Books about Donald Trump’s finances and Bill Gates’ influence are competing with titles on the challenges of artificial intelligence, the impact of demographic change and how businesses can do the right thing in the race to be named Financial Times and Schroders Business Book of the Year.
Other titles vying to be named the “most engaging and enjoyable” business book of 2024 range from the memoirs of an investment bank trader to an in-depth exploration of the changing concept of the corporation, from an assessment of Amazon’s dominance to a powerful account of the tension between sustainability and resource demands.
More than 600 titles were sifted through and reviewed by FT journalists. A long list of 16 titles remains in the running to become the 20th winner of the award. £30,000 Prizewhich was first introduced in 2005. Here they are:
AI AND TECHNOLOGY
By Parmy Olson Supremacy:AI, ChatGPT and the race that will change the worldDue out next month, it chronicles the battle between OpenAI’s Sam Altman and DeepMind’s Demis Hassabis to develop the revolutionary technology of generative AI, while grappling with the ethical and business imperatives set by their respective backers at Microsoft and Google.
The algorithm:How AI can hijack your career and steal your futureHilke Schellmann’s book takes an in-depth look at the impact of AI in the workplace as an aid to hiring and performance management. Schellmann warns that algorithms can amplify biases and cause more harm than good.
In The war of everythingAmazon’s ruthless quest to take over the world and remake corporate power, Dana Mattioli critically analyzes the influence of the dominant e-commerce and cloud computing company. Her book, which echoes the title of Brad Stone’s book The store of everything (which won the award in 2013) — asks whether the group has become too big for regulators to stop.
Entrepreneur Raj Shah and technology strategist Christopher Kirchhoff tell the story of how they and others have revolutionized U.S. defense procurement. Unit X:How the Pentagon and Silicon Valley are transforming the future of warfareShah and Kirchhoff turned to startups to revolutionize how the U.S. military is supplied and how war is waged.
The war from belowLithium, copper and the global battle to power our lives Ernest Scheyder, who tackles the core of the dilemmas facing those who want to accelerate the shift to a more sustainable economy, examines how the search for critical minerals pits policymakers, manufacturers, environmentalists and scientists against each other.
ECONOMIC SCIENCES
In Growth:A reckoningDaniel Susskind, whose timely book A world without work was included in the 2020 shortlist and focuses on the question of how to resolve the tension between the pursuit of growth at any price (creating inequality and environmental damage) and the need to preserve what we value.
Andrew Scott returns to the question of how to cope with and benefit from increased life expectancy in The imperative of longevity:Building a better society for healthier and longer lives. Scott, co-author with Lynda Gratton of the 2016 finalist book The life of 100 years — proposes ways to pursue a “permanent agenda” that should help us live sustainably and healthily for longer.
In The Divine Economy:How religions compete for wealth, power and peoplePaul Seabright offers a novel economic analysis of religions. He describes them as the original platforms that bring groups of users together in mutually beneficial relationships, much as Instagram or X do today, and points out how religious and secular groups can work together.
ORGANIZATIONS
Economist John Kay The corporation in the 21st centuryWhy (Almost) Everything We’re Told About Business Is Wrong is an in-depth look at how the world of digital products and services is challenging the traditional view of the company. The book, which will be published in late August, examines the future of what was once the preeminent organizational unit of capitalism and how it and the economy at large are managed.
Alison Taylor takes on some of those challenges in Higher ground:How companies can do the right thing in a turbulent worldYour guide for leaders struggling to balance conflicting stakeholder demands, ESG investment requirements, and ethical issues that reach far beyond the confines of their daily business.
In Tribal:How the cultural instincts that divide us can help unite usIn a book to be published in October, psychologist Michael Morris takes a timely and in-depth look at how leaders in business and politics can harness innate tribal instincts to positive effect, rather than allowing them to divide.
The machine of irresponsibility:Why big systems make terrible decisions and how the world lost its mind Dan Davies introduces readers to the ubiquitous “responsibility sinks” that allow responsible parties to avoid blame and thereby erode the foundations of society. Davies points out the ways in which mainstream economics supplanted “cybernetics” management theory that could have created a more positive outcome.
Robert Sutton and Huggy Rao describe a familiar picture of bureaucratic dysfunction in The Friction Project:How smart leaders make the right things easier and the wrong things harder and offer many practical ways that heroic “friction solvers” can eliminate the hassle of unnecessary meetings, overly long emails, and poor management. But they also point out the importance of “good” friction in avoiding hasty decision-making.
BIOGRAPHY
The game of trade:A confession is Gary Stevenson’s vivid account of his time as a swaps trader for Citigroup and the aftermath. He made huge sums for his employer (and himself), but also headed toward burnout and the opposite of the freedom he hoped financial success would bring.
Billionaire, nerd, savior, king:The hidden truth about Bill Gates and his power to shape our world, by Anupreeta Das, published this month, takes a close and precise look at one of the richest men in the world in an attempt to unravel Gates’s multiple and complex interests and relationships, while also exploring our obsession with billionaires.
Finally, Lucky loserHow Donald Trump squandered his father’s fortune and created the illusion of successThe book, by journalists Russ Buettner and Susanne Craig, investigates the former president’s finances. The book, to be published in September, draws on tax information, business records and interviews with insiders to explore the truth behind Trump’s claims of having built a thriving multibillion-dollar business empire.
Entrepreneur and angel investor Sherry Coutu joins the judging panel for 2024. The jury is again chaired by FT editor Roula Khalaf and the other members are: Mimi Alemayehou, founder and managing partner of Semai Ventures; Daisuke Arakawa, managing director of global business at Nikkei; Mitchell Baker, executive chairman of Mozilla Corporation; Mohamed El-Erian, president of Queens’ College, Cambridge, and advisor to Allianz and Gramercy; Peter Harrison, chief executive of Schroders; James Kondo, chairman of International House of Japan; Randall Kroszner, professor of economics at the University of Chicago Booth School of Business; and Shriti Vadera, chair of Prudential and the Royal Shakespeare Company.
The winner of the £30,000 prize will be the book that offers the “most compelling and readable insight” into business issues. Shortlisted titles will each receive £10,000. 10 judges reserves the right to add more books to the longlist before the shortlist is announced on 17 September. The winner of the award will be announced on 9 December. Read more about the award at www.ft.com/bookaward. See a full interactive list of all the books shortlisted since the award began in 2005 at ig.ft.com/sites/business-book-award/