It’s time to plan your reading list for 2022. Here is a list of new and upcoming business books for entrepreneurs, managers, and creative professionals. Learn how to communicate with numbers, scale your business, use data to convert customers, find talent, develop your influence, and make sense of the metaverse.
New Business Books for 2022
Making Numbers Count: The Art and Science of Communicating Numbers by Chip Heath, Karla Starr
In “Making Numbers Count,” bestselling author and Stanford Graduate School of Business professor Chip Heath outlines principles to translate the numbers that animate our world, allowing us to bring more data into everyday decisions organically. Learn perspective cues to estimate statistics and understand scale, utilize an intuitive sense of time, and use emotional measuring sticks to frame numbers.
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How to F*ck Up Your Startup: The Science Behind Why 90% of Companies Fail — and How You Can Avoid It by Kim Hvidkjaer
In “How to F*ck Up Your Startup,” Kim Hvidkjær draws on his own experience of becoming a startup millionaire and then losing it all within two years. Learn from the patterns of failure and find out what to do when your business has gone wrong. Explore attitude mistakes, business model missteps, market research snafus, funding blunders, product development errors, organization oversights, sales slip-ups, growing pains, and more.
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Converted: The Data-Driven Way to Win Customers’ Hearts by Neil Hoyne
“Converted,” by Google’s Chief Measurement Strategist Neil Hoyne, presents a simple, research-backed guide that helps businesses find their best customers and develop lasting relationships. Learn to use data to understand your customers, what they need, and where to find more of them. Understand the value of each relationship, and develop ongoing dialogues with your best customers.
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Level Up: Rise Above the Hidden Forces Holding Your Business Back by Stacey Abrams, Lara Hodgson, Heather Cabot
It’s easy to start a business and very difficult to scale it. In “Level Up,” Now Corp. co-founders and serial entrepreneurs Stacey Abrams and Lara Hodgson offer a how-to guide to help businesses beat the odds by avoiding the unseen tethers that keep small businesses from growing and thriving. Get straight talk and actionable principles on issues such as hiring, identifying a revenue strategy, recognizing when growth is a trap, and managing cash flow.
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The Metaverse: And How it Will Revolutionize Everything by Matthew Ball
“The Metaverse” explores the persistent interconnected virtual universe that could revolutionize commerce, labor, and leisure, radically reshaping our society. Soon, the internet will no longer be a separate medium. Instead, it will surround us, with much of our experience taking place within the metaverse. Explore the metaverse, and learn the ins and outs of the next wave.
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Amp It Up: Leading for Hypergrowth by Raising Expectations, Increasing Urgency, and Elevating Intensity by Frank Slootman
“Amp It Up” lays out what it takes to transform an organization for maximum growth and scale. Learn how to improve your organization’s performance without making expensive changes to your talent, structure, or fundamental business model and without an army of consultants. Learn to align people around what matters, execute with intensity, and scale.
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21st Century Monetary Policy: The Federal Reserve from the Great Inflation to COVID-19 by Ben S. Bernanke
“21st Century Monetary Policy,” by former Federal Reserve chair Ben Bernanke, is a review of the U.S. Federal Reserve and the programs that have transformed it over the past several decades, such as the large-scale asset purchases that began during the subprime mortgage meltdown of 2007. From the stagflation of the 1970s to the Great Recession and the recent pandemic, get insights on how the institution has evolved and how it may change as it grapples with persistently low-interest rates, systemic financial risk, rapid technological change, and polarized politics.
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Influence Is Your Superpower: The Science of Winning Hearts, Sparking Change, and Making Good Things Happen by Zoe Chance
In “Influence Is Your Superpower,” Yale professor Zoe Chance shows how to transform your life and organization by rediscovering your superpower of influence. Everyone is born influential, but we’re all taught to suppress that power by following the rules, waiting for a turn, and not making waves. Move past common misconceptions — such as the idea that asking for more will make people dislike you. Learn to cultivate charisma, negotiate comfortably and creatively, and spot manipulators before it’s too late. And learn how to rediscover the superpower that brings great ideas to life.
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Talent: How to Identify Energizers, Creatives, and Winners Around the World by Tyler Cowen, Daniel Gross
Identifying underrated, brilliant individuals is one of the simplest ways to give yourself an organizational edge, and “Talent” shows you how to do it. Explore the major scientific research areas relevant for talent search, including how to conduct an interview, how much to weigh intelligence, how to judge personality, why talented women are still undervalued and how to spot them, how to use scouts to find talent, and more.
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Emotion By Design: Creative Leadership Lessons from a Lifetime at Nike by Greg Hoffman
In “Emotion By Design,” former Nike Chief Marketing Officer Greg Hoffman shares lessons and stories on the power of creativity, taken from nearly three decades with the company. Learn to unlock creativity within a brand to develop stronger emotional bonds with consumers using three simple principles: creativity is a team sport, dare to be remembered, and leave a legacy, not just a memory. “In Emotion By Design” is a call-to-arms for brand-builders and a celebration of creativity.
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See, Solve, Scale: How Anyone Can Turn an Unsolved Problem into a Breakthrough Success by Danny Warshay
In “See, Solve, Scale,” Danny Warshay, the creator of Brown University’s renowned Entrepreneurial Process course and founding executive director of Brown’s Center for Entrepreneurship, shares the same tools with aspiring entrepreneurs. “See, Solve, Scale” guides the reader through forming a successful startup team and through the three steps of the process: find and validate a problem, develop an initial small-scale solution, and scale a long-term solution. It also details 11 common errors of judgment that entrepreneurs make when they rely on their intuition and provides instruction for how to avoid them.
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The Power of Regret: How Looking Backward Moves Us Forward by Daniel H. Pink
Everybody has regrets. But, as Daniel Pink explains in “The Power of Regret,” regrets are a universal and healthy part of being human. And understanding how regret works can help us make smarter decisions and bring greater meaning to our lives. Drawing on research in social psychology, neuroscience, and biology, Pink debunks the myth of the “no regrets” philosophy of life. Filled with true stories of people’s regrets as well as practical takeaways for reimagining regret as a positive force, “The Power of Regret” shows how we can live richer, more engaged lives.
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Free Time: Lose the Busywork, Love Your Business by Jenny Blake
Your time is precious. Stop the busywork, and learn to simplify and streamline. Through a three-stage framework, “Free Time” will teach you and your team to operate efficiently and intuitively, so you can harness your creative energy for the strategic projects that excite you most.
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The Sustainability Scorecard: How to Implement and Profit from Unexpected Solutions by Urvashi Bhatnagar, Paul Anastas
“The Sustainability Scorecard’ is a practical resource to make your existing systems more sustainable and profitable. Explore the economic argument for sustainable supply chains, and get a practical scorecard for proving the benefit. Learn how to innovate supply chains through repeatable and reliable processes that address model design and key performance indicators.
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Why Design Matters: Conversations with the World’s Most Creative People by Debbie Millman
“Why Design Matters” is an anthology of the Design Matters podcast, hosted by author and brand consultant Debbie Millman. Over the podcast’s fifteen-year timespan, Debbie Millman has interviewed more than 400 creative minds across diverse professional fields and backgrounds. Explore approximately 80 of its best interviews with trendsetters, truth-tellers, legends, and visionaries, including Malcolm Gladwell, Ira Glass, Seth Godin, Laurie Anderson, Anne Lamott, and more.