If You Read Only One Business Book This Year, It Should Be This One

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Here is a brief excerpt from an article by Jessica Stillman for Inc.com in which she discusses a book that The Financial Times and McKinsey have declared the most important business read of the year. To read the complete article, check out other, and obtain subscription information, please click here.

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This time of year, entrepreneurs looking to feed their brains with a good book won’t be short of ideas. Between end-of-the-year lists and suggestions for filling your shelves (or your e-reader) in the year ahead, recommendations are everywhere you look.

Which can be handy, or bewildering. From “16 Books for 2016” to “10 Books to Read This Fall,” you might just be thinking, who has time for all this reading? If your leisure time is limited and you have time for only a few essential reads, what should they be?

The very best business book of the year?

According to the Financial Times and consultancy McKinsey, there’s at least one title even the busiest business owners shouldn’t miss. They recently crowned Rise of the Robots: Technology and the Threat of a Jobless Future by entrepreneur Martin Ford the very best business book of the year.

Hugely topical, the book discusses the much debated idea that advances in automation will soon radically affect the labor market. “The book reflects growing anxiety in some quarters about the possible negative impact of automation on jobs, from manufacturing to professional services,” explains the FT write-up of the award. This economic reshuffle may require “a fundamental restructuring of our economic rules,” according to Ford, who proposes a guaranteed minimum basic income as one possible remedy.

Other books shortlisted for the prize include Losing the Signal by Jacquie McNish and Sean Silcoff, Digital Gold by Nathaniel Popper, How Music Got Free by Stephen Witt, Unfinished Business by Anne-Marie Slaughter, and Misbehaving by Richard Thaler.

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The proposition is “Be afraid, be very afraid: The robots are coming and they will destroy our livelihoods.” The speakers are Steve Jobs biographer Walter Isaacson, entrepreneurs Pippa Malmgren and Andrew Keen, and economist George Magnus. It’s a good introduction to the views of both technological optimists and pessimists.

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Here is a direct link to the complete article.

JessicaStillman_800x800_20914Jessica Stillman is a freelance writer based in Cyprus with interests in unconventional career paths, generational differences, and the future of work. She has blogged for CBS MoneyWatch, GigaOM, and Brazen Careerist. Twitter: @EntryLevelRebel

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