Ernest Hemingway once wrote an entire story in only six words: “For sale: baby shoes, never used.” He widely proclaimed that it was his best work, besides his other famous six-word story, “The Old Man and the Sea.” Now, HBS Publishing has decided to release its own line of six-word books for busy executives who do not have time to even read dressed-down HBR articles. Some of the books on offer include:
Vision. The rest is just details.
Lower costs or earn your price.
If everyone’s selling, should you too?
Buy this book or get disrupted.
What consumers want (yet another generalization).
Alphabet soup for the marketer’s soul.
MBA politicians-all hat, no cattle.
Work/life: mutually exclusive, collectively exhaustive.
Federal prison: fastest growing alumni network.
Lies, damn lies, and financial reporting.
Unemployed entrepreneur, will work for cash.
Bad deals happen to good people.
Meek inherit earth, hire professional managers.
Subarctic survival: thank you, global warming!
Spell “team” with a broken typewriter.
Finance: Adam Smith’s invisible middle finger.
Consulting for dummies: PowerPoint, expense account.
Toyota. Why? Why? Why? Why? Why?
MBA 007: the world’s not enough.
These titles will also be available as audio books on iTunes for 99 cents each, narrated by William Shatner (author of “Failed SAT. Lost Scholarship. Invented Rocket.”).
