Six of the best business reads for directors

Shopping, Seduction & Mr Selfridge by Lindy Woodhead
Profile Books
• Harry Selfridge, founder of the landmark Oxford Street store, was a showman. He staged a rooftop fashion show of leather flying suits, encouraged visiting celebrities to sign a special window with a diamond-tipped pen, held a fundraising auction in aid of the Titanic disaster fund, and ran a series of advertisements in the form of a newspaper column.
Much of what we now expect in a department store was initiated by Selfridge, up to a century ago.

In this lively and compelling biography, Lindy Woodhead follows the glory years of a charismatic big spender, whose ill-advised expansion would eventually be his downfall. Her pacy narrative takes in his glamorous women, his social set, the sexing-up of shopping, and seismic shifts in society. If the author occasionally gives in to sensationalism or speculation, she more than makes up for it by spinning an entertaining tale out of the life of this visionary shopkeeper.
Selected by Director's Helen Sandler

Black Swan by Nassim Nicholas Taleb
Penguin Books
• I'd love to read a book about "the big thing" for 2008. Will it be mobile social networks, the smart green home, a China crisis? The trouble is that such events are only predictable in retrospect. So I'll settle for Black Swan by Nassim Nicholas Taleb. A reassuring diatribe against trends, and for embracing unpredictability.
Selected by John Grant, author of The Green Marketing Manifesto

Dealing with Darwin: How Great Companies Innovate at Every Phase of Their Evolution, by Geoffrey A Moore
Portfolio
• Geoffrey Moore's Crossing the Chasm is a bible at our firm. Five years ago its clear thinking helped us avoid the pitfalls of starting up a tech firm. His latest provides a practical guide for embedding relentless innovation in a business, which is critical to continued success.
Selected by Ben Goss, CEO of software firm Distribution Technology

Business as Unusual: My Entrepreneurial Journey, by Anita Roddick
Anita Roddick Books
• She was inspirational, she proved that you can have an environmental conscience and turn a profit. I really admired her for many reasons, including the fact she was a loving wife and mother and showed us that you do not have to be a bitch to be big in business. I think that it would be inspiring to turn each page.
Jennifer Irvine is founder of food delivery service The Pure Package

The Last Tycoons by William D Cohan
Random House
• William D Cohan's The Last Tycoons was a surprise choice for the FT/Goldman Sachs 2007 Business Book of the Year gong. While other entrants tackled big themes—immigration; Web 2.0; economics; forecasting models—Cohan's book has an old-school appeal, as well as a glamorous subject—that of the venerable and somewhat mysterious bank Lazard's US-based arm, Lazard Frères & Co. The subtitle says it all: "a tale of unrestrained ambition, billion-dollar fortunes, Byzantine power struggles and hidden scandal". It's both a cautionary tale about egos run amok and a fond hark back to a time when Lazard's "Renaissance" style, star bankers ruled like Medicis.

The US arm has been subsumed by the Paris bank, where current CE Bruce Wasserstein has distanced himself from Cohan's weighty tome. But this is no potboiler. Years on Wall Street and a spell at Lazard Frères itself taught the author the fine art of "triangulation" and he's checked his facts at least three ways to provide a deeply researched and lively tale for any age. The fact that financial institutions are again in the spotlight for their opacity and clubbiness just adds more spice.
Selected by Director's Joanna Higgins

Winning is not Enough: The Autobiography, by Jackie Stewart
Headline Book Publishing
• I'd love to receive this for Christmas. Sir Jackie Stewart combines a huge talent as a world- class race-car driver with an equally impressive international business career. He is an iconic figure and someone for whom I have a great deal of admiration having set up my own international business. I believe in fulfilling your potential in life and never giving up no matter how hard the obstacles you face and here is a prime example of this mentality.
Selected by Andrew Robinson, CEO of Strawtech UK