Adrian Zackheim | Founder, President, and Publisher of Portfolio.

Adrian Zackheim has worked with many publishers over the years—Harper Collins, William Morrow, Doubleday, St. Martin's Press. Jack Covert has known and worked with him at each. When I asked Jack why Adrian was his choice this year, he launched into story mode (as he's wont to do): 

I remember sitting in Adrian’s corner office at HarperBusiness on a very rainy afternoon during one of my early trips to NYC, and him raving about a new book they were publishing that I needed to know about. It was Good to Great. I’ve learned of so many similarly seminal books from him since—Purple Cow, The HP Way, on and on. When working on The 100 Best Business Books of All Time (which he published, as well), his influence was everywhere. Most important to me, he has always been there for me and 800-CEO-READ. 

 Adrian's contribution has been great, and his impact has made the world of business and books a more expansive and yet refined place.

We Are Market Basket: The Story of the Unlikely Grassroots Movement That Saved a Beloved Business by Daniel Korschun and Grant Welker | AMACOM Books 

We Are Market Basket is the story with a little bit of everything. It’s a great company history and narrative, a good management primer, the story of a family power struggle, and a battle between two visions of American Capitalism. It is a story so idealistic that it’s hard to believe it is realistic—that it really happened. It is the story of Market Basket employees striking and Market Basket customers boycotting the store until a popular CEO and the business model he represented and fought for were reinstated. Tell me, how many stories have you heard of people protesting in favor of a CEO? the very foundations and philosophy of free enterprise. 

Everybody Matters: The Extraordinary Power of Caring for Your People Like Family by Bob Chapman and Raj Sisodia | Portfolio 

I use Post-it tabs when I’m reading to flag ideas I want to revisit later. In the case of Everybody Matters, I loaded up the entire book with them. Its management advice seemed tailor-fit for our small company, despite the fact that the book was written by the CEO of an enormous manufacturing company—an affirmation of author Bob Chapman’s humanistic approach to leadership. “The machinery we build is just the economic engine that enables us to touch lives,” Chapman says. “The flourishing of those lives is our paramount concern.” We believe this focus can and should be applied to every company of every size, a task made easier with Chapman’s book at hand. 

The Compass and The Nail: How the Patagonia Model of Loyalty Can Save Your Business, and Might Just Save the Planet by Craig Wilson | Rare Bird Books 

Is the bottom line really the bottom line? Not always. Companies in the “responsible economy” measure more than just cash flow to determine their success and more than number of purchases to determine their customer loyalty. Patagonia is one of those companies, and Craig Wilson spearheaded their multi-channel marketing efforts for nearly a decade. If you are looking for long-lasting love and not just a one-off purchase from your customer base, you can find Wilson’s brand loyalty secrets in his first book, The Compass and The Nail. 

Boss Life: Surviving My Own Small Business by Paul Downs | Blue Rider Press 

Paul Downs' book is refreshing (to say the least), in that Downs doesn't pretend he has a blueprint for small business success. Rather, he painstakingly walks readers through actual experiences running his custom furniture business, revealing what too many business books gloss over: running and growing a small business is really, really hard, full of gut-wrenching decisions, and littered with frustrating mistakes. Aspiring and acting entrepreneurs will glean lessons from these stories—both the failures and successes—but the real power of Boss Life is that it mirrors not only IPO chasing, start-up entrepreneurs, but the experience of millions of everyday business owners looking for and working hard to build a solid life for themselves and their employees. 

Reclaiming Conversation: The Power of Talk in a Digital Age by Sherry Turkle | Penguin Press 

Reclaiming Conversation wasn’t a book we expected to see in the personal development category, but this very sophisticated look at conversation in the digital age quickly rose to the top of this year’s awards. Based on five years of research and interviews in homes, schools, and the workplace, Turkle finds that electronic devices have come to dictate how humans interact and that it has compromised our ability to truly relate to and empathize with one another. Ironically, it seems being constantly connected online is degrading our ability to connect in real life. This compelling book urges the reader to embrace the intimacy of face-to-face communication and reclaim it as a real means of connection. 

How to Fly A Horse: The Secret History of Creation, Invention, and Discovery by Kevin Ashton | Doubleday 

It can be refreshing to take a break from the books in celebration of the rogue genius. The outstanding narratives like that of Jobs tend to mislead us into thinking of creation as a practice reserved for an elite few. How to Fly A Horse is the smelling salt to your fantasies of genius creativity. Kevin Ashton cites examples spanning centuries and demonstrating the intense collaborative nature of creation. In an age of increasing inequality of all stripes, it is refreshing to have this well-researched reminder that our world is pushed forward not by a few geniuses but by millions of hard-working people.