Business Impact Award 2025: Here Is the Longlist!

Discover the Nominees for getAbstract’s International Book Award 2025 in the “Business Impact” Category.

Established in 2001, the getAbstract International Book Award is one of the longest continuously running non-fiction awards in the world. Aligned with our mission to provide actionable, business-relevant knowledge, the getAbstract International Book Award focuses on titles that help people make better decisions in their personal and professional lives – in line with our slogan ‘Know Better. Do Better.’

Here are this year’s nominees:

Arvind Narayanan & Sayash Kapoor:
AI Snake Oil

Princeton UP, 2024

It’s time to differentiate between AI’s real capacities and the overhyped promises of Big Tech, say Princeton University computer science professor Arvind Narayanan and PhD candidate Sayash Kapoor.

This book takes an interesting approach to exposing the risks and limits of AI, cutting through industry hype with clarity and evidence. The innovative analogy to snake oil is spot-on, making this an eye-opening call for a mindset shift — not to accept AI thoughtlessly, but to question and critically challenge its claims.

Laura Lesum, Juror

Just as salesmen once sold snake oil as a “miracle cure” when, in reality, it had no medical benefits, people today are exaggerating AI’s potential. For instance, AI tools cannot give humanity perfect insight into future events — but they can lead to poor decision-making. Narayanan and Kapoor call on you to fight for the AI future you want, rather than accepting the future tech companies are trying to sell you.

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Book Summary

AI Snake Oil

Learn to discern AI’s actual potential from the false promises made by tech companies.

Arvind Narayanan and Sayash Kapoor Princeton UP
Read Summary

Stefaan van Hooydonk:
Curiosity

Capstone, 2025

Though curiosity and innovation have a strong positive correlation, many workplaces discourage employee curiosity, viewing it as risky, disruptive, or a waste of time. However, as “recovering conformist” and founder of the Global Curiosity Institute Stefaan van Hooydonk argues, humanity can ill afford to shun inquisitiveness and innovation when faced with complex challenges, such as global warming.

This book puts a powerful spotlight on the role of curiosity in the workplace and its positive impact on learning, innovation, and adaptability. With an inspiring approach, it offers advice and routines. Curiosity may seem common, but it is often overlooked, and the author explains with clarity why a seeking mind is vital for both business and personal growth.

Daniel Baird, Juror

His insightful book explains how to break the barriers that hinder curiosity and presents several hacks to help you integrate curiosity into your team’s processes.

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Book Summary

Curiosity

Though curiosity is linked to high performance, leaders often discourage it. Start being a curiosity role model for your team today.

Stefaan van Hooydonk Capstone
Read Summary

Molly Fletcher:
Dynamic Drive

Hachette Go, 2024

Are you ready to unlock your full potential and achieve lasting success? Sports agent Molly Fletcher reveals a powerful, purpose-driven approach to building motivation, sharpening focus, and confidently overcoming any challenge. By aligning your passions with your actions, Fletcher teaches you to find the drive to push past obstacles and thrive in even the toughest moments.

A thorough and inspiring read, especially for young professionals seeking to find their personal drive. Packed with lessons from the world of sports, it offers clear, practical guidance and memorable examples to build discipline, resilience, and purpose.

Laura Lesum, Juror

Through real-life stories and practical strategies, you’ll discover how to harness the power of resilience, connection, and purpose to elevate your performance. It’s time to embrace the dynamic energy that will propel you toward your biggest goals and beyond.

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Book Summary

Dynamic Drive

Unleash your potential with a formula that fuels success, resilience, and unstoppable momentum in every area of life.

Molly Fletcher Hachette Go
Read Summary

Sarah Thurber & Blair Miller:
Good Team, Bad Team

Page Two Publishers, 2024

Congratulations: You’re in charge of a high-profile team. Unfortunately, personnel problems hamper you and your team, so you seldom get the results you want. The main issue is a lack of unity. How can you solve this and other team-building problems?

This book provides highly practical and insightful advice for team leaders, grounded in understanding individual team members and how each person’s approach shapes team dynamics, performance, and outcomes.

Erica Rauzin, Juror

In this engaging, informative book, team-building experts Sarah Thurber and Blair Miller explain how to turn your bad team into a great one, basing much of their advice on the fascinating science of cognitive diversity. They also explain their “FourSight” problem-solving system, which has been used by Nike, NASA, and the United States Navy SEALs.

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Book Summary

Good Team, Bad Team

Leaders make their teams effective.

Sarah Thurber and Blair Miller Page Two Publishers
Read Summary

Steve J. Martin:
Influence at Work

The Economist Books, 2024

In this compelling guide, Steve J. Martin unpacks the science of influence, offering proven strategies to capture attention, forge authentic connections, and motivate others to take meaningful actions. Drawing on decades of research and real-world examples, Martin reveals how small changes in your approach can lead to big results in work and life.

Few topics are more important in the social media age than influence. This book approaches the topic from myriad angles, all familiar in an era with a volatile consumer economy and equally volatile politics. The book may help people exert influence – and also develop a sharper eye toward the tactics of influencers.

Daniel Baird, Juror

Whether you want to win over colleagues, inspire your team, or strengthen personal relationships, Martin provides practical tools to help you ethically and effectively influence others.

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Book Summary

Influence at Work

Leverage the science of influence to capture attention, build genuine connections, and inspire action.

Steve J. Martin The Economist Books
Read Summary

Jeremy Kahn:
Mastering AI

Simon & Schuster, 2024

What lies ahead when it comes to AI? Tech journalist Jeremy Kahn extols AI’s potential contributions to humanity but offers warnings as well. He highlights AI’s ability to transform science, the arts, industry, and medicine. At the same time, Kahn notes that AI might erode “human capabilities” and negatively affect job markets, trust, privacy, and democracy.

Mastering AI is a highly relevant read for decision-makers across sectors. It calls on individuals, companies, and governments to embrace AI as a powerful support tool – not a replacement. Jeremy Kahn advocates for a responsible, informed approach when it comes to AI that balances opportunity with risk.

Laura Lesum, Juror

Kahn describes the urgent need for ethical decision-making in automated systems development and regulations that govern AI output. Kahn further underscores that AI must complement, not replace, human talent.

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Book Summary

Mastering AI

Will AI enrich or destroy humanity?

Jeremy Kahn Simon & Schuster
Read Summary

Elizabeth Sawin:
Multisolving

Island Press, 2024

Complex problems abound, but multisolving – “using one investment of time, money, or energy to address multiple problems” – may hold the clue to penetrating them. With this strategy, complexity fosters solutions instead of thwarting them. Elizabeth Sawin, founder of the Multisolving Institute, offers systems thinking strategies for addressing multiple problems at once.

If you’ve wondered how to use systems thinking to solve problems, this helpful explanation provides both an overview and accessible methods — such as applying feedback to weigh a decision’s benefits and risks. Rich, well-chosen examples make the approach especially convincing.

Erica Rauzin, Juror

Some of her discussion is technical and even theoretical, but she supports it with good examples. Sawin shows how embracing multisolving can turn seemingly intractable challenges into opportunities. And she points out, just as you can use the same resources to address multiple problems, solving one problem can lead to solutions to other issues, as well.

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Book Summary

Multisolving

If you employ systems thinking, you can solve complex problems.

Elizabeth Sawin Island Press
Read Summary

Jamie Metzl:
Superconvergence

Hachette Book Group, 2024

As advances in biotechnology, genetics, and AI endow humanity with unprecedented powers, humans must embrace the responsibility, as well, to safeguard the good of people and the planet. Futurist and biotech expert Jamie Metzl offers a deep dive into the ways health care, industries, and private life could look radically different in the future, and the threats new technologies could pose.

AI has a staggering impact on various industries and professional fields, and leaders must be aware of how these impacts are accumulating and combining. This overview may seem more theoretical than directly applicable, but its message signals pressing, practical challenges that are certain to emerge.

Erica Rauzin, Juror

Metzl balances hope with a healthy concern for the potential risks of new powers becoming increasingly democratized and decentralized, and calls on readers to work together to build a future that promotes the good of all.

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Book Summary

Superconvergence

Learn how biotechnology, genetics, and AI will dramatically change everyday reality — and the risks humanity faces.

Jamie Metzl Hachette Book Group USA
Read Summary

Sébastien Page:
The Psychology of Leadership

Harriman House, 2025

T. Rowe Price executive Sébastien Page combines his business acumen with sports psychology, positive psychology, and personality psychology to develop insights into leadership and spur innovative thinking. He finds that leadership goes beyond winning – in sports and in business – and demands the mental skills to enable and then promote high-end performance. These skills include staying aware of unintended consequences, organizing your work around your goals, and not obsessing over winning.

Sébastien Page wrote an innovative, yet highly practical book that combines various psychological models with a focus on the mental skills required for sustained high performance. With its refreshing message that winning isn’t the ultimate goal, neither in sports nor in business, it challenges conventional leadership thinking and reframes leadership through a more sustainable and human-centered lens.

Laura Lesum, Juror

With grounding in academic research, Page’s book offers practical suggestions on orienting your thinking as a leader and as a human being.

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Book Summary

The Psychology of Leadership

Top athletes and business leaders maximize their mental competence.

Sébastien Page Harriman House
Read Summary

Richard E. Cytowic:
Your Stone Age Brain in the Screen Age

MIT Press, 2024

If you’re like many people, you probably struggle to keep your screen time in check. Neurologist Richard E. Cytowic explains why your brain is evolutionarily hardwired to seek your phone every time you see a blinking alert, why doing so may be harming you, or your children, and what you can start doing to develop a healthier relationship with digital technology. 

We grasp that too much screen time is harmful, but this gives us a scientifically grounded understanding of why that is so and how to fight back with strategies rooted in cognitive science.

Erica Rauzin, Juror

Gain insights into the ways heavy screen time use is changing children’s brains, and what humanity stands to lose if people don’t start reclaiming their attention and engaging more with their off-screen world.

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Book Summary

Your Stone Age Brain in the Screen Age

People are trading years of their life for screen time, and it’s changing the human brain — neurologist Richard E. Cytowic tells readers why.

Richard E. Cytowic MIT Press
Read Summary

The winners of the Business Impact Award will be announced at the award ceremony in Frankfurt am Main on 15 October 2025. Click here for the German selection. Here, you can find the nominees for the Learning Impact Award.

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