Reading best management books before you get into the MBA program will help you immensely. Life at the B-school requires you to read more than 200 pages a day, one or two case studies, and a lot of reading material from books and magazines before classes. We have compiled the best MBA books to read for those aspiring to join business schools and those already in their dream B-schools, looking forward to their life in the corporate world.

The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People
Author: Stephen Covey

Will picking up The 7 Habits magically transform you into a highly effective person? Absolutely not, and the late Dr. Covey would be the first to tell you the same. What makes this book so foundational and influential is the consistent application and awareness that it can spark in life. As Stephen Covey says, "If you don't make a conscious effort to visualize who you are and what you want in life, then you empower other people and circumstances to shape you and your life by default." This book guides you precisely on how to do it and relieves you of unnecessary stress and wasted effort in any situation for the rest of your life.

How to Win Friends & Influence People
Author: Dale Carnegie

First published in 1936, this classic has many fans (including billionaire investor Warren Buffett) of Carnegie's timeless lessons for understanding the basics of human motivation. Carnegie could have had every MBA-seeking student in mind when he wrote: "…the person who has technical knowledge plus the ability to express ideas, to assume leadership, and to arouse enthusiasm among people—that person is headed for higher earning power."

The Personal MBA
Author: Josh Kaufman

World-class business education in a single volume. Josh Kaufman has made a business out of filtering the core principles of business and delivering them quickly and concisely to people at all stages of their careers. In The Personal MBA, the author shares the essentials of sales, marketing, negotiation, strategy, and much more. Josh Kaufman's "Personal MBA" is a lexicon/dictionary that defines a set of critical concepts that you can use to achieve your goals.

The Daily Drucker
Author: Peter Drucker

In our quest for the next big thing— the next trend, the next innovation, the following platform —we sometimes fail to remember that some of the most incredible ideas came well before us. Peter Drucker is one of the most influential thinkers in the management field, and the significant thing about his ideas is that they have survived the test of time.

Purple Cow
Author: Seth Godin

In this book, Godin added the "Purple Cow" idea to the five Ps of marketing- product, pricing, promotion, packaging, pass-along, positioning, publicity, and permission. Throughout his 224-page book, Godin advocated for risk-taking because of the advantages. He stated that "safe is risky." It all comes down to being memorable, remarkable, being the business that stands out from the crowd. This book is full of real-life examples of businesses that have found the product or service to offer their client such brilliant value that they have become a purple cow in their niche.

Range: Why Generalists Triumph in a Specialized World
Author: David Epstein

Suppose you do not have a clear map of what you want to do or where you want to go professionally. The Range is a fascinating book that explains the benefits and strengths of working in different industries, functions, interests and classes. We often hear about the need for specialization and the advice "be the best in the world at what you want to do."

Reading management books is an indispensable part of the learning process at a B-school, but it doesn’t have to end there. Earning an MBA degree from a management college like Shri Ramdeobaba College of Engineering and Management helps you apply the knowledge from these books into the real world.

RCOEM is a leading management college in Nagpur, offering an advanced MBA program that emphasises on reading as an essential element of your all-round development as a future business leader. Visit our website today to know more about our MBA program.