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9 Must-Read Business Books for 2024

By Ava McCartney | 4-minute read | December 11, 2023

Big Picture

Gartner experts share the business books that have influenced their thinking

Regardless of your role or function, as a business leader, you come to Gartner for actionable, objective insights that ground your thinking, provide foresight and help you make smarter, faster decisions. Our team of experts powers these insights.

With our annual list of best business books, Gartner experts offer something a little more personal: Their recommendations for reads that have recently challenged or shaped the way they think about their professional and personal lives. Each comes with a note highlighting its value to you as a leader and individual.

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“The Technology Trap: Capital, Labor and Power in the Age of Automation” by Carl Benedikt Frey

  • Recommended by: Helen Poitevin, Distinguished VP Analyst, Human Capital Management

  • Why she suggests it: “This is a fine analysis of the impact of technology on work by one of the economists who kicked off the firestorm of interest in the impact of AI on work in 2013. ‘The Technology Trap’ offers an updated view and a historical overview of the impact of automation on different groups of workers.”

“Analog” by Robert Hassan

  • Recommended by: Chris Howard, Global Chief of Research

  • Why he suggests it: “ ‘Analog’ explores our desire for ‘real’ experiences in the midst of the current digital deluge. But Hassan also points out that one era’s innovation is often the next’s ‘real’ experience.”

“The Art of the Good Life: Clear Thinking for Business and a Better Life” by Rolf Dobelli

  • Recommended by: Mbula Schoen, Senior Director Analyst, CIO Leadership of Information Talent & Organizational Dynamics

  • Why she suggests it: “Dobelli explores the stoic philosophy and its applicability in today’s world. He takes the liberty also to borrow from Daniel Kahneman but writes in a light and often very witty style.”

“American Prometheus: The Triumph and Tragedy of J. Robert Oppenheimer” by Kai Bird and Martin J Sherwin

  • Recommended by: Jorge Lopez, Distinguished VP Analyst, Digital Business

  • Why he suggests it: “This book provides a deep dive into the personality of J. Robert Oppenheimer, a man of genius intellect, who was able to gather together other geniuses of his time — Einstein, Born, Bohr, Fermi, DeBroglie, Teller and more — and get these very independent intellectuals to focus on designing and building the atomic bomb. For the aspirational leader, this is a very inspirational as well as down-to-earth description of the joys and the despair of pursuing enormous goals with the best minds.”

“Scale: The Universal Laws of Life, Growth, and Death in Organisms, Cities, and Companies” by Geoffrey West

  • Recommended by: Rita Sallam, Distinguished VP Analyst, Data & Analytics 

  • Why she suggests it: “West gives fascinating examples of the laws that drive the life cycle of all things, including companies. It’s full of great insight on how things scale and how to sustain success.”

“How to Tell a Story: The Essential Guide to Memorable Storytelling from The Moth” by Meg Bowles, Catherine Burns, et al.

  • Recommended by: Tori Paulman, Senior Director Analyst, Employee Experience Technology

  • Why they suggest it: “I think every single one of us should read (and reread) this book. I’ve used it to improve both my presentations and my relationships.”

“How Big Things Get Done: The Surprising Factors That Determine the Fate of Every Project, from Home Renovations to Space Exploration and Everything In Between” by Bent Flyvbjerg and Dan Gardner

  • Recommended by: Andrew White, Distinguished VP Analyst, Data & Analytics

  • Why he suggests it: “Brilliant — and with a nice dose of large-scale IT projects included in the analysis. Every CIO and transformation lead should be aware of the findings in this book, which plays well with Gartner’s advice that ‘strategy is learning by doing.’ ”

“No Rules Rules: Netflix and the Culture of Reinvention” by Reed Hastings and Erin Meyer

  • Recommended by: Gene Alvarez, Distinguished VP Analyst, Information Technology

  • Why he suggests it: “This book made me think about these questions: Why do we have so many rules to run companies and this one succeeded by not having any? Is there such a thing as too many rules? Give it a read and you may think twice before adding more rules to processes in your organization — and how you hire.”

“The Power of Regret: How Looking Backward Moves Us Forward” by Daniel H. Pink

  • Recommended by: Don Scheibenreif, Distinguished VP Analyst, Customer Experience

  • Why he suggests it: “Pink gets you to view regret as something that can help you move forward, instead of backward. I found his advice to be helpful at home and at work.”

3 things to tell your peers

1

This list of best business books for 2024 is sourced from Gartner experts, who explain why each book proved meaningful to them.

2

These nine reads are designed to guide leaders professionally and personally, understanding that there is significant overlap between these two parts of your life.

3

The books cover such topics as technological progress, storytelling and business transformation.

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Helen Poitevin is a Distinguished VP Analyst in the Digital Workplace Applications Team where she focuses on the way AI is transforming work and employee experience, and how to lead and support these changes. She leads cross-functional research around Human Capital in the AI age. She advises clients on how to get an AI-ready workforce, how to navigate conversations about workforce productivity, and how to shape and support employee experience in the digital workplace. She explores the role of workstyle analytics, digital twins of employees, employee AI avatars and employee experience technologies in supporting new ways of working.

Chris Howard is Gartner's Chief of Research. In that role, Mr. Howard ensures that Gartner research meets the general and industry-specific needs of senior executives, with emphasis on both technical and business leadership. Mr. Howard leads the Senior Content Leadership Board at Gartner where he is responsible for the development of integrated topics that cross all of Gartner's research. In that capacity, he regularly interacts with and advises CEOs, board members and other senior executives at the world's largest enterprises. He is the recipient of several Gartner thought leadership awards.

Mbula Schoen is a Senior Director Analyst within the Research and Advisory, CIO and Industries Global & Large Accounts CIO & Executives Executive Fast Start & Talent team. Ms. Schoen's expertise focuses on building an AI ready workforce, upskilling talent to realize generative AI value and building AI literacy. She has written research encompassing the future of work and how CIO's can address IT skills gaps, IT talent management life cycle, and designing Employment Value Proposition (EVP) that enable attracting and retaining top IT talent. Her most recent work covers critical leadership skills including how CIO's can drive IT culture change to support a fast changing business environment; developing high-performing teams, employee motivation, and implementing effective performance management strategies. Ms. Schoen is a sought-after speaker and brings more than 20 years of experience working with global companies in Asia, Eastern and Western Europe, and Africa. In addition to her work at Gartner, Ms. Schoen is a visiting professor at a Munich University, where she lectures in management information systems

Jorge Lopez is a Vice President and Distinguished Analyst based in the United States, where he is a leader in research of the Gartner research themes of the industrialization of space and autonomous business. He also does research into CEOs and Board Directors and how they affect the use of technology in their business strategy to gain competitive advantage. He also is a leader in the global theme and research agenda of digital business. This includes advancing the research of the theme and managing its delivery throughout Gartner. His target audience is the CIO, with emphasis on how to help the CIO engage the CEO and the board of directors on many issues of concern to business executives, including digital business. He draws on his prior research on board of directors, CEO and CIOs to advise Gartner clients on how best to leverage technology to generate business results.

Rita Sallam is a Distinguished VP analyst and Gartner Fellow in the Data and Analytics team. Mrs. Sallam's focus includes tracking market trends, vendor assessment and selection, and identifying best practices for realizing business value from data, analytics and AI investments. Of particular interest is how leaders can leverage disruptions in AI to create sustainable competitive advantage. She is also focused on building frameworks for selecting and valuing data and analytics portfolios including AI investments, including Generative AI.

Tori Paulman is a Vice President Analyst who advises clients on the leadership of digital employee experience (DEX) and digital workplace strategies, the workplace experience application market, employee experience journey mapping, and strategies for successful hybrid teams. They focus on helping executives and their teams with the leadership, talent and cultural shifts needed to succeed today and in the future of work. Tori co-leads Gartner's cross functional team researching the "Future of Work" for executive leaders. In addition, Tori leads the biannual digital worker survey, now in its 6th iteration, this survey is Gartner's signature view on workers experiences and sentiment on technology used for work. Top Challenges I Help Clients Address: Boosting employee productivity & well-being via human-centricity Improving outcomes by reducing time to competency and productivity Implementing the future of hybrid work to drive talent and business outcomes Optimizing the value of workers with technology, analytics, and automation Maximize return-on-employee by developing an employee experience strategy Advising executive on best practices for experience journey mapping Tori describes their life's mission to ensure that humans have a validating, supportive, and engaging experience with technology, by meeting them where they are today and unlocking experiences that allow them to achieve their wildest goals. Years of Experience:- 2021 beginning at Gartner- 25 years in IT industry- 7 Years Financial Services- 7 Years Entertainment- 6 Years Retail- 5 Years Professional Services for Non-Profit and Higher - 1 Year Software Development, specifically BPM

Andrew is a distinguished Analyst and VP and has a primary research focus on the chief data and analytics officer (CDAO) role and responsibility. This includes data and analytics strategy, governance, organization and roles, business value of data and analytics and so on. He also focuses on terms of tools and technology on those related to data and analytics governance. He is currently Chief of Research, Markets and oversees and coordinates our efforts related to how we cover markets in our research. Before that he was Chief of Research for China where he helped set up and organize our go-to-market Research storyline and team. Before that he was lucky enough to be the lead the overall research content development plan for our new CDAO product offering. And before this he was the Chief of Research for Data and Analytics. He has also been Vendor Lead for Oracle Corp. He was the Research leader behind the first ever Master Data Management Summit (MDM) in 2007 and was conference chair of that event through 2015 as it expanded focus to enterprise information and MDM, before merging with Analytics and BI to form Data and Analytics. Andrew has been the recipient of the Gartner Thought Leadership Award. The first was in 2006 for his efforts in pioneering Gartner's research in Enterprise Information Management that led to MDM. His second was in 2021 as part of a team developing our Data Fabric research. His previous coverage areas focused on business apps and best practices in supply chain management (SCM), enterprise resource planning (ERP) and multienterprise B2B collaboration environments.

Gene Alvarez offers expertise in technology innovation and strategy. He helps CIOs and other innovation leaders innovate with emerging technologies adoption and strategy. He also leads Gartner's Top Strategic Technology Trends research and contributes to Gartner's Top Strategic Predictions research. He is also an expert on GenAI, AI Agents, polyfunctional robots, CRM and customer experience vision, strategy, architecture and technologies. With over 40 years of business and IT experience, Mr. Alvarez excels in business impact assessments, vendor management, and applications. He has also presented at international events and contributed to various media outlets.

Don Scheibenreif is a Vice President, Distinguished Analyst with Gartner's Global Enterprise Executive Research group. Mr. Scheibenreif works with Executive and IT leaders on how emerging trends and digital business will impact customer experience. He is a founding member of Gartner's research on digital business and he has served clients in Gartner's Industries Research, Technology Innovation, and CRM/CX practices. He is also the lead author of the Gartner book, When Machines Become Customers

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