Welcome to the third edition of the annual book recommendation list. The rules are simple: 1) The books cannot be current-year books (there are two exceptions this year), and 2) they have to be for the time-crunched leader. More about the rules here. And while the title may say startup leader, this list is for anyone in an entrepreneurial role. The best managers are always entrepreneurial. Yet, not all entrepreneurs are good managers. 

Good Power, Ginni Rometty 

IBM CEO Ginni Rometty led the Fortune 100 company for over nine years, placing her in a very exclusive club. This book is her memoir of her journey to the top. It is a story of guts, patience, and hard work, as well as her personal struggles, successes, and failures. Ginni is the first to acknowledge that not all her bets were successful, but she makes a compelling case that she did her best. She is also the first to admit that her workaholic tendencies are not something she would recommend. In these admissions, she comes across as authentic.

Much has been said about IBM’s performance under her stewardship, which need not be rehashed here. However, the last consequential act of a CEO is to find a capable successor. By that yardstick, Ginni has already hit it out of the park with the current CEO, Arvind Krishna. In making this decision, she joins the same club as Pepsico CEO Indra Nooyi (and her successor Ramon Laguarta) and Mastercard’s Ajay Banga (and his successor Michael Miebach). CEO succession for companies at this scale is challenging (just ask Bob Iger, Jeff Immelt, or the late Jack Welch), and by that measure, Ginni’s final act as CEO is also her most impactful one.

Above all, her memoir is a brilliant example of the relentless radical reinvention that lies at the center of resilience.

“The notion that passion can be acquired when it doesn’t come naturally, even summoned, conserved, and applied selectively, were revelatory insights for me, perhaps because it expanded my own possibilities. If I could acquire a passion for anything, I could do anything—including insurance.”

Captive Audience, Susan Crawford

Telecom is replete with Chesterton Fences, brimming with abstruse rules and regulations that may appear as roadblocks but, in reality, serve as guardrails. Captive Audience is the story of one such fence. Harvard Professor Susan Crawford illustrates how cable, content, and the internet evolved in America, circa 2010 and prior to net neutrality regulations. With an academic’s dedication to research and a journalist’s gift for storytelling, she vividly portrays the myriad forces at play that were shaping America’s internet future.

Distinguishing whether a rule acts as a roadblock or a guardrail should be a fundamental principle of responsible reform. As the net neutrality debate gains momentum in a contentious election year, Susan’s book serves as a valuable reminder of the historical background. Thanks to evolving technologies and market dynamics, the battlefield in this industry is constantly shifting but the core issues remain largely unchanged. Concepts such as line access, pole attachment, and common carriage may take on new significance, but their fundamental definitions seldom undergo significant alteration.

“These pole-attachment rules are a good example of government intervention enabling a new market. The law gave cable a subsidy—in the form of a preferential rate on access to telephone poles—that is still in place today.”  

Cutting the Cord, Marty Cooper

Written by the man who led the team at Motorola, Cutting the Cord is the story of how the cell phone came to be. In an era when the cordless phone was yet to be invented, Marty and his team thought up the DYNamic Adaptive Total Area Coverage or DynaTAC. It was so ahead of its time that AT&T walked away from cellular technology only to buy its way back by acquiring McCaw Cellular for $12.6 billion ($28 billion in today’s currency). 

I’ve had the privilege of meeting Marty over the years. At the recent Wireless History Foundation dinner, he shared that the book had been optioned for a movie. The book has many scenes that would translate well to the screen. An obsession with sweating the details to build something that’s magical and new overlaid on a David v. Goliath struggle is great fodder for a feel-good movie. 

“Every day, as I drove to and from work, we would talk with each other and with a mobile operator, listening for defects in voice quality, for interference caused by poor design or eccentricities in a specific car model. We would try out new models and experimental features. Testers included every manager, including the division head.”

The Friction Project, Bob Sutton and Huggy Rao

Though this book is out in 2024, I had the pleasure to dive into an Advanced Reader’s edition of the duo’s latest collaboration, The Friction Project. The book makes the argument that friction is good, if used correctly, and then provides practical advice on how to slow things down (good friction) or remove blockers (bad friction) and how to discern between the two. It is full of tips and tricks and a chapter to design your own friction project. In 1954, Peter Drucker said that every so often, every form, report, and process in the company should “be put on trial for its life.” In 2024, Bob and Huggy will show us how. 

Academics with stellar bonafides, Bob and Huggy don’t hide behind academic jargon. Bob of course, authored The No Asshole Rule, and in Scaling Excellence, they speak of the clusterfug (a clever play on “clusterf*ck,” which they changed at their publisher’s request). The Friction Project too has its share of colorful candor. When talking about jargon monoxide, they define “meaningless bullsh*t” as “empty and misleading communication that is meaningless to both the bullsh*tter and the bullsh*ttee.”  

“When we started on this friction adventure, we believed that nearly everything in organizational life ought to be as quick and easy as possible. We were wrong. We now believe that subtraction is beautiful because it clears our minds and gives us time to focus on what ought to be hard, inefficient, complex, and frustrating.”

PS: Look for an interview with Huggy coming out in January! 

Think Faster, Talk Smarter, Matt Abrahams 

I’ve worked with Matt not only as a client but also as a partner. A few years ago, he helped my client train its smartest researchers to be effective speakers at an industry conference in under six weeks. Through live coaching, frameworks, and practical tips, he got these experts to speak to an audience of 5,000+ attendees with comfort and confidence. In Think Faster, Talk Smarter, Matt has put all his decades of coaching experience into one accessible format.  

Matt’s What/So-What/Now-What framework, for example, has been a clutch to calm my stage nerves and focus on being useful to the audience the many times I’ve taken the stage this past year. Think Faster, Talk Smarter is full of such tools and should be in every leader’s toolbox. 

“You start by discussing an idea, topic, product, service, or argument (What). Then you explain why it’s important, helpful, or useful—why it matters and is relevant (So What). You end with what your audience should do from here with this knowledge—how they might apply it, what actions they should take, and so on (Now What).”

AI Superpowers, Kai-Fu Lee 

Generative AI is obliterating all competitive moats across technologies, industries, and between countries. In AI Superpowers, Kai Fu Lee puts AI innovation in the context of the Chinese startup scene and of Sino-US relations. 

He lays out a compelling case as to why the traditional market leadership that the US has enjoyed in technology is in threat, thanks largely to the Chinese appetite for digitizing their lives, with few concerns for privacy, and the Chinese entrepreneurs’ willingness to fulfill that appetite. In fact, Kai-Fu says that “unencumbered by lofty mission statements,” Chinese startups have no problem following trends in user activity wherever it takes them. Layer on that the latest AI improvements have made it very easy to think and build big, which country will win the AI race is anyone’s guess. 

“Today, successful AI algorithms need three things: big data, computing power, and the work of strong—but not necessarily elite—AI algorithm engineers.”

Life 3.0, Max Tegmark 

In 2020, everyone was an epidemiologist. In 2021, everyone was talking crypto, and in 2023, everyone seems to be an generative AI expert. With the hype and the din, the believability of an opinion can be hard to discern, especially when thinking about the big issues like privacy, control, and ethics.

MIT Professor Max Tegmark lays out a future with AI. Using a fictional scenario that’s too real for comfort, he shares why the fears of AI achieving consciousness are overblown and do a huge disservice to the real issues that need to be addressed. If you want to learn how to build AI solutions, take courses from DeepLearning.ai or HuggingFace, but if you want to understand how AI will change the world, buy this book. 

“In my opinion, the danger with the Terminator story isn’t that it will happen, but that it distracts from the real risks and opportunities presented by AI. To actually get from today to AGI-powered world takeover requires three logical steps: • Step 1: Build human-level AGI. • Step 2: Use this AGI to create superintelligence. • Step 3: Use or unleash this superintelligence to take over the world.”

The Power Law, Sebastian Mallaby

Venture capital can appear as part alchemy, part soothsaying, and part gambling. Sebastian Mallaby’s book tries to explain why this is so. Through extensive and exhaustive research, he lays out how venture capital came to be and why it has continued and will continue to fuel risky bets. It is a dense read that, like a good workout, will leave you both exhausted and pumped. 

“The best venture capitalists consciously create their luck. They work systematically to boost the odds that serendipity will strike repeatedly.“

Amp It Up!,  Frank Slootman 

Frank Slootman makes a repeat appearance on this list. After Tape Sucks, Frank expands on a LinkedIn essay that he wrote in 2018 and delivers with new insights on how to execute well. He retains his trademark candor and gets to the point quickly but also takes his time to explain the why behind his actions. There’s a lot to learn about humility, ambition, drive, and resourcefulness.

“Leadership is a lonely business. You live 24/7 with uncertainty, anxiety, and the fear of personal failure. You make countless decisions, and being wrong about any of them might let down your employees and investors. The stakes, both financial and human, are high. And what adds to the terror is that there is no manual, no how‐to guide. Every problem has, at least to some extent, never been seen before.”

High Growth Handbook, Elad Gil

As CEO of Y Combinator, Sam Altman was the dean of the preeminent startup school in the world. Yet, he got blindsided by a classic boardroom takeover. It shows you how a company’s board is a different beast that can leave even the seasoned founder stunned. How to manage boards, and how to handle board members and much more is in Gil’s High Growth Handbook. Every startup leader should have it on their bookshelf. Sooner or later, you’ll be dog-earing every page. 

“If your cofounder is like your spouse, then your board members are like your mother-in-law and father-in-law. You are going to see them regularly, they are hard to get rid of, and they can have an enormous impact on your company’s future.”

Finally

Here are the links to Amazon to buy the books:

1. Good Power
2. Captive Audience
3. Cutting the Cord
4. The Friction Project
5. Think Faster, Talk Smarter
6. AI Superpowers
7. Life 3.0
8. The Power Law
9. Amp It Up! 
10. High Growth Handbook

Happy Reading!