Although almost every one of the six books shortlisted for this year’s Financial Times and Goldman Sachs award is dedicated to recent successes and failures in the business world, each of them sparked controversy immediately after publication, and some even before hitting the press.
In the seventh year of the award for the best business book, those about various aspects of the financial and economic crisis dominate – from causes and analyses to stories of failures and successes during the crisis. Fourteen titles were nominated, but the ‘battle’ will be fought among the top six, one of which will carry the title of ‘best’ in November, and it is hoped that it will at least help the business world a little in its efforts to overcome the crisis. Because the truth is that one must uncover the causes in order to treat the consequences. Do the authors of the books have the right answers?
Neil Irwin
The Alchemists: Inside the secret world of central bankers
(Alkemičari: Tajni svijet središnjih bankara)
When the first signals of the impending financial crisis appeared in mid-2007, three leaders who had never been elected became the most powerful people in the world. They were the heads of the strongest central banks: Ben Bernanke from the U.S. Federal Reserve, Mervyn King from the Bank of England, and Jean-Claude Trichet from the European Central Bank. Over the next five years, they managed and influenced the movement of billions of dollars, pounds, and euros to prevent waves of panic that threatened to collapse the global financial system. The Alchemists provide insight into managing an economic crisis and explore the role and power of central bankers. The book begins in the 17th century in Sweden, where Irwin finds the beginnings of the growth of central banking power up to the Greenspan era. Following the development of the current economic and financial crisis for the Washington Post, Neil Irwin has direct access to many of the world’s central banks. From this global position and using a historical overview, Irwin reveals the relationship between capitalism and the state, the flow of money, and the power that arises from it, which is not always clear to us.
Sheryl Sandberg
Lean In: Women, work and the will to lead
(Žene, posao i želja za vodstvom)
Thirty years after women took the majority among graduates of American universities, men still hold a disproportionate majority in government and business. This means that women’s voices are still not sufficiently present and decisive. Sheryl Sandberg examines why women’s influence on leadership is stalled, explains the causes, and offers compelling solutions that can enable women to realize their full potential. Sheryl Sandberg is the Chief Operating Officer at Facebook and is on Fortune’s list of the 50 most powerful women in business and one of Time magazine’s 100 most influential people. She drew public attention with her talk at the TED conference in 2010, where she described how women unconsciously hold back in their careers. Her speech, which immediately became a hit, urges women to seek challenges, take risks, and joyfully achieve their goals. In the book, she continues with a deeper exploration, combining personal experience, empirical data, and authentic analyses to uncover the biases surrounding businesswomen. She reconstructs her own decisions, mistakes, and daily battles for the right choices for herself, her career, and her family. In doing so, she provides practical advice for work, negotiation, and building a sustainable career. With a description of concrete steps on how to combine professional achievements with personal fulfillment, Sheryl Sandberg shows how men can also benefit from supporting women at work and at home. The book is an inspirational call to action and also a detailed plan for personal development. The author’s desire is to change the question of what women cannot do into a question of what they can.
Iain Martin
Making It Happen: Fred Goodwin, RBS and the men who blew up the British economy
(Fred Goodwin, RBS i ljudi koji su minirali britansku ekonomiju)
When the Royal Bank of Scotland collapsed at the beginning of the financial crisis in 2008, which had to be rescued by taxpayers, it was an event deemed the most serious blow to the British economy in the past seventy years. The economy collapsed, bank lending nearly ceased, thousands of people lost their jobs, living standards plummeted, and the British expected to pay increasingly higher taxes for years to repair that damage. Faced with economic catastrophe, the British wondered how a small bank could grow so quickly to become a global financial giant and then collapse with such enormous damage? At the center of the story is Fred Goodwin, the former CEO known as Fred the Destroyer. Although he is not a banker by profession, he was entrusted with control over RBS and allowed to attempt to create one of the world’s largest banking brands. The book is based on numerous interviews, documents, and diaries of those who were at the center of that disaster. Board members and executives, as well as leading figures in the financial sector, reveal how an obsession with expansion led the bank into a risk zone of which they were unaware.
