More than two decades after he first read it and four decades after it was published, Bill Gates says Business Adventures by John Brooks is still the best business book he's ever read, according to CNBC.
Warren Buffett, chairman and CEO of Berkshire Hathaway, lent Mr. Gates his copy of Business Adventures after Mr. Gates asked him for a book recommendation. More than 20 years later, "John Brooks is still my favorite business writer," Mr. Gates wrote on his blog in 2014, according to the report.
Mr. Brooks, a former staff writer for The New Yorker, published the book in 1969 using 12 stories from Wall Street that were originally published in the magazine.
"Unlike a lot of today's business writers, Brooks didn't boil his work down into pat how-to lessons or simplistic explanations for success. (How many times have you read that some company is taking off because they give their employees free lunch?)," Mr. Gates wrote. "You won't find any listicles in his work. Brooks wrote long articles that frame an issue, explore it in depth, introduce a few compelling characters, and show how things went for them."
Although the business world has changed substantially from the 1960s, Mr. Gates said the fundamentals of building a strong business have not, writing, "Brooks' deeper insights about business are just as relevant today as they were back then," according to the report.
According to Mr. Gates, the key takeaway is: "There's an essential human factor in every business endeavor. It doesn't matter if you have a perfect product, production plan, and marketing pitch; you'll still need the right people to lead and implement those plans."