The New Nature of Business
Operations, Retail & FMCG books
For operators and for supply-chain, retail and consumer-goods professionals: lean and operations thinking (The Toyota Way, Lean Thinking, The Phoenix Project) alongside retail and consumer behaviour (Why We Buy, The New Rules of Retail, Sam Walton: Made in America).
23 books1 foundation / essential2 recentFor operators, supply-chain, retail and FMCG professionals
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Start here
Featured picks in Operations, Retail & FMCG: good first reads.
The Toyota Way
The Toyota Way
Operations, Retail & FMCGYour Life Is Manufactured
Your Life Is Manufactured
Operations, Retail & FMCGAll 23 Operations, Retail & FMCG books
Alphabetical by title, each with a short description. Open the details for related reads and courses, or go straight to Amazon.
Call of the Mall
Paco Underhill turns his attention to shopping centres, examining how malls function and how people behave in them. A book for retailers, property professionals and anyone interested in consumer behaviour.
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Delivering Happiness
Tony Hsieh recounts his path from early internet ventures to leading the online retailer Zappos, and sets out his view that company culture, customer service and a focus on happiness can drive a business. A memoir with lessons for founders and managers.
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Factory Physics
Treats manufacturing and operations as a science, using concepts such as variability, queues and inventory to explain how production systems behave and how to improve them. A fairly technical text for operations managers, engineers and students.
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Gemba Kaizen
Masaaki Imai explains kaizen as continuous, incremental improvement carried out where the work actually happens, on the shop floor or at the point of service. A practical introduction for managers and supervisors aiming to involve staff in everyday improvement.
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It's Not Luck
A business novel that continues the story begun in The Goal, using a fictional management team to demonstrate Theory of Constraints thinking tools for diagnosing problems and resolving conflicts. Suited to managers who prefer to learn problem-solving methods through narrative.
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Lean Thinking
Womack and Jones lay out five principles of lean: specify value, map the value stream, create flow, let customers pull, and pursue perfection. They show how organisations beyond manufacturing can use these ideas to remove waste.
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Operations Management
A university-level textbook covering how organisations design, run and improve their operations, from process design and capacity to quality and planning. Suited to students and managers who want a broad grounding in operations across manufacturing and services.
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Retailing Management
A textbook on retail management covering strategy, merchandising, store operations and customer service, with a focus on how retailers compete. Appropriate for students of retailing and for practitioners wanting a broad overview of the sector.
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Sam Walton: Made in America
The founder of Walmart tells his own story, from small-town variety store beginnings to building one of the world's largest retailers, written with John Huey. Of interest to readers who want a first-hand account of an entrepreneur's approach to retail.
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Supply Chain Management
A textbook on supply chain strategy, planning and operation, covering topics such as network design, inventory, transportation and sourcing. Aimed at students and practitioners who need a structured grounding in how supply chains are managed.
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The DevOps Handbook
A practical guide to adopting DevOps, covering how to speed up the delivery of software, build in fast feedback and create a culture of continual learning. Written by a group of practitioners, it suits technology leaders and engineers improving how software is released and run.
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The Machine That Changed the World
Reports on a major international study of the world car industry, comparing Japanese and Western methods and introducing lean production as an alternative to mass production. Relevant to anyone who wants to understand where lean manufacturing thinking began.
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The New (Ab)Normal
Draws on the disruption of the pandemic to consider how supply chains and business strategy may need to change in its aftermath. Yossi Sheffi writes for supply chain managers and executives interested in resilience and in preparing for future shocks.
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The New Industrial Revolution
Peter Marsh, a journalist who covered manufacturing for the Financial Times, argues that industry is entering a new era in which production becomes more customised, more flexible and spread across more countries. He looks at the technologies, companies and consumer demand behind the shift. Suited to readers interested in manufacturing, operations and the global economy.
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The New Nature of Business
Business leader André Hoffmann and writer Peter Vanham argue that companies depend on nature and should build it into how they plan, invest and decide. The book gives leaders a way to treat nature as part of strategy rather than as an afterthought.
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The New Rules of Retail
An examination of how the retail industry is changing and what retailers need to do to compete as consumers, brands and supply chains shift. Written by Robin Lewis and Michael Dart for retail executives and students of the sector.
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The Phoenix Project
A novel in which an IT manager is handed a struggling, high-stakes project at a manufacturing firm, used to show how lean and flow ideas from factories apply to IT operations and DevOps. It gives technology and operations readers a story-led introduction.
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The Principles of Product Development Flow
Donald Reinertsen applies economics and queueing theory to product development, arguing that batch size, work in progress and variability should be managed with an eye to the cost of delay. A book for development managers and lean practitioners.
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The Resilient Enterprise
Yossi Sheffi examines how companies can prepare for and recover from disruptions to their supply chains, and argues that resilience can become a source of competitive advantage. Of interest to supply chain, risk and operations managers.
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The Toyota Way
Jeffrey Liker sets out fourteen principles that he identifies behind Toyota's approach to management and production, covering long-term thinking, continuous improvement and respect for people. Useful for operations leaders who want to understand lean as a management culture, not just a toolkit.
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The Wal-Mart Effect
Charles Fishman investigates how Walmart's size and pricing demands affect its suppliers, workers, competitors and the communities where it operates, as well as the prices shoppers pay. A work of reporting for readers interested in the retailer's influence on the wider economy.
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Why We Buy
Paco Underhill draws on years of observing how people move through shops to explain what shapes their buying behaviour, such as the layout of a store. Retailers, designers and marketers can learn how small details of the environment affect what shoppers do.
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Your Life Is Manufactured
Tim Minshall, an academic who studies manufacturing and innovation, explains how everyday things are made and why manufacturing matters to jobs, supply chains and the wider economy. Written for general readers as well as people who work in industry.
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Courses to go with Operations, Retail & FMCG reading
Turn the ideas into skills with self-paced video courses. Each shelf shows the books it pairs with.
Udemy courses
Supply chain
Courses on supply chain and logistics.
Browse Supply chain coursesUdemy courses
Operations management
Courses on operations management.
Browse Operations management coursesUdemy courses
Lean Six Sigma
Courses on Lean and Six Sigma.
Browse Lean Six Sigma coursesUdemy courses
Retail management
Courses on retail management and merchandising.
Browse Retail management coursesUdemy links are affiliate links: we may earn a commission if you enrol, at no extra cost to you.
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Common questions
- How many Operations, Retail & FMCG books are on this list?
- This page lists 23 Operations, Retail & FMCG books, 1 of them marked Foundation / Essential and 2 marked Recent / New thinking.
- Which Operations, Retail & FMCG books should I start with?
- Good first reads are the featured picks: The New Nature of Business by André Hoffmann & Peter Vanham, The Toyota Way by Jeffrey K. Liker, and Your Life Is Manufactured by Tim Minshall.
- Who is this Operations, Retail & FMCG reading list for?
- Operators, supply-chain, retail and FMCG professionals.
- Are there courses to go with these Operations, Retail & FMCG books?
- Yes. This page lists 4 Udemy course shelves for Operations, Retail & FMCG: Supply chain, Operations management, Lean Six Sigma, and Retail management. Udemy links are affiliate links: we may earn a commission if you enrol, at no extra cost to you.
- How are the books chosen?
- The Business Reading Room curates its library by topic and groups titles into collections: Foundation / Essential, Core / Recommended and Recent / New thinking.
- Where can I buy these books?
- Each book links to Amazon through an affiliate link. As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases. Editions, formats and prices are shown on Amazon.