Reading List


The following books have been major influences in shaping skills and implementation habits of family farm and non-farm business managers. Though not an exhaustive list, it includes a number of titles ranging from older classics to new reads that may be of interest to you and your management team.

  • The One Minute Manager, Kenneth Blanchard and Spencer Johnson. 1981.
  • First, Break All the Rules: What the World’s Greatest Managers Do Differently, Marcus Buckingham and Curt Coffman.  1999.
  • Beating the Midas Curse, Perry L. Cochell and Rob Zeeb. 2013. (2nd Edition)
  • Great by Choice:  Uncertainty, Chaos, and Luck – Why Some Thrive Despite Them All, Jim Collins and Morten T. Hansen. 2011.
  • How the Mighty Fall: and Why Some Companies Never Give In, Jim Collins. 2009.
  • Good to Great: Why Some Companies Make the Leap…and Others Don’t, Jim Collins. 2001.
  • The 7 Habits of Highly Successful People: Powerful Lessons in Personal Change, Stephen Covey. 1990.
  • Every Family’s Business: 12 Common Sense Questions to Protect Your Wealth. Thomas William Deans. 2009. (2nd Edition)
  • The Practice of Management, Peter Drucker, first copyright 1954.
  • The Family Council Handbook: How to Create, Run, and Maintain a Successful Family Business Council, Christopher J. Eckrich and Stephen McClure. 2012.
  • Getting to Yes: Negotiating Agreement without Giving In, Roger Fisher, William Ury and Bruce Patton. 2011. (3rd edition)
  • A Revolutionary Approach to Success: Give and Take, Adam Grant. 2013.
  • Inside the Multi-Generational Family Business: 9 Symptoms of Generational Stack-up and How to Cure Them, Mark T. Green. 2011.
  • Who Moved My Cheese: An A-Mazing Way to Deal with Change in Your Work and in Your Life, Spencer Johnson.  1998.
  • Workaholics: the Respectable Addicts. Barbara Killinger. 1997.
  • Inside Drucker’s Brain, Jeffrey A. Krames. 2008.
  • Crucial Conversations: Tools for Talking When Stakes are High, Kenny Patterson, Joseph Grenny, Ron McMillan and Al Switzler. 2012. (2nd Edition)
  • The Knowing-Doing Gap: How Smart Companies Turn Knowledge Into Action, Jeffrey Pfeffer and Robert Sutton. 2000.
  • I’m Stuck, You’re Stuck: Break Through to Better Work Relationships and Results By Discovering Your DISC Behavioral Style, Tom Ritchey with Alan Axelrod. 2002.
  • Perpetuating the Family Business: 50 Lessons Learned from Long-Lasting Successful Families in Business, John L. Ward. 2004.
  • Family Business: Genesis 37-50 and the Family of Joseph, Lance Woodbury and William R. Long. 2013.
    This book blends lessons from biblical history with modern management principles for managing relationships between family and business.
  • The Enduring Legacy: Essential Family Business Values, Lance Woodbury. 2012.
    Furthering a family legacy requires a focus on the values that define the organization. This book offers more than two dozen values that capture the essence of successful family businesses in our day.

Equip your family farm business for the future, today.

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