On May 1st, Labor Day is celebrated. Thinking about the date, 5 executives, including CEOs and directors of companies with global operations such as Appdome, Infobip, ManageEngine, and Fair Fashion, listed 10 reading recommendations for those who want to improve their knowledge in business and technology at work and for young people seeking a career in the field. The list offers a wide range of titles with insights related to artificial intelligence, communication, and leadership that can help professionals and enthusiasts in these areas to enhance their skills and expand their worldviews.
Yuri Fiaschi – VP of Strategic Projects at Infobip, a global cloud communication platform
Steve Jobs, by Walter Isaacson
“The biography of Steve Jobs is undoubtedly an interesting book, aligning technology and entrepreneurship. It’s impressive to see someone so disruptive who made real changes, even going against the tide. The book includes various interviews with Jobs over two years, as well as the viewpoints of competitors, family, friends, and colleagues. In living through highs and lows, he made many mistakes on his journey, going through a tortuous path to learn, which today brings us many lessons, especially for entrepreneurs and businesses.”
Multilpliers, by Liz Wiseman
“Another super interesting title is Multiplicadores, as it addresses one of my greatest passions: people management. The book makes a distinction between multipliers, leaders who know how to highlight qualities and the potential of their team to generate good results, and diminishers, those who focus on reaffirming their central position, centralizing power, and sucking the capacity and intelligence of the team. Liz Wiseman’s lessons clearly make you see and change attitudes that are diminishing and that you don’t even notice in day-to-day life.”
Caio Borges, country manager at Infobip
Inevitable, by Kevin Kelly
“Presents 12 technological forces that will shape our future. The book shows how trends like artificial intelligence, sharing, and access economy are irreversible. Technology will become increasingly integrated, personalized, and interactive. Adapting to these changes is essential to thrive.”
The Social Animal, by Elliot Aronson and Joshua Aronson
“Reference for social psychology studies, this book discusses various issues ranging from prejudice to the effects of mass communication and persuasion. The authors, based on scientific production, bring real examples when addressing how human behavior science works, bringing great reflections on human actions. It is a title worth it for those who work with people and want to develop leadership and communication.”
Rajesh Ganesan, CEO of ManageEngine, a division of Zoho Corporation offering IT security and operations management solutions
You Are What You Do: How to Create Your Company’s Culture, by Ben Horowitz
“What makes companies become enduring institutions? What is the secret for these companies to achieve global impact? What inspires and motivates people to work together in these companies towards a long-term goal? The answer surely is culture, which is typically a vague and abstract term for most people. The book firmly establishes what culture means for an organization—it is what each person and team does when faced with tasks. It’s not what they think, say, or plan, but what they consistently do that defines what culture is. Consistency in a company’s actions is important and flows from the top down.
The book explains this idea with examples spanning hundreds of years, highlighting how successful leaders cared to create the best possible culture and how this helped them achieve the company’s goals—lessons that have stood the test of time and can be applied in companies today.”
Hit Refresh: The Quest to Rediscover Microsoft’s Soul and Imagine a Better Future for Everyone, by Satya Nadella
“While establishing a strong culture is quite challenging, changing it is usually impossible, which eventually leads to the demise of organizations. By the late 2000s, Microsoft was losing to competitors in areas such as smartphones, cloud, search, browser, and gaming market. It wasn’t just the change in leadership, but the cultural change that the new leadership brought that made Microsoft a relevant company again in each of these segments.”
The book has many valuable lessons and offers wisdom for leaders who are timid, insecure, or have little conviction about how to deal with strong market interferences. Additionally, it is inspiring to learn how a typical, academically successful engineer from India starts as a Microsoft collaborator and, climbing the hierarchy, could monumentally impact one of the most influential organizations of this century.
Tom Tovar, CEO and Co-founder of Appdome, a mobile app protection company
Deep Survival, by Laurence Gonzales
“In life, change is constant. Likewise, changes and crises can hit us when we least expect. Especially when we ourselves chose the situation that led to the crisis, this change can magnify the errors and worsen our situation even further. Deep Survival helps us keep our feet on the ground, understand the new environment, transcend it, and triumph over it. It is a book filled with short stories about people who overcame incredible odds to survive — lost at sea, in mountains, in the jungle, etc. It ends by offering a checklist to help us survive and thrive in our own lives, day by day.”
Fermat’s Last Theorem, by Simon Singh
“This book deals with a very simple equation that remained unproven for hundreds of years — and the quest to solve it. It is about the search for truth and proof of how our universe operates, as well as the constant struggle against ourselves to find answers.”
André Salem, founder of Blockforce, the platform responsible for Fair Fashion’s blockchain technology
Blockchain – From Theory to Practice: Everything You Need to Know About the Technology Revolutionizing the World, by Richard Montezino
“This book allows anyone to understand in a simple and accessible way what blockchain is, how it works, and why it is considered one of the most impactful innovations of the 21st century. In addition to cryptocurrencies, it explores real applications of blockchain in various types of businesses. It is a good guide for those who want to familiarize themselves with the topic without needing prior technical knowledge. The book offers a clear view of the benefits, challenges, and the future of this technology. For me personally, it is an important read, even though I have been working with the technology for years, because the author’s perspective makes us analyze various relevant points.”
Google – The Biography, by Steven Levy
“It is a great read for those who want to understand how the startup founded in a garage became one of the most influential companies in the world. For those who enjoy technology and great stories, it is a must-read, after all, we all use Google. With privileged access to the company’s behind-the-scenes, the author tells the story of founders Larry Page and Sergey Brin, the ethical dilemmas faced by the company, and the impacts of technology on society. It is a deep dive into Silicon Valley’s culture, a very important region for our current technology landscape, into the innovations that shaped the internet, and the decisions that turned Google into a true digital empire.”
