Business Book of the Year

This annual Award, promoted by the Financial Times and McKinsey & Company, now in its 18th year, aims to identify the book that provides the most compelling and enjoyable insight into modern business issues, including management, finance and economics.

WINNER 2023

Forget 'fail fast, fail often'. This revolutionary book reveals how we get failure wrong - and how to get it right. We used to think of failure as a problem, to be avoided at all costs. Now, we're often told that failure is desirable - that we must 'fail fast, fail often'. The trouble is, neither approach distinguishes the good failures from the bad. As a result, we miss the opportunity to fail well. Here, Amy Edmondson - the world's most influential organisational psychologist - reveals how we get failure wrong, and how to get it right. She draws on a lifetime's research into the science of 'psychological safety' to show that the most successful cultures are those in which you can fail openly, without your mistakes being held against you. She introduces the three archetypes of failure - simple, complex and intelligent - and explains how to harness the revolutionary potential of the good ones (and eliminate the bad). And she tells vivid stories ranging from the history of open heart surgery to the Columbia Space Shuttle disaster, all to ask a simple, provocative question: What if it is only by learning to fail that we can hope to truly succeed? 

- Browns Books Synopsis

The judges will give preference to those books whose insights and influence are most likely to stand the test of time. The winning author will receive an award of £30,000 and shortlisted authors will receive £10,000. Where a title has more than one author the prize money will be divided equally between the authors.

- Financial Times