Reading Business Books

So I’ve taken to actually reading business books. I’ve read management books before, but what I mostly took away from them were a validation of the leadership skills I already apply in managing geeks. Now, I’m reading to actually learn more about business. To help me along, I’m reading The Ten Day MBA, 3rd Ed., by Steven Silbiger. I’d bought this book a while back, but now I’m determined to actually read through the whole thing.

Apart from The Ten Day MBA, I’m also reading some marketing books as well, which I borrowed from my brother, who happens to be graphic artist with a BS-Marketing degree. I’ve started reading Selling The Wheel, by Jeff Cox and Howard Stevens. This dovetails nicely with the first chapter of The Ten Day MBA, since the book begins with Marketing as well.

Why the sudden interest in sales and marketing? I need to bone up on the topic to round out and complete my management skills. I can lead my devs through victory in war, but I need to have a firmer grasp of the psyche of the more non-tech management types. Plenty of leadership skills I already got — most of the devs I’ve actually managed will attest to that — but I need to be able to get inside the heads of business people as well. I guess you could say, my goals have finally and truly shifted from perfection of my technical skills to perfection of my management and business skills.

One thorny question I have is, is it acceptable to start selling something that doesn’t yet exist and pass it off as something that’s existed for years already? I mean, I’d always thought, perhaps naively, that lying was bad and that you’d go to hell for it after you’d died — but then again, I’m no business expert, so what do I know, right? Hopefully I’ll find answers to my questions in the course of my self-study in the coming days, weeks, and months.