The 16 Best Business Books of 2016
"I try
to read about a book a week on average. Even when my schedule is out of
control, I carve out time for reading" –Bill Gates
Well, just before we
start, opinions will differ, I know. My only surprise is that there is no
Nigerian book, or a book by Nigerian author(s) in here, but all good.
Here’s a listing of what I consider the most
impacting books of 2016. Most of these are business books, from 2016 — but to
me, each one had an impact and is worth sharing. I hope you find at least one
to be interesting, or useful, or both.
Michael Lewis is a fantastic author, and I was
already very familiar with one of his subjects, Daniel Kahneman, via his
book Thinking Fast and Slow. But I didn't
know about his collaborator Amos Tversky and their amazingly fruitful and
complicated relationship that resonated far beyond the Israeli Army and the
halls of Stanford. Lewis had extraordinary access and unique insight into his
subjects and their work, and also gives you a good overview of many of their
theories.
This is both a love letter to a brand, and a
history of an incredible entrepreneur, Phil Knight. Today, we think of Nike as
iconic, forgetting that it was once a scrappy startup that almost went off the
rails many times. The book offers an entertaining and educational glimpse of
how the founding team and the brand grew to become the powerhouse we know
today. It was also picked as one of the year's best, according to Bill
Gates.
From the screenwriter of the The Imitation Game, this book was the first in a new
genre for me — historical fiction. The narrative flows through the epic battle
between electric light titans like Edison and Westinghouse and those who played
integral parts like Tesla and Cravath, but Graham also spends time at the end
explaining and breaking out the facts from the fiction. It's a fascinating look
at the personalities behind our electric grid, the standards and skirmishes
surrounding them, as well as the influence of fake news (how timely) and
espionage in the late 1800s.
One fun (true) fact I learned: the massive
hand and torch of the Statue of Liberty were on display by themselves in
Madison Square Park for several years before funding came in to complete our
most famous gift from France.
The authors couldn't have chosen a more apt
title to describe the rapid, relentless technological and cultural changes
we're witnessing today — jumping from Bitcoin to the Arab Spring to the origins
of MIT's Media Lab and more across ten themes. If you don't believe me, trust
JJ Abrams who blurbed, "In short, it's a badass read."
I admit I expected this to be overhyped, but
was delighted to discover an extremely insightful and well written treatise on
how and why certain people excel. If you don't have the Grit to read it,
there's a 6-minute TEDTalk version.
Tomasz Tunguz is one of the best writers and
investors in the SaaS industry, and Frank Bien, CEO of First Round company Looker, is one of the
best practitioners and operators in the field. Together, they've produced a
rare guide on using data to understand and grow your business, including tons
of practical examples.
There's a reason this was a #1 New York Times
bestseller, and if you ever liked a Malcolm Gladwell book you'll love Originals
and Adam Grant. Bonus link - here's a great First Round Review article on Adam
on How to Hire Trailblazers,
Nonconformists and Originals.
I hadn't read much William F. before, but I'm
a big fan of his son Christopher, who got my attention by saying this was the
best of his dad's 60+ books. It's a deeply personal and analytical look at the
eulogies of many important people through the eyes of a great writer who knew
most of them personally.
"That is a good book which is opened with
expectation and closed with profit." –Amos Bronson Alcott
From the author of The Soul of a New Machine, this
is a deep dive into the motivations of serial entrepreneur Paul English of
Kayak, and the people who work with him and invest in him.
Don't read it for the "obscene"
headlines of rich Internet execs racing expensive cars around Silicon Valley
and the like - read it for the insight of how decisions get made inside of big
tech companies, from products to politics to M&A. The author tells the
story from his point of view in an honest and often unflattering way.
I've been familiar with CAA and some of the
people highlighted in this book for years, but I had no idea how they got
started or exactly how powerful, innovative and feared they were. Perhaps more
than any other entity, CAA changed the dynamics and economics of the
entertainment industry. It's not all flattering, of course, and its
interview-based style really helps you feel like you're getting the whole
picture.
I don't watch much SportsCenter,
but we once took a number of First Round companies to visit ESPN in Bristol, CT
to see how we could work together. It was incredibly impressive on multiple
levels, and now I appreciate it even more after having read the book. It's very
much along the lines of Shoe Dog showing
the scrappy startup origins of an iconic brand that we taken for granted today,
but with a ton of great stories and personalities in the interviews.
When I briefly met Neil at a past TED
Conference, I knew him mostly as Amanda Palmer's husband and vaguely as an
author of graphic novels that I'd never read. I had no idea what I was missing
— I'm just now going back to catch up on his earlier work. This collection of
essays is a flowing and well-deserved devotional to readers, and writers, and
books and bookstores.
The latest title from Dan Ariely of Predictably Irrational fame,
this is a great place to start if you haven't read any of his past work. The
part that resonated most for me was the deep importance of meaning in how we
value our work. Bonus: if you buy the audio version, the reader is Simon Jones
who narrated all the Hitchhiker's Guide to the
Galaxy books.
I'm a big fan of both TED and Chris Anderson,
and am proud to have played a small part in the launch of the TED Talks series
over 10 years ago. I was thrilled to see this book come out to provide a
straightforward and digestible guide to telling compelling stories and giving
the best presentations of your life (or of that day or week).
Gary is the definition of hustle. He's a
showman and he's not shy, but he's also surprisingly self-aware, and I think
too often underestimated by the tech and business press.
"Always read something that will make you
look good if you die in the middle of it." –P.J. O’Rourke
By Chris Fralic, Partner at First
Round, Investing in Great Entrepreneurs in New York.
Edited by ‘Dele
Dele-Olukoju, Marketing Communication strategist and publisher
of the online Marketing Communication Digest. He writes
from Lagos, Nigeria.
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