I am learning as much as possible about effective organizations, specifically large corporations and their respective businesses. 

My goals are to start a successful business and to really develop the skills needed to be a great executive.

If any of you on LessWrong have studied this area I would greatly appreciate your input. 

My current approach has been to read some highly recommended books and also to read as much as I can about how modern day CEOs and founders start and run their companies. I worry that some of this information is more for entertainment than for obtaining knowledge. I am also starting a company with a friend to try and put a lot of this information into practice. 

I've also been using the "execute by default" idea, which, has helped immenseley in actually making progress and I have already felt that practicing this changes the way I approach problems, mostly for the better. 

Some books I'm reading:

* Management by Peter Drucker

* The Effective Executive by Peter Drucker

* The Personal MBA by Josh Kaufman

* The Lean Startup by Eric Ries

* Founders at Work by Jessica Livingston

* How to Win Friends and Influence People by Dale Carnegie

Some articles I've read:

* Marc Andreesen's articles on starting a company

* Paul Graham's essays on startups

* Most things that are highly voted on on Hacker News

I have found that a lot of the information in these books is very practical, and have really raised my understanding of how large organizations work (at least intellectually). What other approaches should I be taking?

If you have any suggestions on my plan, what I'm reading, or doing, or whatever, please let me know.