The finalists for the Business Book of the Year 2023 Financial Times and Schroders were announced – an award that is a guide for those who want to be up to date with current trends and most relevant topics in relation to business and economics.
The six books chosen, from 16 semi-finalists, deal with the most varied contemporary issues. On the list, there are works with themes such as the risks of advancing Artificial Intelligence and other technologies, the exploitation of labor and the role of raw materials that are transformed into elaborate products and promote global development. It also features works that address failure and success, in addition to the biography of Elon Musk, written by Walter Isaacson, the only title already published in Brazil.
The winner is expected to be announced in December.
Below are the titles:
Elon Musk
Author: Walter Isaacson
Intrinsic Publisher
The story of Elon Musk, the controversial visionary, who broke the rules and paved the way for the era of electric vehicles, private space exploration and artificial intelligence and also transformed Twitter into X.
Cobalt Red: How the Blood of the Congo Powers Our Lives
Author: Siddharth Kara
ed. Saint Martin's Press (UK and US)
A New York Times and Publishers Weekly bestseller, the book is the result of a major investigation by activist and researcher Siddaharth Kara that reveals the human rights violations behind the cobalt mining operation in Congo.
The Coming Wave: AI, Power and the Twenty-First Century's Greatest Dilemma
Authors: Mustafa Suleyman and Michael Bhaskar
ed. The Bodley Head (UK) and ed. Crown (USA)
It is a kind of urgent warning about the unprecedented risks that Artificial Intelligence and other rapidly developing technologies pose to the global order, and also an approach to how they can be contained while possible. One of the authors, Mustafa Suleyman, is co-founder of DeepMind, a pioneering AI company.
Material World: A Substantial Story of Our Past and Future
Author: Ed Conway
ed. WH Allen (United Kingdom) and ed. Alfred A. Knopfn (USA)
The book travels to various areas of the globe to argue that sand, salt, iron, copper, oil and lithium built the world and will transform the future, presenting processes in which these raw materials become highly complex products.
Right Kind of Wrong: Why Learning to Fail Can Teach Us to Thrive
Amy Edmondson
ed. Cornerstone Press (UK) and ed. Atria (USA)
One of the most influential organizational psychologists in the world, Amy Edmondson shows how people make mistakes and succeed in failure. According to her, the most successful cultures are those in which people can fail openly, without mistakes being used against those who made mistakes.
How Big Things Get Done: The Surprising Factors Behind Every Successful Project, from Home Renovations to Space Exploration, in free translation]
Bent Flyvbjerg and Dan Gardner
ed. Macmillan (United Kingdom) and ed. Currency (USA)
Oxford professor Bent Flyvbjerg has dedicated his life to understanding what differentiates triumphs from failures. Co-authored in this book, he identifies the errors in judgment and decisions that led large and small projects to failure and the principles that result in the success of others.
Watch the video in English produced with the authors of the semi-finalist books:
