13 leaders share the books that changed how they live, think and lead: 2024 Books Roundup
Release Date: 12/10/2024
This company launched with $600 a decade ago. How it’s using data and AI to boost yields for millions of small-scale farmers
Meet The Leader
Getting the right information at the right time is critical for any sector but especially small-scale farming. Losing a yield could mean a farmer has no income for a year while weakening food security and local economies. To bridge these gaps, company Farmerline has created AI-powered tools, including one that acts like a “911 for farmers,” bringing critical information on weather, crop diseases and more on demand to people who need it, all in 34 languages. The company has also developed ways alternative data can be used to develop credit scores for farmers, helping prove the investing...
info_outline
The web is ‘fragile.' How to protect the world’s most important information - and how crypto could help
Meet The Leader
Most of the world’s information is stored digitally in a way that’s vulnerable to disappearing without warning thanks to everything from link rot and server changes, to someone not paying their web hosting bill. Some information might even disappear because bad actors have removed or changed it. Civil liberties lawyer and Filecoin Foundation president Marta Belcher explains why the modern standard for how we store information is so vulnerable and why protecting data is a human rights issue. She breaks down a fundamentally new approach (leveraging crypto and decentralized databases to...
info_outline
‘Woeful’ data can hold tech and AI back: What’s needed to save lives, prevent catastrophes: Gecko Robotics
Meet The Leader
Robots that fold our laundry might sound futuristic, but don’t justify a new way of operating. And AI that reads our email or searches the web in new ways, won’t tackle the world’s biggest problems. Jake Loosararian, Gecko Robotics Co-founder, explains how technologies such as AI and robotics could do more to tackle stubborn challenges – such as infrastructure failure, to protect lives and prevent catastrophes – if only they had the right data. He breaks down: how big data gaps have held back innovation for the physical world, and how smarter approaches to infrastructure can improve...
info_outline
50% of world GDP depends on nature. What’s needed to restore land and protect economies: UNCCD’s Ibrahim Thiaw
Meet The Leader
Forecasts say we’ll need to double food production by 2050 - a tall order given 40% of the earth’s land has been degraded over decades by mining, unsustainable farming and climate change. The head of the United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD) Ibrahim Thiaw takes us through this complex issue that impacts economies, human well-being and global security. He breaks down what’s needed to restore 1.5 billion hectares of land and the policies and technologies that can make a difference. He also shares how drought devastated his family and community when just a child and...
info_outline
Rebuilding trust after turmoil and coaching teams for results that matter: USA Gymnastics CEO
Meet The Leader
Former gymnast and current USA Gymnastics CEO and president Li Li Leung joined the organization after after a turmoil-ridden period marked by an abuse scandal, bankruptcy and rapid leadership turnover. She talks to Meet The Leader about what she did in her first days to rebuild trust with athletes, coaches and gymnastics communities across the country and build new policies that met their needs. She also shares what’s needed for psychological safety and the slate of new mental health resources created at the organization, from therapists to emotional support dogs, that are supporting both...
info_outline
Tough calls, earning buy-in, and the ‘Courage to be Disliked’: Cisco’s Liz Centoni on driving big change
Meet The Leader
Big change can come with big fallouts and big feelings. Cisco's chief customer experience officer Liz Centoni runs a team with tens of thousands of employees and has 25 years of experience making the tough calls needed to drive needed technological change and earn critical buy-in and support. She shares what she's learned about tackling team fears and frictions head on and the importance of breaking down complex shifts into manageable ‘chunks’ to bring people along. She explains why she recommends leaders embrace the 'power of the pause’ -- and wait to speak in meetings -- and...
info_outline
How to bridge the $400 trillion retirement savings gap - what leaders can do
Meet The Leader
The global retirement savings gap could grow to $400 trillion by 2050 -- a problem that can’t just be tackled by simple saving alone. Meanwhile, we’re living longer and longer, a reality that is changing the way we live in our later years while making it trickier to save. Yie-Hsin Hung, the CEO of State Street Investment Management, will break down this problem and the new multi-prong approaches from all parts of society that will be needed to fix it. She also shares the moments that shaped her as a leader (like the simple question she asked early in her career that has helped her get...
info_outline
How one global health leader prepares teams for the toughest scenarios: Gavi CEO
Meet The Leader
How does the CEO of an organization brought in to help respond to fast-moving health crises like Mpox and other infectious diseases plan for the unexpected? Sania Nishtar heads up Gavi - The Vaccine Alliance, an organization that has helped vaccinate over one billion children in the world's poorest countries and prevent more than 18 million deaths worldwide. Sania talks to us about the planning, mindsets, technologies and scenario planning her team uses to be ready for any emergency. She explains the importance of securing ‘crystal clarity’ in advance for what its expected to deliver and...
info_outline
How pro basketball and theoretical physics shaped one health tech CEO
Meet The Leader
Non-communicable diseases like stroke and heart disease have swapped spots with infectious diseases as top global killers. Improving health access -- whether in the developed or emerging world -- can save the lives of billions. CEO Bernd Montag explains how Siemens Healthineers is partnering with providers around the world to deliver technologies and help reduce the complexities that can stand in the way of efficient treatment. He’ll also share his own unique background -- as a professional basketball player and later theoretical physicist -- and how it shaped how he makes decisions and...
info_outline
A Gen Z founder on breaking down big stigmas and surviving hustle-culture burnout
Meet The Leader
Nadya Okamoto launched her nonprofit Period as a teenager at the height of startup mania, hustle culture and girlboss memes. It grew to become one of the largest youth nonprofits in the world, but the fast growth led to burnout and a harsh cost to her well-being. She talks about how she learned to value rest, set boundaries and get 10 hours of sleep a day – and the moment she decided to pass the leadership torch for the organization’s next phase. Her non-profit Period, one that got started distributing menstrual pads to the homeless in San Francisco, and her current startup August, a...
info_outlineLooking for a new read? Something that will make you sharper in 2025 or something for that hard-to-buy-for person on your list? Or maybe you just want closer access to the ideas shaping today's brightest changemakers. No matter the reason, look no further than our annual books roundup, an episode collecting books that have transformed how some of the top global leaders manage teams, get inspired and motivated, shift mindsets and more. This year's recommendations include fresh takes on classic business books, histories, time-honored works of literature, and new favorites that can change how you build and lead.
Leaders and their book selections:
Leader: Alexi Robichaux, CEO, BetterUp
Book Selection: Boyd Varty's Liontracker’s Guide to Life: https://boydvarty.com/book/the-lion-trackers-guide-to-life/
Leader: Mark Lundstrom, CEO, Radia:
Book Selection: Eliyahu Moshe Goldratt's The Goal: https://www.tocinstitute.org/the-goal-summary.html
Leader: Sahil Tesfu, Chief Strategy Officer, Essity
Book Selection: Mark Manson's The Subtle Art of Not Giving a ****: https://markmanson.net/not-giving-a-fuck
Leader: Christopher Oakes, CEO, Reefgen
Book Selection: Cal Newport's A World Without Email: https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/575655/a-world-without-email-by-cal-newport/
Leader: Brad Smith, President, Microsoft
Book Selection: Brian Merchant's Blood in the Machine: https://www.hachettebookgroup.com/titles/brian-merchant/blood-in-the-machine/9780316487740/?lens=little-brown
Leader: Serge Raemaekers, CEO, ABOLOBI
Book Selection: Jim Collins' The Flywheel Effect: https://www.jimcollins.com/concepts/the-flywheel.html
Leader: Ritu Narayan, CEO, Zum
Book Selection: Clayton Christensen's The Innovator’s Dillemma: https://www.amazon.com/Innovators-Dilemma-Revolutionary-Change-Business/dp/0062060244
Leader: Jordan Justus, Automotus
Book Selection: Matt Ridley's How Innovation Works: https://www.mattridley.co.uk/books/how-innovation-works/
Leader: Catalina Cock Duque, founder, Fundacion mi Sangre
Book Selection: Otto Scharmer's Leading from the Emerging Future: https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/575194/leading-from-the-emerging-future-by-otto-scharmer-and-katrin-kaufer/
Leader: Christophe Catoir, President, Adecco
Book Selection: W. Henry Gilbert's Homo erectus: https://www.ucpress.edu/books/homo-erectus/hardcover
Leader: Kara Alaimo, Professor and author, Fairleigh Dickinson University
Book Selection: Kate Manne's Down Girl: The Logic of Misogyny: http://www.katemanne.net/down-girl.html
Book Selection: Mikki Kendall's Hood Feminism: https://www.amazon.com/Hood-Feminism-Notes-Movement-Forgot/dp/0525560548
Book Selection: Caroline Criado Perez's Invisible Women: https://www.amazon.com/Invisible-Women-Data-World-Designed/dp/1419729071
Leader: Jonathan Reckford, CEO, Habitat for Humanity
Book Selection: J. R.R. Tolkein's Lord of the Rings Series: https://www.amazon.com/Lord-Rings-Picture-Trilogy-Extended/dp/B000654ZK0
Leader: Florian Hoffman, Founder, The Do
Book Selection: Voltaire's Candide: https://www.gutenberg.org/files/19942/19942-h/19942-h.htm