The Lords of Strategy: The Secret Intellectual History of the New Corporate World, by Walter Kiechel III, Harvard Business School Press, 2010.

Summary: A fascinating history of the past 40 years of corporate strategic ideas.

Real Leaders Don’t Do PowerPoint: How to Sell Yourself and Your Ideas, by Christopher Witt and Dale Fetherling, Crown Business, 2009.

Summary: Useful advice on how to make your speeches more effective.

The Economics of Integrity, by Anna Bernasek, Harper Studio, 2010.

Summary: An excellent explanation of how wealth is in fact built on integrity, and how important a role trust and trustworthiness play in everyday transactions.

The Invisible Edge: Taking Your Strategy to the Next Level Using Intellectual Property, by Mark Blaxill and Ralph Eckardt, Portfolio, 2009.

Summary: A book filled with interesting stories which highlight the importance of intellectual property.

The Puritan Gift: Reclaiming the American Dream Amidst Global Financial Chaos, by Ken Hopper and Will Hopper, I B Taurus, 2009.

Summary: A great exploration of the values underlying the US’s golden age of management.

Switch: How to Change Things When Change Is Hard, by Chip Heath and Dan Heath, Broadway Business, 2010.

Summary: Excellent practical advice about how to overcome obstacles to change.

Power of 2: How to Make the Most of Your Partnerships at Work and in Life, by Rodd Wagner and Gale Muller, Gallup Press 2009.

Summary: This is a useful book for anyone who wants to work on improving collaborative relationships.

Leading the Revolution: How to Thrive in Turbulent Times by Making Innovation a Way of Life, by Gary Hamel, revised edition, Plume 2002.

Summary: It really is important for businesses to have an innovation strategy, but I am not sure that you will find one to meet your needs in this book.

Blue Ocean Strategy: How to Create Uncontested Market Space and Make the Competition Irrelevant, by W Chan Kim and Renée Mauborgne, HBS Press 2005.

Summary: Blue Ocean Strategy is very useful in stimulating thinking about many different ways in which the delivery of products and services can be improved and differentiated to enhance profit margins.

Good to Great: Why Some Companies Make the Leap and Others Don’t, by Jim Collins, Harper Business 2001.

Summary: Good to Great is rightly regarded as a business classic. It is well researched and well written, and it contains a number of concepts and tools which are very helpful when appraising or creating the strategy of an organisation.