The maverick's business guide

Ignore your family. Forget civic activities. Run your business with a ruthlessly single-minded focus on profit. Such is the message of this Machiavellian treatise, which is repetitive, studded with dubious-sounding anecdotes -- and invaluable reading for anyone in business.

This is not to say that you should follow all of its provocative advice, which includes firing your relatives, micromanaging like crazy and using fear as a motivator. But the author's larger message -- that success in business requires relentless focus on the bottom line -- is worth hearing in these hard times. Cloutier's book is a brutal, albeit cynical, wake-up call.

NEXT: Know when to hold 'em