Reached out to readers of the ConsultantsMind blog and asked what they recommend for students on winter break. Here’s a list of books and podcasts. Using first name initial, title, and any other words they might have shared. Caveat: affiliate links.

 

E, Strategy Consulting

 

B, ERP Consulting

  • Franklin and Winston, by Jon Meacham. “History is good for its own sake, as most work dilemmas have a historical analogue from which one can learn, but it is specifically helpful to understand how disparate decision-makers of the past worked together to solve the difficult issues of their time—much to be learned from that.”

 

D, Digital Transformation and Data, Financial Services

  • Trouble Makers: Silicon Valley’s Coming of Age, by Leslie Berlin. “This book gives a good glance over the inventions of technology which we take for granted today, hence shows that even if the computational power today is way beyond what people dreamed of back in 1970s, we still move with the same intentions in discovery and face similar challenges.”
  • Marketer + Machine (podcast). “This is an easy to digest podcast for people who would like to listen some learnings from experienced people about how today’s marketing area is becoming more and more digitalised. Good stuff to get to know the taxonomy and industrial vendors as well.”

 

F, CFO and Corporate Finance Consulting

  • Narrative and Numbers, by Aswath Damodaran. “On the importance of connecting financial projections with a solid story”
  • Waking Up with Sam Harris (podcast). “A non-business show that opens your mind and teaches the art of thoughtful disagreement”

 

I, Management Consulting

  • #AskGaryVee by Gary Vaynerchuk. “A compilation of advice by a real entrepreneur / business practitioner with years of proven experiences in growing small business 20x. Heavy focus on execution and social media marketing strategy.”

 

F, Retired President of $200M+ revenue company

  • The Excellence Dividend, by Tom Peters. Peters does an excellent job of discussing the tremendous change we are experiencing and showing how to manage through that change.  In essence People Skills are the hard skills, without them all the tech know how in the world will not work.

 

M, Private Equity

 

T, Management Consulting

Getting Started in Consulting, by Alan Weiss
The Secrets of Consulting, by Gerald M. Weinberg

 

T, Corporate Strategy

  • Can’t Hurt Me by David Goggins. “Autobiography about how we put up false mental barriers around ourselves and often quit at the 40% mark.”

 

V, Consulting

  • Good to Great, by Jim Collins. “Why? To reinforce the learnings after finishing my B-school application and reflecting on my consulting career so far.”

 

B, Technology Consulting

 

M, Consulting

 

M, Consulting

  • The Machine that Changed the World, by Womack, Jones, Roos. “A 101 for lean production techniques that I love applying to client problems in the financial services sector, especially in Banking where there is a huge drive for process optimisation.”

S, Corporate Finance

  • The Holographic Universe by Michael Talbot. “Why: One will likely never see cosmos, reality, self and others (and their relationships) the same way again after reading this book”

 

L, Strategy Consulting

  • The Subtle Art of Not Giving a F*** by Mark Manson. “The secret of life is obvious, but not simple – care less about the opinions of others, do more of what you believe in.”
  • Meditations, by Marcus Aurelius. “A short and surprisingly readable primer in stoic philosophy and investing yourself in things that matter most.”

V, Consulting

 

R, Strategy

  • Cracked it!, by Bernard Garrette. ” Nice overview and framework on how to solve complex problems.”
  • Dear HBR (podcast). “People submit their problems and the podcast gives framework on how to solve them. Simply one of the best podcasts for the fresh graduates as it reflects real cases and you can simply identify yourself to some of the comments.”

 

D, Strategy

  • The World in 2019 – The Economist. “Great variety of opinions on what’s going to happen next year and how it will affect us and the world.  Recommend reading this one from cover to cover, even the articles that don’t seem to directly apply.”
  • Principles, by Ray Dalio. “Classic. A read and a re-read for me. Can jump from section to section, reading out of order.”
  • Invest Like The Best (podcast), especially episodes Elad Gil, Maureen Chiquet, Howard Lindzon.

W,

 

B, Management Consulting

The Fifth Risk, by Michael Lewis. Not a “business” offering per se, but, sets a necessary and important context for those who take the guard rails and speed signs of government for granted.

 

S, Business Analytics, Utilities

 

G, Marketing

  • This is Marketing, by Seth Godin. “This book is about what is or should be in the centre of every business endeavour – customer’s need. In other words, marketing is about customers, not about (our) products or services. I recommend this book because it restores the faith in marketing.”

 

A, Digital Strategy

 

E, Founder, Startup Mentor, Board Member, Angel Investor

L, Internal Strategy Consulting

  • Enlightenment Now, by Steven Pinker
  • Factfulness, by Hans Rosling.  Both books are a great reminder that the world is not as bad as it seems – in fact, human life today is better than ever before (even though we still have room for improvement and some specific challenges ahead)

B, Investment Adviser, Transaction Execution, Oil and Gas, Chemicals

  • Investment Banking, by Joshua Rosenblum, Joshua Pearl.  There are many books focussing on the ‘What to don’t for Valuation but only Joshua’s book covers the ‘How’ to use the Valuation methods. Bible (New Testament) for Investment banking Analysts and Associates.
  • Best Practices in Equity Research, by James Valentine. This book teaches you how to research a company, industry and generate alpha after closely examining the advice from more than 800 (what I best remember) Equity Research Analysts. A must have for an Investor and an Aspiring investor.
  • Rich Dad, Poor Dad, by Robert Kiyosaki. Must read Personal Finance book to be read Pre-owned MBA. The Student should know why he is doing an MBA

M, University Student

 

G, Financial Consulting

  • Black Edge, by Sheelah Kolhatkar
  • Billion Dollar Whale, by Tom Wright, Bradley Hope. Both of them tackle the subject of corrupt individuals taking advantage of less than perfect financial system and is a bit of an eye opener how the system “really” works.

 

J, Organizational Consulting

 

F, Business Development, Oil & Gas

 

B, Product Management, Banking

  • How to Wash a Chicken: Mastering the Business Presentation by Tim Calkins. Good refresher for experienced presenters on presenting well and especially useful for MBA students.
  • INSPIRED: How to Create Tech Products Customers Love, by Marty Cagan. The why and how to take a customer focused approach to develop compelling tech products that companies today are using to disrupt and dominate.
  • EconTalk (podcast) – Weekly podcast on economic topics both past & present and is a good regular listen for a strategist to keep their “economic thinking” current and sharp.
  • Exponent (podcast) (by Ben Thompson of Stratecery blog & consultant James Allworth) podcast is recently semi-retired but even historical episodes give new insights into the strategy and economics of today’s tech world.

JM, Reader

JCA, Brand Management

  • Educated: A Memoir, Tara Westover, story of persistence and lengths of human determination
  • After Hours (podcast), interesting, insightful conversations among 3 HBS professors on virtually any topic
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