Best Business Books of 2024

"In this manifesto, Africa teaches us how to return to critical thinking and reduce societal divides by opening our minds and being more self-questioning in difficult discussions. This book will help you figure out what you truly believe-as opposed to parroting or having knee-jerk reactions in conversation. You'll learn to share your views, hear theirs, make a point you feel must be made, and try to find common ground without self-censorship or self-sabotage. This personal guide helps readers move away from rigid thinking, allowing them to enter any potentially difficult discussion about politics, work, personal responsibility, race, sex, gender, religion - whatever the subject - while maintaining integrity, authenticity, and openness, and successfully expressing opinions while listening to contrary points of view. Africa has built a successful business coaching an exclusive roster of high-profile clients seeking to handle themselves in the public eye. The tools offered in The Third Perspective have been honed over years of that experience: hers is a proven system that works. She offers readers a new path for communication, and because communication is everything, critical to building trust and fruitful relationships, a life transforming experience. Africa Brooke's framework has three pillars-Awareness, Responsibility, and Expression-that ask: what is stopping you from speaking your mind, what do you stand for, what are you willing to risk?"-- Provided by publisher.

"Soon after announcing his first campaign for the US presidency, Donald J. Trump told a national television audience that life 'has not been easy for me. It has not been easy for me.' Building on a narrative he had been telling for decades, he spun a hardscrabble fable of how he parlayed a small loan from his father into a multi-billion-dollar business and real estate empire. This feat, he argued, made him singularly qualified to lead the country. None of it was true. Born to a rich father who made him the beneficiary of his own highly lucrative investments, Trump received the equivalent of more than $500 million today via means that required no business expertise whatsoever.Drawing on over twenty years' worth of Trump's confidential tax information, including the tax returns he tried to conceal, alongside business records and interviews with Trump insiders, New York Times investigative reporters Russ Buettner and Susanne Craig track Trump's financial rise and fall, and rise and fall again. For decades, he squanders his fortunes on money losing businesses, only to be saved yet again by financial serendipity. He tacks his name above the door of every building, while taking out huge loans he'll never repay. He obsesses over appearances, while ignoring threats to the bottom line and mounting costly lawsuits against city officials. He tarnishes the value of his name by allowing anyone with a big enough check to use it, and cheats the television producer who not only rescues him from bankruptcy but casts him as a business savant – the public image that will carry him to the White House. A masterpiece of narrative reporting, Lucky Loser is a meticulous, nearly-century spanning narrative, filled with scoops from Trump Tower, Mar-a-Lago, Atlantic City, and the set of The Apprentice. At a moment when Trump's tether to success and power is more precarious than ever, here for the first time is the definitive true accounting of Trump and his money – what he had, what he lost, and what he has left – and the final word on the myth of Trump, the self-made billionaire." -- Book jacket.

"From New Yorker staff writer and author of The Longing for Less Kyle Chayka comes a timely history and investigation of a world ruled by algorithms, which determine the shape of culture itself. From coffee shops to rental apartments to social media posts the world round, a sleek and deceptively simple aesthetic has come to predominate. It's in the neon signs and exposed brick of an Internet cafe in Nairobi or the skeletal, modern furniture of an Airbnb in Portland. These designs are easy to identify, but even more crucially, they photograph well. In their simplicity and studied airiness, these images fit seamlessly into the Instagram grid. But this aesthetic is only one small aspect of a broader program of curation that is determined by the algorithm-a network of mathematically determined choices that ramify into the development of city grids and music playlists alike. To have our tastes, behaviors, and emotions governed by computers, does nothing short of call the very notion of free will into question. Over the last decade, Kyle Chayka has studied the homogeneity of this curation of reality. Working as a contributor for The New Yorker, The New York Times Magazine, and The New Republic, he has traveled to Berlin, Reykjavik, and Los Angeles tracing the algorithm's lineage. In Filterworld, Chayka lucidly examines how this deeply filtered aesthetic-spanning digital and physical spaces-creates an uncanny blend of work, home, and social life. As the algorithm determines our choices, other important questions arise: What happens when shareability supersedes messiness, innovation, and creativity-the very nature of being human? What does the notion of choice mean when the available options have been so carefully arranged for us? Filterworld offers a way out. Kyle Chayka shows us how to disconnect from the tyranny of the algorithms that continue to override our sensibilities, and inform even our most intimate, real-world interactions. Most importantly, he shows us how to reclaim our individual freedom"-- Provided by publisher.

"From the finance editor of The New York Times, an examination of Bill Gates-one of the most powerful, fascinating, and contradictory figures of the past four decades-and an eye-opening exploration of our national fixation on billionaires"-- Provided by publisher.

"A must-have guide to optimizing your life for wealth and success, from bestselling author, NYU professor and co-host of the Pivot podcast Scott Galloway. Today's workers have more opportunities and mobility than any generation before. They also face unprecedented challenges, including inflation, labor and housing shortages, and climate volatility. Even the notion of "retirement" is undergoing a profound rethink, as our lifespans extend and our relationship with work evolves. In The Algebra of Wealth, Galloway lays bare the rules of financial success in today's economy. In characteristic unvarnished, no-BS style, he explains you what you need o know in order to better your chances for economic security no matter what. Bursting with practical, game-changing advice from one of the world's most popular business school professors, The Algebra of Wealth is the practical guidebook you need to win today's wealth game"-- Provided by publisher.

"Having lived nearly her entire life below the poverty line before going on to attain wealth and success as an entrepreneur and investor, Arlan Hamilton knows that entrepreneurship is the quickest path to money and power-particularly for those who haven't had much of it in the past. In Your First Million, she shows how anyone-no matter what they look like or how much money they have-can tap into all the new tools they already have at their disposal to get their million-dollar idea off the ground. Readers will learn: how to identify unmet needs, raise money, choose the right collaborators, create multiple income streams, and turn their unique knowledge and experience into a profitable businesses-while reinvesting in their communities and empowering others to do the same. If we can change who gets to decide what new ideas are worthy, and who gets to turn those ideas into reality, not only can we change our own circumstances-we can change the world"-- Provided by publisher.

"Bonnie Hammer's legendary career spans five decades in a turbulent, male-driven industry. Today, Bonnie is a powerful leader at the very top of her field, and women at all levels constantly ask her: What is your secret to success? Her power--and her staying power--comes from rejecting common myths about how women are "supposed" to act in the workplace. She knows that the conventional wisdom women are told about work--pithy phrases like "Don't mix work with play," "Talk is cheap," "Follow your dreams," "Know your worth," "Trust your gut," and "You can have it all, "--Hold women back. Having risen from an entry-level production assistant whose chief charge was a dog to a transformative top executive at NBCUniversal, Bonnie challenges workplace misperceptions and shares the uncommon sense women need to succeed"-- Provided by publisher

"Peabody and Emmy Award-winning journalist Jane Marie expands on her popular podcast The Dream to expose the scourge of multilevel marketing schemes and how they have profited off the evisceration of the American working class. We've all heard of Amway, Mary Kay, Tupperware, and LuLaRoe, but few know the nefarious way they and countless other multilevel marketing (MLM) companies prey on desperate Americans struggling to make ends meet. When factories close, stalwart industries shutter, and blue-collar opportunities evaporate, MLMs are there, ready to pounce on the crumbling American Dream. MLMs thrive in rural areas and on military bases, targeting women with promises of being their own boss and millions of dollars in easy income-even at the risk of their entire life savings. But the vast majority--99.7%--of those who join an MLM make no money or lose money, and wind up stuck with inventory they can't sell to recoup their losses. Featuring in-depth reporting and intimate research, Selling the Dream reveals how these companies--often owned by political and corporate elites, such as the Devos and the Van Andels families--have made a windfall in profit off of the desperation of the American working class"-- Provided by publisher.

"In 2017, Lina Khan published a paper that accused Amazon of being a monopoly, having grown so large, and embedded in so many industries, it was akin to a modern-day Standard Oil. Unlike Rockefeller's empire, however, Bezos's company had grown voraciously without much scrutiny. In fact, for over twenty years, Amazon had emerged as a Wall Street darling and its "customer obsession" approach made it indelibly attractive to consumers across the globe. But the company was not benevolent; it operated in ways that ensured it stayed on top. Lina Khan's paper would light a fire in Washington, and in a matter of years, she would become the head of the FTC. In 2023, the FTC filed a monopoly lawsuit against Amazon in what may become one of the largest antitrust cases in the 21st century"-- Amazon.com.

A compelling look at the challenges facing LGBTQ+ professionals as they navigate their careers - with advice from many senior figures who have smashed their own rainbow ceilings. There are currently only four LGBTQ+ CEOs across all Fortune 500 and FTSE 100 companies who are out at work, and just 0.8% of Fortune 500 board positions are filled by LGBTQ+ people. This deficit, occurring across sectors and around the world, reveals a diversity gap playing out in today's workplace: LGBTQ+ people are less likely to reach the top jobs. But what is holding LGBTQ+ people back at work - and what can be done? Breaking the Rainbow Ceiling explores the hidden differences that cause LGBTQ+ people to be underrepresented at the most senior levels of professional life. Combining data with personal insights from over 40 prominent LGBTQ+ trailblazers, from CEOs to Ambassadors, Layla McCay reveals the challenges that LGBTQ+ people commonly encounter as they find their way in work environments, and provides the practical strategies that can help empower LGBTQ+ people to reach their full professional potential. The book explores how everyone - from boards, CEOs, managers, HR professionals and colleagues, through to LGBTQ+ people navigating their own career paths - can recognize and address the barriers, achieve their career goals, and build a more inclusive workplace where everyone can thrive and succeed.

"The author of Digital Minimalism and Deep Work offers a philosophy for pursuing meaningful accomplishment while avoiding overload. History's most creative and impactful philosophers, scientists, artists, and writers mastered the art of producing valuable work with staying power. In this book, Cal Newport harnesses the wisdom of these traditional knowledge workers to transform modern jobs. Drawing from research on the habits and mindsets of a varied cast of thinkers from Galileo and Isaac Newton to Jane Austen and Georgia O'Keefe, Newport lays out the key principles of "slow productivity" and provides step-by-step advice for workers to replace the standard notion of productivity with a slower, more humane alternative"-- Provided by publisher.

"In November 2022, a web page was posted online with a simple text box. ChatGPT was unlike any technology people had used before. It seemed more human than a customer service agent, more convenient than a Google search. But it was born out of an intense rivalry. Behind the scenes, battles for control and presitge at the world's two leading AI firms, OpenAI and DeepMind, have remained elusive--until now. In Supremacy, Parmy Olson, a technology columnist at Bloomberg, tells the astonishing story of how these companies grappled to use their AI for good as they served two tech giants whose power was unprecedented in history. At the center of it all were two CEOs who cultivated an almost religious devotion to their mission to build godlike, superintelligent machines: Sam Altman, CEO of OpenAI, and Demis Hassabis, CEO of DeepMind. Supremacy sharply alerts readers to the real threat of artificial intelligence that many of its top creators are ignoring: the profit-driven spread of flawed and biased technology into industries, education, media, and more. With exclusive access to a network of high-ranking sources, Parmy Olson uses her more than thirteen years of experience covering technology to bring to light the exploitation of the greatest invention in human history and how it will impact us all" -- Provided by publisher.

In this bold, radically hopeful book, a data scientist, drawing on the latest research, practical guidance and eye-opening graphics, gives us the tools for understanding our current environmental crisis and making lifestyle changes that actually have an impact.

"WALL STREET JOURNAL reporters and authors of THE CLUB, Joshua Robinson and Jonathan Clegg tell the riveting saga of how Formula 1 broke through in America, detailing the eclectic culture of racing obsessives, glamorous settings, gearheads, engineering geniuses, dashing racers, and bitter rivalries that have made F1 the world's fastest growing sport. For decades in America, car racing meant NASCAR, and to a lesser extent IndyCar, with Formula 1--the wealthiest racing league in the world--a distant third. Fast forward to 2023, and F1 has emerged at the front of the pack powered by a passionate yet nascent American fanbase. The F1 juggernaut has arrived, but this checkered flag was far from inevitable. In THE FORMULA, WALL STREET JOURNAL reporters Joshua Robinson and Jonathan Clegg tell the epic story of how F1 saved itself from collapse and finally conquered America through guile, fearlessness, and above all, reinvention. With fast cars, big money, glamorous locales, and beautiful people as the backdrop, THE FORMULA reveals how F1's sudden arrival in the US was actually decades in the making, a product of the sport's near-constant state of transformation and experimentation. Bringing unique insight and access to F1's most storied teams and personalities--from Ferrari to Bernie Ecclestone to Christian Horner to Lewis Hamilton--THE FORMULA offers a riveting portrait of the drivers, corporations, cars, rivalries, and audacious gambles that have shaped the sport for half a century. The end result is a high-octane history of how modern F1 racing came to be--the first book to tell the story of the outrageous successes and spectacular crashes that led F1 to this extraordinary yet precarious moment. More than just a sports story, THE FORMULA is the tale of a disrupter that broke into the crowded American sports marketplace and claimed its place through cash, personality, and a new understanding of what a sport needs to be in the age of wall-to-wall entertainment"-- Provided by publisher.

"Hilke Schellmann is an Emmy award-winning investigative reporter, Wall Street Journal and Guardian contributor, and journalism professor at NYU. In "The Algorithm," she investigates the rise of Artificial Intelligence (AI) in the world of work. AI is now being used to decide who has access to an education, who gets hired, who gets fired, and who receives a promotion. Drawing on exclusive information from whistleblowers, internal documents, and real-world tests, Schellmann discovers that many of the algorithms making high-stakes decisions are biased, racist, and do more harm than good. Algorithms are on the brink of dominating our lives and threaten our human future-if we don't fight back. Schellmann takes readers on a journalistic detective story, testing algorithms that have secretly analyzed job candidates' facial expressions and tone of voice. She investigates algorithms that scan our online activity, including Twitter and LinkedIn, to construct personality profiles a la Cambridge Analytica. Her reporting reveals how employers track the location of their employees, the keystrokes they make, access everything on their screens, and, during meetings, analyze group discussions to diagnose problems in a team. Even universities are now using predictive analytics for admission offers and financial aid"-- Provided by publisher.

Tough choices loom if the world wants to go green. The United States and other countries must decide where and how to procure the materials that make our renewable energy economy possible. To build electric vehicles, solar panels, cell phones, and millions of other devices means the world must dig more mines to extract lithium, copper, cobalt, rare earths, and nickel. But mines are deeply unpopular, even as they have a role to play in fighting climate change. These tensions have sparked a worldwide reckoning over the sourcing of these critical minerals, and no one understands the complexities of these issues better than Ernest Scheyder, whose exclusive access has allowed him to report from the front lines on the key players in this global battle to power our future.

"A riveting inside look at an elite unit within the Pentagon, the Defense Innovation Unit, also known as Unit, whose mission is to bring Silicon Valley's cutting-edge technology to America’s from the two men who launched the unit." -- Goodreads.

"A vivid, blistering memoir that takes readers inside the high-stakes drama and hubris of the trading floor, a rags-to-riches tale of Citibank's one-time most profitable trader, and why he gave it all up--a Liar's Poker for a new generation" -- Goodreads.

"We are a nation born from the conviction that people must be free. But since the middle of the last century, that idea has been co-opted. Forces on the political Right have justified exploitation by cloaking it in the rhetoric of freedom, leading to pharmaceutical companies freely overcharging for medication, a Big Tech free from oversight, politicians free to incite rebellion, corporations free to pollute, and more. How did we get here? Whose freedom are we--and should we--be thinking about? In The Road to Freedom, Nobel prize winner Joseph E. Stiglitz dissects America's current economic system and the political ideology that created it, laying bare their twinned failure. "Free" and unfettered markets have only succeeded in delivering a series of crises: the financial crisis, the opioid crisis, and the crisis of inequality. While a small portion of the population has amassed considerable wealth, wages for most people have stagnated. Free and unfettered markets have exploited consumers, workers, and the environment alike. Such failures have fed populist movements that believe being free means abandoning any obligations citizens have to one another. As they grow in strength, these movements now pose a real threat to true economic and political freedom. As an economic advisor to presidents and as chief economist at the World Bank, Stiglitz has witnessed these profound changes firsthand. As he argues, the failures follow from the elites' unshakeable dedication to "the neoliberal experiment." Explicitly taking on giants such as Friedrich Hayek and Milton Friedman, Stiglitz exposes accepted ideas about our political and economic life for what they are: twisted visions that tear at the social fabric while they enrich the very few. The Road to Freedom breaks new ground, showing how economics--including recent advances in which Stiglitz has played such an important role--reframes how to think about freedom and the role of the state in a twenty-first century society. Drawing on the work of contemporary philosophers, Stiglitz explains a deeper, more humane way to assess freedoms--one that considers with care what to do when one person's freedom conflicts with another's. We must reimagine our existing economic and legal systems and embrace forms of collective action, including regulation and investment, if we are to create an innovative society in which everyone can flourish. The task could not be more urgent, and Stiglitz's latest book is essential reading for those committed to the American ideal of an economic and political system that delivers well-being, opportunity, and meaningful freedoms for all"--Dust jacket flaps.

"Daniel Susskind traces the rich, surprisingly brief history of economic growth and responds to its ills. We cannot focus only on growth's upsides, but nor is degrowth a viable policy: the benefits of prosperity are too great to discard. Instead we must face hard tradeoffs, demoting growth from our top priority and reckoning with its moral challenges"--Provided by publisher.

"From TikTok star and your (favorite) rich BFF Vivian Tu, the definitive book on personal finance for a new generation"-- Provided by publisher.

"Start living an astonishing life with this "practical and accessible, moving and deeply meaningful" (Lori Gottlieb, New York Times bestselling author of Maybe You Should Talk to Someone ) guided program for identifying your core values and aligning every area of your life with them so you can feel fulfilled every day. "This book is a wonderful invitation. Take it" (Dave Evans, #1 New York Times bestselling author of Designing Your Life). We all have moments when we doubt the path we're on. The Life Brief is an essential tool for aligning your life with your dreams--personally, professionally, culturally, and spiritually. Based on the business world's most-used organizational tool, The Life Brief has three Get Messy , Get Clear , and Get Active . The first phase is a set of open-ended writing prompts that cut through limiting beliefs and false assumptions about what's possible. Get Clear offers prompts for finding clarity around what you truly, deeply want. Finally, Get Active catapults you into the steps to making those desires a reality. Tried and tested by Bonnie herself as well as thousands of attendees of workshops and lectures, The Life Brief method is the most powerful tool for solving life's biggest messes and creating a life of meaning." -- Goodreads.

"Too often, we don't find out what others think because we don't know how to ask the right questions in the right ways. Co-founder of Transcend and former Teach for America executive Jeff Wetzler wants to show you how to fix that. In Ask, he brings you a conversation guide based on a simple premise: that learning how to ask other people what they truly think, know, and feeling is game-changing. Wetzler reveals Five Practices, each answering an essential questions: 1. Choose Curiosity: How can we increase our authentic interest in learning from others around us? 2. Make it Safe: How can we make it comfortable, easy, and appealing for others to share with us? 3. Pose Quality Questions: How can we ask questions that best tap into the experiences, perspectives, and wisdom in those around us? 4. Listen to Learn: How can we maximize the chances we'll hear what others have to say? 5. Reflect & Return: How can we process what we've heard in ways that create actionable insights and encourage ongoing learning? The skills and messages of Ask could not be timelier. Whether the setting is in large corporation, a nonprofit, a school district, or a small business, people inside organizations need help learning to communicate and extract information in a more productive way"-- Provided by publisher.