Christmas is an opportunity to show our affection for those around us, and gift giving is one way to express it. If you have someone to pamper, but need some suggestions, here are some ideas for books to offer this Season, chosen by the Professors of Nova SBE Executive Education.
Author Nova SBE Executive Education | Reading time: 11 minutes
1. Os Vivos, o Morto e o Peixe Frito by Ondjaki
Recommended by Luís Rodrigues - CEO of Nova SBE Executive Education
The Holidays are upon us and we should enjoy them by kicking back, slowing down, and laughing with the family. Ondjaki is a young Angolan writer who does this in a sublime way in all of the books he has written. This one transports us to a place where we build a natural empathy with the characters and live with them in an uplifting way of facing our daily lives.
2. Hit Refresh by Satya Nadella
Recommended by Miguel Pina e Cunha - Scientific Coordinator of the Post-Graduate Program in General Management
This book by the CEO of Microsoft is, as suggested by the title, a refreshing work. In a simple and elegant way, Nadella explains how transforming the company obliged her to rediscover her soul. This is exemplary work on the importance of the soft side, so often trumpeted, and so rarely practiced.
3. Dear Chairman by Jeff Gramm
Recommended by Duarte Pitta Ferraz - Scientific Coordinator of the Corporate Governance: Boards Leadership Program
This book was written by a Columbia Business School professor and discusses shareholder activism – something that has existed in the United States for decades, has awakened in the United Kingdom, and is now spreading to the European continent, namely Portugal. I recommend this book to all board members, as they will be confronted with the reality of such activism sooner than they think.
4. Value: The Four Cornerstones of Corporate Finance by Tim Koller, Richard Dobbs and Bill Huyett
Recommended by Paulo Soares de Pinho - Scientific Coordinator of the Corporate Finance Program
Value is a simple, didactic book about the most important management theme: value creation in companies. Following their well-received text on Valuation, these authors now focus on the more important theme of value creation. Contrary to what the title suggests, it is not a book about company finances. Rather, it is a practical, if somewhat simplistic, guide to the main determinants of firm value, with emphasis on the generation of cash flow, the capital employed, its profitability, and the role of growth. It also discusses the importance of management of market expectations, the impact of mergers, acquisitions, and divestitures, the role of capital structure, and the relationship between short-term management of results and the need to pay attention to the long-term.
It is a book written essentially for managers of different organizational levels, from the CEO to the product manager.
5. The Story of Purpose: The Path to Creating a Brighter Brand, a Greater Company, and a Lasting Legacy by Joey Reiman
Recommended by Catherine da Silveira - Faculty member of the Nova WPP Digital Week
This is one of the most inspiring business-oriented books I have read so far. It adds a new dimension to any business: the “why” dimension.
Until recently, companies’ and brands’ strategy was based on two main questions: [1] who I am selling to? [2] what am I selling? The story of Purpose teaches you how to address a third question: [3] why am I selling?
Exploring the “why” question will help any brand finding its distinctive place, its role in the world. Brands matter only if they have legitimacy. Otherwise, any competitor can copy, replicate or replace them… This book is a breath of fresh air in a complex business world!
6. Freakonomics by Stephen J. Dubner and Steven D. Levitt
Recommended by Pedro Brinca - Faculty member of the Post-Graduate Program in General Management
What is more dangerous: a gun or a swimming pool? This is one of the provocative questions with which the authors throw out to pique the reader’s curiosity. This and other questions arise from the conversations between an American economist and a journalist that ignited the idea of Freakonomics: an attempt to explain the “hidden side” of economic reality. This is entertaining and engaging reading that talks about the world you already know from an all-new perspective.
7. Rebel Talent: Why It Pays to Break the Rules at Work and Life by Francesca Gino
Recommended by Pedro Neves - Scientific Coordinator of the Post-Graduate Program in People & Talent Management
I chose this book because it emphasizes the importance of dealing with diversity in organizations, especially with deviant behavior, showing that when it is well managed, the results are fantastic. As the author herself says, the rebels have a bad reputation, but it is they who, by breaking routines and challenging the status quo, help organizations innovate and reinvent themselves.
8. Fifty Things that Made the Modern Economy by Tim Harford
Recommended by João Castro - Faculty member of the Leading Digital Transformation Program
Fifty things that made the modern economy is a choice and brief description of 50 (not a top 50) technologies, inventions, and discoveries that have changed the world. In doses of four or five pages – and starting with the plow – it runs through the underlying history of items such as passports, elevators, and systems such as the bar code, banks and paper money. Limited space does not allow the author to go too deeply, but he always manages to keep track of the context in which the invention came about, provide brief illustrative episodes, and explain the magnitude of the impact the innovation had. It can be consumed in small daily doses or, for the gluttonous ones, in a single go. For anyone who wants a pre-purchase peek, the BBC has produced a podcast with episodes about each of the 50 inventions.
9. Hit Makers: How Things Become Popular by Derek Thompson
Recommended by António Marinho Torres - Faculty member of the Nova WPP Digital Week
What makes some movies, books, songs, apps, and celebrities become extremely popular while others simply fall by the wayside? Derek Thompson systematically analyzes - from Impressionism to the Internet – the phenomenon of popularity and the factors that drive it. The thesis of the book is founded on two concepts: novelty and virality. Without falling into simplistic ideas like trying to define a formula for success, Thompson identifies elements – related to both content and distribution – that tend to recur in so-called hits.
10. System1 - Unlocking Profitable Growth by John Kearon, Orlando Wood and Tom Ewing
Recommended by Jorge Velosa - Scientific Coordinator of the Nova WPP Digital Week
The human being makes decisions in two ways: one is slow and deliberate, the other is quick and emotional. This work analyzes the decision-making process and shows the impact of emotion on communication, based on years of research by the company. A must-read for anyone who wants to use communication effectively.
11. Doughnut Economics: Seven Ways to Think as a 21st Century Economist by Kate Raworth
Recommended by Miguel Moreira - Scientific Coordinator of the Leading Digital Transformation Program
I read this book at the end of 2017 and it made quite an impression on me because it presents an obvious (but fresh) vision of a technique for a layman, but one that is accessible and human without being activist, and this balance makes it very convincing. A year later I find that this book remains very current, relevant, and original, and the fact that I was a few weeks ago in a small discussion forum with author Kate Raworth, who is an admirable communicator, leads me to make it my recommendation , especially in an economics school. One (1) model, one (2) image, and one set of (3) metrics are a strong combination for a good idea, but more importantly, the idea comes with what to do with it!
12. Small Is Beautiful: A Study of Economics As If People Mattered by E. F. Schumacher
Recommended by Milton de Sousa - Scientific Coordinator of the Organizational Coaching to Boost Performance Program
The book is from 1973, but more current than ever. At a time when cutting-edge technology seems to dominate the discussion in companies, the book invites us to reflect on the role of people in a world of change and in which the reality of work is changing radically. Schumacher alludes to the sense of work, the need to humanize companies, and the concept of low and medium-tech (not necessarily high-tech) to solve the social problems we face.
13. Blue Ocean Shift by W. Chan Kim and Renée Mauborgne
Recommended by Luís Almeida Costa - Scientific Coordinator of the Strategy & Competition Program
In order to maximize their value creating potential, companies have to think beyond product market positioning and to identify new market opportunities by addressing the broader issue of where and how to capitalize on their unique resources and capabilities and which competencies to develop. In Blue Ocean Shift, Chan Kim and Renée Mauborgne elaborate on the ideas presented in their bestseller Blue Ocean Strategy, proposing a number of concepts and tools to help companies in identifying new market space and in developing disruptive innovations. An important book for companies that understand that competing in the 21th century implies not only the ability to adapt to change, but also, and more fundamentally, the willingness and agility to create change.
14. 21 Lessons for the 21st Century by Yuval Noah Harari
Recommended by João Silveira Lobo - Faculty member of the Post-Graduate Program in Applied Management
For all those who wonder about the real intellectual challenge of today, this book explores the paths we will take as a society over the next few years and the role of technology throughout this journey.
15. Aware by Dan Siegel
Recommended by Alexandre Dias da Cunha - Scientific Coordinator of the Managing the Family Business Program
In this book Dan Siegel teaches us to understand how the human mind works, and proposes tools with which each of us can train our emotional resilience. Siegel conveys his scientific state-of-the-art research (a kind of mixture between Freud, Damasio, Chopra, and Goleman) in an accessible and practical way.
16. Powerful: Building a Culture of Freedom and Responsibility by Patty McCord
Recommended by Miguel Muñoz Duarte - Faculty member of the Leading Digital Transformation Program
In a world moving toward more (and more) technology and toward exponential and unique realities, the number of people and the cultures of organizations making a difference will also grow. In this book, Patty McCord tells us in the first person about Netflix’s culture and its role in attracting, retaining, and maximizing the best talent.
17. Capitalism without Capital: The Rise of the Intangible Economy by Jonathan Haskel e Stian Westlake
Recommended by Afonso Eça - Scientific Coordinator of the FinTech Business Development Program
In an increasingly technological world, there is one type of investment that is essential: intangible investments. In fact, in financial and accounting terms, there is still little work that has been done in this area. The financial area is stuck in the mindset that investments are about tangible assets. Addressing this way of thinking will be extremely important in the coming years, as the digital economy continues to be implemented.
18. Exit, Voice, and Loyalty: Responses to Decline in Firms, Organizations, and States by Albert O. Hirschman
Recommended by José Tavares - Scientific Coordinator of the Cultural Heritage Management Program
Albert O. Hirschman analyzes alternative responses to the deterioration of organizations and the widespread dissatisfaction among collaborators. This book is a classic, at the intersection of economics and administration, which I strongly recommend.
19. Work Rules!: Insights from Inside Google That Will Transform How You Live and Lead by Laszlo Bock
Recommended by Rita Cunha - Faculty member of the Effective Leadership Program
An excellent People Management manual, written by the person in charge of People Operations at Google. It reads very easily and is full of real examples from one of the most innovative companies in the world. Laszlo Bock's book presents us with data and even counterintuitive conclusions to attract the best talent and promote their professional success.
20. Simple Rules: How to Thrive in a Complex World by Donald Sull and Kathleen M. Eisenhardt
Recommended by Richard Fleming - Scientific Coordinator of the Effective Communication Program
The book is a succinct summary of a decade of research on rules and their role in human decision making and organizational strategies. Using examples from a variety of contexts – from the rules that helped the Jesuits to take advantage of a time of exponential change as early as the 15th century, to the Japanese engineers who took advantage of the feeding rules of mud-dwelling molds to lay out the paths of the Tokyo Subway System – Simple Rules helps us to understand, on the one hand, the negative impact on complex organizations of complex rules and, on the other hand, the kind of rules that can help us unblock bottlenecks and streamline management decisions. If you have a decision-making position in your organization, I strongly recommend that you read it and start to diagnose what can be unlocked in your organization with simple rules – the book offers helpful tips on where to start and how to build, correct, and fine tune those rules. If you do not occupy such a position, the book is still an excellent ally in choosing the paths to a happier and healthier life.
21. The Trusted Advisor by David Maister, Charles Green and Robert Galford
Recommended by Constança Casquinho - Faculty member of Nova SBE Executive Education
A bestselling author teams up with two leading consultants to create a handbook with the essential tools for any consultant and negotiator. The secret, they say, is the ability to win the trust of customers. To demonstrate the importance of trust, reading is illustrated with anecdotes, experiences, and stories that enrich any professional.
22. The Principles of Scientific Management by Frederick Winslow Taylor
Recommended by Nadim Habib - Scientific Coordinator of the Leading Organizational Change
Frederick Taylor pioneered the analysis of management as a science. This book is a classic that, even today, I recommend to any manager for the way it demystifies management and presents it as a skill that can be improved.
23. Risk Up Front: Managing Projects in a Complex World by Adam Josephs and Brad Rubenstein
Recommended by José Crespo de Carvalho
A book that focuses on the essentials of project management: people, simple structures, and practices. The reality is that the success of a project depends more on the team than on the tools. For this reason, I recommend this book to any professional.
24. Gestão de Pessoas 4.0: 10 tendências e desafios by Miguel Pina e Cunha and Arménio Rego
Original Content in Portuguese
Recommended by the Staff at Nova SBE Executive Education
The challenge of connecting knowledge from the academic world to that of the corporate world is neither new nor easy. Still, Miguel Pina e Cunha and Arménio Rego give voice to the Human Resources Directors of some of the largest companies in Portugal, and the result is a must-read on the trends and challenges of contemporary people management. If you work with other people, you do not want to miss out on this Nova SBE Executive Education publication. Download it here!
