Famous People's Book Pick: Financial Times: Business Book of the Year 2007

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Business Book of the Year 2007 Winner

The Last Tycoons, a “vivid” account of the tumultuous evolution of Lazard, the investment bank, has narrowly beaten Alan Greenspan’s The Age of Turbulence to win the 2007 Financial Times and Goldman Sachs Business Book of the Year Award.

The Last Tycoons by William D. Cohan

"The book is a no-holds-barred account of the rise of Lazard Frères, the investment bank.

Mr Cohan, a former junior Lazard banker, not only knows where the bodies were buried but got a guided tour of the graveyard from Lazard’s big names, past and present.

At 740-odd pages the result is long, but one sympathises. What should have been left out? The account of Felix Rohatyn’s jealous clash with Steve Rattner, conducted through various magazines? Or Mr Rohatyn’s affairs, culminating in one occasion when Andre Meyer banged on his locked door to shout: ”Felix, why don’t you go to a hotel room like the rest of my partners?”

Mr Cohan dutifully records passing events in the outside world, such as the near-bankruptcy of New York, which Mr Rohatyn averted, and various mergers and acquisitions. But the interesting action was taking place in Lazard’s allegedly dingy (they never seemed that bad to me) offices in the Rockefeller Center, where the ”great men” who advised big companies plied their trade."

Source:

http://www.ft.com

Business Book of the Year 2007 Finnalist

The Age Of Turbulence: Adventures In A New World by Alan Greenspan

"The book was published on 17 September and has already created a stir in political and economic circles.

The chapters that make up the autobiography are captivating. The style is clear, with few echoes of the magisterially ambiguous “Fedspeak” for which Mr Greenspan was renowned when in office. We learn how the boy who memorised baseball scores and railway timetables became the Fed chairman who saw in the micro-data evidence of a US productivity take-off in the mid-1990s and adjusted monetary policy accordingly – arguably his greatest achievement.

The analytical chapters are more uneven. The country analysis is not by Mr Greenspan’s standards earth-shattering; his discussion of the economics of global warming incomplete and unsatisfactory. [But] at times he touches on the profound, asking why, for all capitalism’s material success, we have not been able to rediscover the 19th century’s optimism that free markets and free societies will bring a broader measure of human progress."

The Black Swan: The Impact Of The Highly Improbable by Nassim Nicholas Taleb

(IT books, nonfiction)

"Taleb’s latest bestseller describes how we underestimate at our peril the risk of highly improbable events.

Taleb’s writing is full of irrelevances, asides and colloquialisms, reading like the conversation of a raconteur rather than a tightly argued thesis. But it is hugely enjoyable - compelling but easy to dip into."

Immigrants: Your Country Needs Them by Philippe Legrain

(economics, business books, nonfiction)

"The book argues for freer migration, one of the most emotive topics in the political and business world.

In a thought-provoking new book, Philippe Legrain, takes a bold position [on immigration]: let them all in. He performs an invaluable service: he makes a good case for the unpopular cause of free flows of people. The book is a superb combination of direct reportage with detailed analysis of the evidence."

Wikinomics: How Mass Collaboration Changes Everything by Anthony D. Williams

(communications, business books, IT books, health, management, science)

"The book explains how internet-based collaboration can be harnessed to produce even more innovative content, products and services."

Zoom by Iain Carson

(economics, business books, nonfiction, science)

"The book describes how Big Oil and the world’s carmarkers are striving to meet the challenge of developing new fuels and technologies."