Some business books are worth their weight in gold. They’ve stood the test of time, and we hope they’ll inspire you as much as they’ve inspired us.
We’ve also listed some of our favourite information sources to guide you through the investment jungle.
Literature
The Intelligent Investor
by Benjamin Graham, Jason Zweig, July 2003
HarperCollins Publishers, ISBN: 0060555661
“Among the library of investment books promising no-fail strategies for riches, Benjamin Graham's classic, The Intelligent Investor, offers no guarantees or gimmicks but overflows with the wisdom at the core of all good portfolio management.” – Amazon.com
The Essays of Warren Buffett
by Lawrence A. Cunningham, April 2002
John Wiley & Sons (Asia) Pte Ltd, ISBN 0470820780
Warren Buffett – a pupil of Benjamin Graham – is probably the most successful investor of our time, a legend who for 30 years achieved annual returns of more than 20%. He has never written a book, or authorised any books to be written about him, but in his investment company’s annual reports he has written entertainingly and at length about his methods. This book is a thematic collection of these essays, and they make for a riveting read.
Management: Tasks, Responsibilities, Practices
by Peter F. Drucker, April 1993
HarperBusiness, ISBN: 0887306152
This book, in Peter Drucker’s words, “tries to equip the manager with the understanding, the thinking, the knowledge and the skills for today’s and also tomorrow’s jobs." This management classic has been developed and tested during more than thirty years of teaching management in universities, in executive programs and seminars and through the author’s close work with managers as a consultant for large and small businesses, government agencies, hospitals and schools. Drucker discusses the tools and techniques of successful management practice that have been proven effective, and he makes them meaningful and easily accessible.
Managing, Performing, Living. Effective Management for a New Era.
by Fredmund Malik, 2004
Deutsche Verlags-Anstalt DVA, ISBN: 3421053707
There’s by-the-book management, and there’s good management, and good management is something you can learn. This contention has often put Malik at odds with current trends in management thinking. He focuses particularly on effectiveness: the purpose of management is not to pull the wool over people’s eyes, but to achieve results.
Getting Things Done
by David Allen, January 2003
Penguin Books, ISBN: 0142000280
A robust working methodology is the cornerstone of any effective, productive and relaxed business environment. As a consultant and trainer, David Allen has developed his own self-contained system, and the great thing about it is that it works.
Information sources
topGeopolitics
Strategic Forecasting
www.stratfor.comFew publications come close to Stratfor in their coverage of geopolitical events. Barron’s magazine called it “the shadow CIA”, while Fortune wrote: “...increasingly relied upon by multinational corporations, private investors, hedge funds, and even the government’s own spy agencies for analysis of geopolitical risks.” ABC News said of Stratfor: “Often able to uncover the globe’s best-kept secrets and predict world-changing events in ways that no one else can.”
Technology
topStrategic News Service (SNS)
www.tapsns.comSNS author Mark Anderson has an almost uncanny knack for predicting developments in the computer and telecoms sectors. He’s also one of the few people to revisit his forecasts to see whether they were correct. They usually are.
Overview
topThe Economist
www.economist.comThe Economist covers science, technology and the arts as well as current affairs, business, finance and economics. Whatever their subject, articles have a distinctive tone: independent, plain-speaking, concise and with a reverence for facts.
Management
topMalik on Management
www.malik-management.comFredmund Malik runs the St. Gallen management centre in Switzerland. His wide-ranging publications have become benchmarks of management thinking.
McKinsey Quarterly
www.mckinseyquarterly.comAlthough this publication is a marketing tool for a management consultancy, it offers a highly readable take on the business world, and in particular on how solutions to problems can often be found using a structured approach.
Harvard Business Review
www.hbr.comHere again, all that glitters is not gold – but managers will still find at least one nugget in each issue.
Finance
topFinancial Times
www.ft.comFills in the background details to business developments.
Securities market macroanalysis
topBank Credit Analyst
www.bankcreditanalyst.comDiscussion of key themes help readers understand the big picture and the underlying forces that will shape the global economic and financial market outlook.
Strategic Economic Decisions
www.sedinc.comIn its own words, “The goal of SED’s Advisory Service is to ensure that our clients are less wrong than the market—for the right reasons—and thus earn consistently higher returns. The reason it is possible to be less wrong than the market lies in the existence of structural changes. Think of these changes as those “curve balls” that history throws at investors attempting to cope with new economic, political, demographic, and geo-strategic regimes. It is these structural changes that make traditional extrapolate-the-past forecasting models so unreliable, and that make profitable arbitrage possible.“
Contrary investment ideas
topMarc Faber
www.gloomboomdoom.comMarc Faber writes: “The Gloom Boom & Doom Report is an economic and financial publication which highlights unusual investment opportunities around the world. The guiding philosophy is that, as Horace already observed, ‘many shall be restored that are now fallen and many shall fall that are now in honor.’ The Gloom Boom & Doom report aims, based on economic, social and historical trends, to warn investors when investment themes have become widely accepted and are, therefore, highly priced and risky, while it continuously searches for opportunities in unloved and depressed markets.”
Property
topBentall Properties
www.bentallcapital.comBentall publishes an annual report on the Canadian property investment market, entitled Perspective on Real Estate, packed with lucid analysis and supporting facts.
DB Real Estate Research
www.rreef.comIts worldwide property investment reports are well worth a read.
Bulwien
www.bulwien.deDetailed data on the German property market.