From what we’ve seen, Product Managers are avid readers.  So here are the top 10 “must read” Harvard Business Review articles, and all of them applicable to product management.  They include classics from Clayton Christensen, Michael Porter, Peter Druker, Kaplan & Norton, and Theoodore Levitt.  If you’re not a subscriber, you can buy individual articles via the HBR online store, or stop by your local library.  Which one(s) are your favorites, and why?

Meeting the Challenge of Disruptive Change
by Clayton M. Christensen and Michael Overdorf

Explains why so few established companies innovate successfully.

Competing on Analytics
by Thomas H. Davenport

Explains how to use data-collection technology and analysis to discern what your customers want, how much they’re willing to pay, and what keeps them loyal.

Managing Oneself
by Peter F. Drucker

Encourages us to carve our own paths by asking questions such as, “What are my strengths?” and “Where do I belong?”

What Makes a Leader?
by Daniel Goleman

Not IQ or technical skills, but emotional intelligence.

Putting the Balanced Scorecard to Work
by Robert S. Kaplan and David P. Norton

Includes practical steps and examples from companies that use the Balanced Scorecard to measure performance and set strategy.

Innovation: The Classic Traps
by Rosabeth Moss Kanter

Advocates applying lessons from past failures to your innovation efforts. She explores four problems and offers remedies for each.

Leading Change: Why Transformation Efforts Fail
by John P. Kotter

Argues that transformation is a process, not an event. It takes
years, not weeks, and you can’t skip any steps.

Marketing Myopia
by Theodore Levitt

This classic article introduces the quintessential strategy
question, “What business are you really in?”

What Is Strategy?
by Michael E. Porter

Argues that rivals can easily copy your operational effectiveness, but they can’t copy your strategic positioning — what distinguishes you.

The Core Competence of the Corporation
by C.K. Prahalad and Gary Hamel

Argues that a diversified company is like a tree: the trunk and major limbs its core products, branches its business units, leaves and fruit its end products. Nourishing and stabilizing everything is the root system — its core competencies.