Scott Galloway Recommended Books

"A masterly book" --Nassim Nicholas Taleb, author of The Black Swan"A classic" --Simon Kuper, Financial Times In the spirit of On Bullshit and Assholes: A Theory, an economist explores the five laws that confirm our worst fears: stupid people can and do rule the worldSince time immemorial, a powerful dark force has hindered the growth of human welfare and happiness. It is more powerful than the Mafia or the military. It has global catastrophic effects and can be found anywhere from the world's most powerful boardrooms to your local pub. This is the immensely powerful force of human stupidity.Seeing the shambolic state of human affairs, and sensing the dark force at work behind it, Carlo M. Cipolla, the late, noted professor of economic history at the University of California, Berkeley, created a vitally important economic model that would allow us to detect, know, and neutralize this threat: The Basic Laws of Human Stupidity.If you've ever found yourself despairing at the ubiquity of stupidity among even the most 'intellectual' of people, then this hilarious, timely, and slightly alarming little book is for you. Arm yourself in the face of baffling political realities, unreasonable colleagues, or the unbridled misery of Christmas day with the in-laws with the first and only economic model for stupidity."Cipolla's subtle tongue-in-cheek humor made this book an underground classic in Italy. Today, under current worldwide political trends, it reads more like black humor. Keep in mind: reliable statistical data shows that 98% of the people seriously believe that they are far less stupid than the average." --Carlo Rovelli, author of Seven Brief Lessons on Physics

From Thurber finalist and former star Time columnist Joel Stein comes a " brilliant exploration" (Walter Isaacson) of America's political culture war and a hilarious call to arms for the elite."I can think of no one more suited to defend elitism than Stein, a funny man with hands as delicate as a baby full of soft-boiled eggs." —Jimmy Kimmel, host of Jimmy Kimmel Live!The night Donald Trump won the presidency, our author Joel Stein, Thurber Prize finalist and former staff writer for Time Magazine, instantly knew why. The main reason wasn't economic anxiety or racism. It was that he was anti-elitist. Hillary Clinton represented Wall Street, academics, policy papers, Davos, international treaties and the people who think they're better than you. People like Joel Stein. Trump represented something far more appealing, which was beating up people like Joel Stein.In a full-throated defense of academia, the mainstream press, medium-rare steak, and civility, Joel Stein fights against populism. He fears a new tribal elite is coming to replace him, one that will fend off expertise of all kinds and send the country hurtling backward to a time of wars, economic stagnation and the well-done steaks doused with ketchup that Trump eats.To find out how this shift happened and what can be done, Stein spends a week in Roberts County, Texas, which had the highest percentage of Trump voters in the country. He goes to the home of Trump-loving Dilbert cartoonist Scott Adams; meets people who create fake news; and finds the new elitist organizations merging both right and left to fight the populists. All the while using the biggest words he knows.

“A candid, behind-the-scenes look at how successful direct-to-consumer brands such as Hubble are launching their businesses on platforms like Facebook and Google.”—Lisa Sherman, president and CEO, the Ad Council LONGLISTED FOR THE PORCHLIGHT BUSINESS BOOK AWARD • “A must-read for anyone interested in starting a new business.”—Moiz Ali, CEO, Native E-commerce startups have exploded in the marketplace, selling merchandise and services directly to consumers, often through mobile phones. They skip the middlemen, avoid the lower margins of retail channels of distribution, strike deals directly with manufacturers and suppliers, and, in doing so, save consumers money. Among the companies that are part of this e-commerce revolution are Dollar Shave Club, Casper, Quip, Peloton, and Hubble Contacts. In Selling Naked, Hubble Contacts co-founder and co-CEO Jesse Horwitz shows entrepreneurs and enterprise companies alike precisely how to conceive, launch, and grow an e-commerce brand by using paid marketing social media channels. Horwitz shows entrepreneurs how to test consumer interest before spending a dime by placing mock ads on Facebook and other social media. Using this method, Hubble Contacts got an astonishing two thousand signups in four days, and as a result, raised $3.5 million in seed money. Hubble ran a second experiment to see if consumers would actually sign up for the service, which led to a second multimillion-dollar investment. Horwitz shows how startups can cut through the metrics bullshit to focus on the one metric that really matters; how to use third-party tools rather than build everything from scratch; and how to tell a great story to investors and frame your digital offering. In addition to running Hubble, Jesse Horwitz now works with established Fortune 500 enterprises to help build their e-commerce brands within the landscape of a larger retail environment. Selling Naked is the definitive playbook on how to start up a successful direct-to-consumer business.

The business world is at an important crossroads. The age of the stakeholder is rapidly superseding that of the shareholder as climate change and political and societal shifts upend years of seeming prosperity. To move past this agitated age, business and society must learn to lead sustainably by putting purpose on equal footing with profit. The first step is understanding what’s meant by sustainability and how it offers an opportunity for both business and society. Inspired by the launch of the 2030 United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), the book captures the ideas of more than 100 change makers from around the world about how business is putting sustainability at the core of strategy to survive, thrive, and realign its interests with society’s. Leading Sustainably looks at how sustainability has evolved in a business context, offering powerful insights, key facts, and guidance on building sustainability capability within companies, measuring and managing impact, sustainable finance’s transformation, and other topics critical to aligning businesses’ central activities with sustainable principles. The book introduces five vignettes profiling best-in-class companies that were sustainable from the start and international case studies on business sustainability efforts, spanning industries from hospitality to waste management, fashion, finance, and more. Finally, Bridges and Eubank provide frameworks and in-depth direction firms can leverage when accelerating their transition to more sustainable business models. The book is a perfect guide for mid-level to senior managers seeking to understand this fast-changing business environment, how to factor sustainability into their decision-making, and why the SDGs changed everything.

An urgent and witty manifesto, Monopolies Suck “lucidly explains how monopolies threaten democracy, worsen inequality, and imperil the American Dream—and why it’s more important than ever to take action” (David Cicilline).Something’s not right. No matter how hard you work, life seems to only get harder. When your expenses keep going up but your income stays flat, when you’re price-gouged buying medicine for your child’s life-threatening allergy, when you live in a hyped-up state of fear and anxiety, monopoly power is playing a key role. In Monopolies Suck , antitrust expert and director at the Open Markets Institute, Sally Hubbard, shows us the seven ways big corporations rule our lives—and what must be done to stop them.Throughout history, monopolists who controlled entire industries like railroads and oil were aptly called “robber barons” because they extracted wealth from everyone else—and today’s monopolies are no different. By charging high prices, skirting taxes, and reducing our pay and economic opportunities, they are not only stealing our money, but also robbing us of innovation and choice, as market dominance prevents new companies from challenging them. They’re robbing us of the ability to take care of our sick, a healthy food supply, and a habitable planet by using business practices that deplete rather than generate. They’re a threat to our private lives, fair elections, a robust press, and ultimately, the American Dream that so many of us are striving for.In this “accessible guide” (Zephyr Teachout, author of Break ‘Em Up ), Sally Hubbard gives us an easy-to-understand overview of the history of monopolies and antitrust law, and urges us to use our voices, votes, and wallets to protest monopoly power. Emboldened by the previous century when we successfully broke up monopoly power in the US, we have the tools to dismantle corporate power again today—before their lobbying threatens to undermine our economy and democracy for generations to come.

"[Jonathan Taplin] was the one who made Mean Streets and The Last Waltz possible, for which I will always be grateful. We had quite a few adventures on both projects, and they’re all chronicled in this memoir of his colorful life in show business." —Martin Scorsese " The Magic Years reads like a Magical Mystery Tour of music, loss, beauty, family, justice, and social upheaval." —Rosanne Cash Jonathan Taplin’s extraordinary journey has put him at the crest of every major cultural wave in the past half he was tour manager for Bob Dylan and the Band in the ’60s, producer of major films in the ’70s, an executive at Merrill Lynch in the ’80s, creator of the Internet’s first video-on-demand service in the ’90s, and a cultural critic and author writing about technology in the new millennium. His is a lifetime marked not only by good timing but by impeccable instincts—from the folk scene to Woodstock, Hollywood’s rebellious film movement, and beyond. Taplin is not just a witness but a lifelong producer, the right-hand man to some of the greatest talents of both pop culture and the underground. With cameos by Janis Joplin, Jimi Hendrix, Eric Clapton, Martin Scorsese, and countless other icons, The Magic Years is both a rock memoir and a work of cultural criticism from a key player who watched a nation turn from idealism to nihilism. Taplin offers a clear-eyed roadmap of how we got here and makes a convincing case for art’s power to deliver us from “passionless detachment” and rekindle our humanism.

From the Wall Street Journal's Tripp Mickle, the dramatic, untold story inside Apple after the passing of Steve Jobs by following his top lieutenants--Jony Ive, the Chief Design Officer, and Tim Cook, the COO-turned-CEO--and how the fading of the former and the rise of the latter led to Apple losing its soul.Steve Jobs called Jony Ive his "spiritual partner at Apple." The London-born genius was the second-most powerful person at Apple and the creative force who most embodies Jobs's spirit, the man who designed the products adopted by hundreds of millions the world over: the iPod, iPad, MacBook Air, the iMac G3, and the iPhone. In the wake of his close collaborator's death, the chief designer wrestled with grief and initially threw himself into his work designing the new Apple headquarters and the Watch before losing his motivation in a company increasingly devoted more to margins than to inspiration.In many ways, Cook was Ive's opposite. The product of a small Alabama town, he had risen through the ranks from the supply side of the company. His gift was not the creation of new products. Instead, he had invented countless ways to maximize a margin, squeezing some suppliers, persuading others to build factories the size of cities to churn out more units. He considered inventory evil. He knew how to make subordinates sweat with withering questions.Jobs selected Cook as his successor, and Cook oversaw a period of tremendous revenue growth that has lifted Apple's valuation to $2 trillion. He built a commanding business in China and rapidly distinguished himself as a master politician who could forge global alliances and send the world's stock market into freefall with a single sentence.Author Tripp Mickle spoke with more than 200 current and former Apple executives, as well as figures key to this period of Apple's history, including Trump administration officials and fashion luminaries such as Anna Wintour while writing After Steve. His research shows the company's success came at a cost. Apple lost its innovative spirit and has not designed a new category of device in years. Ive's departure in 2019 marked a culmination in Apple's shift from a company of innovation to one of operational excellence, and the price is a company that has lost its soul.

You Should Smile How to Dismantle Gender Bias in the Workplace empowers women and men to unlock a culture of greatness in the workforce—one little thing at a time. Written by six C-suite women with a collective resume covering 29 industries, the book offers a completely new lens through which to talk about and tackle the stubborn remnants of gender bias at work.“In the business world, barriers to inclusion are barriers to success,” states a line from the book’s Introduction. “Diversity breeds better solutions faster if people feel comfortable in their environment.” But from small indignities to unconscious slights, women experience situations at work every day that may seem small or unimportant but that effectively differentiate and exclude them. These are not #MeToo moments - they are micro-offenses; the small, awkward, or uncomfortable moments that slow-build until the unwelcome environment takes hold and women disengage.Situations the authors address range from things like use of the term “girl” versus “woman,” watching male colleagues leave work for a social event where women colleagues were left off the invite list or hearing that a qualified woman shouldn’t be offered an assignment because she has small children at home. You Should Smile More shows witnesses, allies, supervisors, and women at every level in their careers how to dismantle everyday gender bias, based upon the latest research, personal accounts, and interviews with dozens of professionals, both women and men.Widely known as a meme, the title itself is now a call-to-action against the very advice women so frequently hear from male colleagues or bosses. The authors spotlight these all-too-familiar moments, offering realistic strategies every witness can use to confront and productively address them. The information within the book finally advances women in the corporate workplace as equals and advances organizations on the path to creating cultures of true inclusion.The authors call themselves “The Band of Sisters” and have collectively seen it all, from the bottom rung to the boardroom. They know firsthand how hard it is to navigate these gendered situations in the moment. Now they share their experience with a forward-looking eye -- often with humor, and in a way that recognizes the realities of the workplace.With this book as a guide, The Band of Sisters are ready + Help anyone to recognize and effectively respond to these micro-moments rooted in gender bias.+ Pave the way for their ultimate elimination, through shared participation.+ Allow organizations to build high-performance cultures that truly value and include diverse perspectives and experiences.Gender bias has been part of our workplaces for too long. We are at the point now where all of us who are in the workplace, around conference tables, water coolers and in Zoom meetings, must make the next push for real change.