Business bestsellers survive, but where did the management of management go?

Copyright © HT Digital Streams Limit all rights reserved. Rita McGrath, M. Muneer 5 min Read May 15, 2025, 12:30 Hours IST Today, the business book became something of a glorified business card. (AFP) Summary reminder of Tom Peters and the days of management foot assigned by book success? The genre is staring a good look these days, even though online platforms have cost books about their monopoly about the spread of idea. How can thought leadership be achieved? Once, a best-selling book would give his author Guru status. To keep your name on the hardcover cover was an unofficial badge of expertise, whether you were an aspiring management thinker, a boardroom or a regular of the speaker circuit. Unlike invitations for capital letters, books provided credibility and had intellectual cachet. No more. In an era where it seems that everyone has published something, has the golden standard of thought leadership lost its brilliance? To understand how it happened, flashbacks after 1982, in search of excellence by Tom Peters and Robert Waterman with Evangelical zeal’s stores. US businesses, battered by stagflation, oil crisbs and the rise of Japan Inc, were looking for reassurance. The book offered exactly this: proof that US companies can still thrive, and more importantly, a codified playbook for success: Eight easy -to -recycle properties, apparently data -driven and feasible enough for drivers to feel empowered. Also read: When will business books focus more on corporate failures than successes? Critics later used his methodological defects and Peters allegedly even admitted to “falsifying” the data in retrospect. But the damage was done. A new genre was born: the Business bestseller. And with it a new cloak: of the leader of the business. From then on, books were no longer just an idea of ​​containers. They have become platforms for corporate wisdom. Successful writers have received profitable speaking commitments, actions for management consultations, corporate council seat seats and media publicity. Business books have become business. High interests meant new tactics. Michael Treacy and Fred Wiersema, writers of the discipline of market leaders, have reportedly spent more than $ 250,000 to buy their own books across the US to get to the New York Times Top Seller List. This can enable them to rise their speaking fees and get larger consultation and book offers. In India, many business writers, especially those who have been known for their professional success, have become public figures. Gurcharan Das’s India Unbound turned him from a former CEO into a public intellectual. Nandan Nilekani’s imagination of India served not only as a comment, but as a policy guide. Raghuram Rajan’s fault lines earned him stars outside the economy field. Also read: The best business books tend to be about music and sports today, the business book has become something of a glorified business card. Many are stuffed essays stretched up to 200 pages, bloated with anecdotes, loaded with buzz words and dressed in covers and screams for attention. With an estimated 12,000 business books published each year, the genre suffers a global glut. Few books offer a breakthrough idea. Many are simply control lists. And in a world of overload of digital content, the leadership shifts to more dynamic platforms. Podcasts, newsletters, X -threads, LinkedIn posts and short videos form faster professional discourse than traditional publishing cycles can make books out. A book can take two years to write and publish. A podcast can go directly and viral immediately. Publishers adapt to: Simon & Schuster recently announced that they will reduce the reliance on expert reviews on back cover. It is not just administrative; It is an acknowledgment that compound praise does not drive sales. Another cruel reality for writers is that a book that takes four years to write can disappear over four months, even before it gets a chance to appear in a cheaper paperback edition. This does not mean that books are outdated. It allows for depth, with slowly built and layered arguments. Jonathan Haidt’s The Anxious Generation, who explores the profound impact of digital life on young people, is an example. The book format allowed him to explore a cultural phenomenon in a way that no blog post or tweet storm could ever do. Books are also timeless. It endures in libraries, sits on the shelves and draws intellectual gravitas. But their monopoly about spreading the idea is over. Thought leadership is an ecosystem these days. Books are part of it, but also newsletters with subscriptions, viral LinkedIn posts, substack essays, x-threads and, yes, 30 second videos on Instagram or YouTube shorts. Political influence went in the same way. Also read: From advice from stock market to the Medimix story, business books to add to your TBR, what should a thinking leader do? Write that book with a big idea, yes. But don’t stop there. Treat it as one gear in a larger machine. Build an audience through different platforms that use voice, video and short-form text. Share ideas in real time. Experiment. Involved. Books are for depth. Podcasts are for reach. Newsletters are for loyalty. Tweets are for traction. Master the digital mixture. Books will still be important in policy, academia and legacy media, but they no longer offer an automatic key to the kingdom of influence. In a world that is over -saturated with information, clarity is currencies, velocity is value and scope is power. So, did we reach ‘Peak Book’ Point à la ‘Peak Oil’? Quite possible. The hardcover may no longer be the sovereign badge of authority it once was. But in the era of agile content and restless attention, thinking leadership is no longer about a simple polished manuscript. It’s about being present, persistent and plural. Anyone who is now writing a book to get an important idea should also embrace digital channels. Because in the new world of ideas it is not just to be read. It’s about being ubiquitous – hardy, shared, seen and of course remembered. The authors are professor at Columbia Business School and founder of Valize respectively; and Fortune-500 adviser, start investor and co-founder of the non-profit physicians Institute for Innovation. X: @munemuh catches all the business news, market news, news events and latest news updates on live mint. Download the Mint News app to get daily market updates. More Topics #raghuram Rajan #Books #FinFluencers Mint Specials