kissinger. Penguin Group (USA), 2010.<\/p>\n

The Tipping Point: How Little Things Can Make a Big Difference, <\/em>by Malcolm Gladwell. Little, Brown & Co., 2000.<\/p>\n

The Autobiography of William Zeckendorf<\/em>, by William Zeckendorf with Edward McCreary.\u00a0 Plaza Press, 1987; originally published by Holt, Rinehart & Winston in 1970.<\/p>\n

Built to Last: Successful Habits of Visionary Companies,<\/em> by Jim Collins and Jerry Porras. Harper Collins Publishers, 2004.<\/p>\n

David Twardock, president, Prudential Mortgage Capital<\/strong><\/p>\n

The Big Short: Inside the Doomsday Machine,<\/em> by Michael Lewis. W.W. Norton & Co., 2010.<\/p>\n

Red Capitalism: The Fragile Economic Foundation of China\u2019s Extraordinary Rise, <\/em>by Carl Walter and Fraser Howe. John Wiley & Sons, 2011.<\/p>\n

Sea Change<\/strong><\/p>\n

While these executives place importance on reading books, they are not committed to the traditional paper format. When we asked them whether they prefer to read books electronically or in paper format, we got a definite impression they are embracing the sea-change toward electronic books.<\/p>\n