Books about Donald Trump’s finances and Bill Gates’ influence are competing fiercely with books about the challenges of artificial intelligence, the impact of demographic change and how businesses can do the right thing in the race for the Financial Times and Schroders Business Book of the Year.
Other titles vying to be named the “most engaging and interesting” business book of 2024 range from an investment banker’s memoir to a deep 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 the need for resources.
More than 600 entries were screened and judged by FT journalists. A longlist of 16 titles is now in the running to become the 20th winner of the £30,000 prizewas first presented in 2005. Here are the contents:
AI AND TECHNOLOGY
by Parmy Olson Sovereignty: AI, ChatGPT and the Race to Change the Worldpublished next month, chronicles the battle between OpenAI’s Sam Altman and DeepMind’s Demis Hassabis to develop world-changing AI technology, while also grappling with the ethical and commercial demands placed on them by their backers at Microsoft and Google.
Algorithm: How AI Can Steal Your Career and Futureby Hilke Schellmann, delves into the impact of AI in the workplace, as a tool to aid in recruiting and performance management. Schellmann warns of how algorithms can amplify bias and do more harm than good.
IN The War of Everything: Amazon’s ruthless quest to own the world and recreate corporate power, Dana Mattioli takes a critical look at the influence of dominant e-commerce and cloud computing companies. Her book — inspired by Brad Stone’s title Everything Store (won the award in 2013) — questioned whether the group had become so large that regulators could not stop it.
Entrepreneur Raj Shah and technology strategist Christopher Kirchhoff tell the story of how they and others transformed U.S. defense procurement Unit X: How the Pentagon and Silicon Valley are transforming the future of war. Shah and Kirchhoff turned to startups to revolutionize the way the US military is fed and war is waged.
The War Below: Lithium, Copper and the Global Battle to Power Our Lives Ernest Scheyder delves into the dilemmas facing those who want to accelerate the transition to a more sustainable economy. Scheyder examines how the quest for critical minerals is pitting policymakers, producers, ecologists, and scientists against one another.
ECONOMY
IN Development: A calculationDaniel Susskind, whose book is timely A world without work Shortlisted for 2020, it focuses on the question of how to resolve the tension between the pursuit of growth at all costs—which creates inequality and environmental damage—and the need to preserve what we value.
Andrew Scott returns to the question of how to respond to and benefit from improved life expectancy The imperative of longevity: Building a better society for healthier and longer lives. Scott — co-author with Lynda Gratton of the 2016 finalist 100 year life — suggests ways that pursuing an “evergreen agenda” can help us live more sustainably and healthily for longer.
IN The Sacred Economy: How Religions Compete for Wealth, Power, and PeoplePaul Seabright offers a novel economic analysis of religions. He describes them as the original platform organizations, bringing together groups of users in mutually beneficial relationships much like Instagram or X do today, and shows how religious and secular groups can work together.
ORGANIZATION
Economist John Kay Corporations in the 21st Century: Why (Almost) Everything We Heard About Business Is Wrong is an insightful analysis of how the world of digital products and services is challenging the traditional view of the corporation. The book, which comes out in late August, examines the future of what was once capitalism’s preeminent organizational unit, and how it and the broader economy are governed.
Alison Taylor tackles some of those challenges in Higher Ground: How businesses can do the right thing in a volatile worldHer guidance is for leaders struggling to balance conflicting stakeholder needs, ESG investing requirements, and ethical issues that extend far beyond their day-to-day business operations.
IN Tribe: How the cultural instincts that divide us can help bring us togetherTo be published in October, psychologist Michael Morris offers a timely insight into how leaders in business and politics can harness innate tribal instincts to create positive impact, rather than letting them divide them.
The irresponsible machine: Why Big Systems Make Bad Decisions — and How the World Went Mad, Dan Davies introduces readers to the pervasive “responsibility tank” that allows responsible parties to avoid blame and thereby erodes the foundations of society. Davies shows how mainstream economics can replace “cybernetic” management theory with more positive outcomes.
Robert Sutton and Huggy Rao paint a familiar picture of bureaucratic dysfunction in Friction Project: How Smart Leaders Make the Right Things Easier and the Wrong Things Harder and offer practical ways that heroic “friction fixers” can eliminate the pain of unnecessary meetings, long emails, and poor management. But they also point out the importance of “good” friction in preventing hasty decision-making.
BIOGRAPHY
Trading Game: A confession is Gary Stevenson’s vivid account of his time as a Citigroup swaps trader and its aftermath. He made big money for his company — and for himself — but also put himself on a path of burnout and the opposite of the freedom he expected financial success to bring.
Billionaire, Bookworm, Savior, King: The Hidden Truth About Bill Gates and His World-Shaping Power, Anupreeta Das’s book, published this month, takes a candid and intimate look at one of the world’s richest men, exploring Gates’ complex interests and relationships, and exploring our obsession with billionaires.
Final, Lucky loser: How Donald Trump Squandered His Father’s Fortune and Created the Illusion of Successby reporters Russ Buettner and Susanne Craig, investigates the former president’s finances. The book, due out in September, draws on tax information, business records and insider interviews to uncover the truth behind Trump’s claims to have built a thriving multibillion-dollar business empire.
Entrepreneur and angel investor Sherry Coutu joins the 2024 judging panel. The panel is again chaired by FT editor Roula Khalaf and includes: Mimi Alemayehou, founder and managing partner, Semai Ventures; Daisuke Arakawa, managing director of global business, Nikkei; Mitchell Baker, executive chairman, Mozilla Corporation; Mohamed El-Erian, chairman, Queens’ College, Cambridge, and adviser, Allianz and Gramercy; Peter Harrison, managing director, Schroders; James Kondo, chairman, International House of Japan; Randall Kroszner, professor of economics at the University of Chicago Booth School of Business; and Shriti Vadera, chairman, Prudential and the Royal Shakespeare Company.
The winner of the £30,000 prize will be the book that offers the “most engaging and entertaining insight” into business issues. Each shortlisted title will receive £10,000. 10 judges reserves the right to add books to the longlist before the shortlist is announced on 17 September. The winner will be announced on 9 December. Read more about the award at www.ft.com/bookaward. Check out the full interactive list of all the books that have been longlisted since the award began in 2005 at ig.ft.com/sites/business-book-award/
