THIS MONTH'S PAGE-TURNERS ON BUSINESS AND BEYOND

When ticket prices foil your summer getaway plans, where do you turn to escape? If it’s toward a good book, we want to know which one. Email us at newideas@mckinsey.com to let us know what’s on your bookshelf, and we’ll let you know what’s on ours (stay tuned for our annual summer reading list, coming soon). Need some inspiration for your new favorite read? Catch up on this month’s Author Talks, which covers business strategies for the digital age, achieving financial independence by 40, and much more. Don’t miss an interview with Robert Samuels and Toluse Olorunnipa, authors of the long-awaited biography, His Name Is George Floyd, plus this month’s bestselling business books, prepared exclusively for McKinsey by NPD BookScan. Itching for more good reads? Check out McKinsey on Books for the latest, and to get Readers & Leaders in your inbox monthly, click here to subscribe.

AUTHOR TALKS

George Floyd was unique in his spirit, but not in his condition, say Robert Samuels and Toluse Olorunnipa, co-authors of His Name Is George Floyd: One Man’s Life and the Struggle for Racial Justice (Viking, May 2022). In a recent edition of Author Talks, the Washington Post journalists break down how the societal structures that oppressed Floyd continue to impact Black men and women in America—from public education and healthcare to the criminal justice system and beyond.

“George Floyd was suffocating for decades in America as a result of various institutions that we all play a role in upholding, we all play a role in defending, and we all play a role in constructing. … It is incumbent upon policy makers—and all of us, as Americans—to think about how we improve those systems and make sure that people who are like George Floyd aren’t left behind the way he was by a number of systems.” —Toluse Olorunnipa. Watch the full interview.

IT BEARS REPEATING

“On average, most people are exposed to around 6,000 to 10,000 advertisements a day. You’re always going to be bombarded by enticing messages that seem as if they’re designed just for you, that come at the right moment, and that derail you from some other way of spending your money. It’s important to have a clear purpose for your income as a defense mechanism against all of the other interruptions you’re experiencing on a daily basis.”

—Julien Saunders, co-author with Kiersten Saunders of Cashing Out: Win the Wealth Game by Walking Away, in a recent edition of Author Talks.

IN CASE YOU MISSED IT

Roger Martin explores fresh frameworks for business management: “I think it’s a myth that you can design a strategy that will for sure work in the future. … It unfolds as it will. So all strategy can do is improve your odds or shorten your odds.” Watch the full interview.

Tsedal Neeley says not to fear a robot takeover: “For far too long we’ve worried: Will machines replace us? Is automation going to be the end of many of our careers? But the reality we’re seeing years into this digital ecosystem, or digital context, is that people who have a digital mindset will be the ones who will be leading the way, compared to people without a digital mindset.” Watch the full interview.

Dr. Jenny Wang shines a light on America’s ‘invisible race’: “As Asian Americans … it’s been said that we are people who, due to our proximity to Whiteness, have kind of bought into this idea that our race didn’t matter, that if we just worked hard enough and if our competency was sufficient, then we wouldn’t be judged by our race. Over the course of the pandemic, we realized that was not true.” Watch the full interview.

Kathryn Finney explains how she succeeded in entrepreneurship without compromising her values: “Having been in the start-up community for a while, there’s this belief that you have to be a jerk or you have to be a certain type of person to be successful in this space. I don’t believe that at all. I think you can be brilliant at your work, but you can be a good person, too.” Watch the full interview.

Daniel Coyle distills cooperation tactics from the world’s top teams into actionable insights for company culture: “A Navy SEAL commander named Dave Cooper told me the four most important words any leader can say are, ‘I screwed that up,’ which is really, really powerful, because it gives people permission to tell the truth.” Watch the full interview.

Marcus Buckingham argues that love and work can—and should—go hand in hand: “When you’re in love with another human, it makes you feel safe, it makes you feel inquisitive, and it makes you feel uplifted. It’s the same cocktail when you’re doing something that you love.” Watch the full interview.

BUSINESS BESTSELLERS TOP

Water, SPF, and a good book. Hit the beach with the top business bestsellers in eight categories, prepared exclusively for McKinsey by NPD BookScan. Explore the full lists on McKinsey on Books.

BUSINESS OVERALL

Atomic Habits: An Easy & Proven Way To Build Good Habits & Break Bad Ones by James Clear (Avery Publishing Group)

BUSINESS HARDCOVER

Atomic Habits: An Easy & Proven Way To Build Good Habits & Break Bad Ones by James Clear (Avery Publishing Group)

DECISION MAKING

Blink: The Power of Thinking Without Thinking by Malcolm Gladwell (Hachette Book Group)

ECONOMICS

Basic Economics: A Common Sense Guide to the Economy by Thomas Sowell (Hachette Book Group)

ORGANIZATIONAL BEHAVIOR

Atomic Habits: An Easy & Proven Way To Build Good Habits & Break Bad Ones by James Clear (Penguin Group USA)

WORKPLACE CULTURE

Who Moved My Cheese?: An Amazing Way to Deal with Change in Your Work and in Your Life by Spencer Johnson (Penguin Group USA)

DIVERSITY & INCLUSION

Caste (Oprah’s Book Club): The Origins of Our Discontents by Isabel Wilkerson (Random House)

SUSTAINABILITY

Net Positive: How Courageous Companies Thrive by Giving More Than They Take by Paul Polman and Andrew Winston (Harvard Business Review Press)

BOOKMARK THIS

If you’d like to propose a book or author for #McKAuthorTalks, please email us at Author_Talks@Mckinsey.com. Due to the high volume of requests, we will respond only to those being considered.

—Edited by Molly Liebergall, a digial editor in McKinsey’s New York office

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