New Books and Staff Picks: Our 2025 Guide to Summer Reading

With the arrival of summer 2025 and vacation season heating up, many are looking for the perfect book to accompany some summer sun.

From new and upcoming releases from our world-renowned roster of thought leaders to our staff picks of recent page turners, here are more than a dozen books to keep you reading this summer.

Technology

Cass Sunstein – “Algorithmic Harm: Protecting People in the Age of Artificial Intelligence”

Harvard Law professor Cass Sunstein and co-author Oren Bar-Gill investigate how AI and the algorithms behind them could negatively impact consumers, employees, investors and voters, offering policy and regulatory solutions that could reduce risk. (Now available)

Matt Beane – “The Skill Code: How to Save Human Ability in an Age of Intelligent Machines”

University of California, Santa Barbara technology management professor and pioneering human-robot interaction researcher Matt Beane outlines how to manage the impacts of AI on both organization as a whole and employees individually, empowering companies to work with these new systems in ways that support and improve human capital. (Now available)

Nicholas Carr – ”Superbloom: How Technologies of Connection Tear Us Apart”

Award-winning author, sociologist and researcher Nicholas Carr breaks down the unanticipated effects of the never-before-seen efficiency of how we communicate today, like why we’re instinctively drawn to, then overwhelmed by, the barrage of information that’s constantly being delivered to us. (Now available)

Paul Daugherty – “Human + Machine, Updated and Expanded: Reimagining Work in the Age of AI”

In this timely rerelease of his landmark 2018 bestseller, former Accenture Chief Technology and Innovation Officer Paul Daugherty adds updated and expanded chapters on the unprecedented influence of generative AI tools on the future of work. (Now available)

Tom Davenport – “All Hands on Tech: The AI-Powered Citizen Revolution”

Babson College operations and information management professor Tom Davenport invites business leaders to rethink their approach to innovation, shifting focus from exclusive reliance on IT departments to empowering citizen developers throughout their organizations. (Now available)

Leadership

“HBR’s 10 Must Reads on Leading Winning Teams”

This inspiring compilation of some of Harvard Business Review’s most important articles on leading winning teams includes not-to-be-missed pieces by Amy Edmondson, Ashley Goodall and Mark Mortensen. (June 17^th)

Paul Dolan – “Beliefism: How to Stop Hating the People We Disagree With”

London School of Economics and Political Science Behavioural Science professor Paul Dolan outlines effective steps for reframing differences in outlooks to better understand what makes us similar, unlocking the competitive advantage of including a diversity of people and perspectives throughout an organization. (Now available)

Alison Fragale – “Likeable Badass: How Women Get the Success They Deserve”

University of North Carolina Chapel Hill Kenan-Flagler Business School professor Alison Fragale teaches tactical and rigorous strategies for navigating complex office politics without losing the goodwill of one’s peers, helping both women and men thread the needle of kindness and competence in the workplace to earn credit for their accomplishments and negotiate better for themselves. (Now available)

Karthik Ramanna – “The Age of Outrage: How to Lead in a Polarized World”

Oxford University Blavatnik School of Government professor Karthik Ramanna provides strategies for building a managerial system in today’s increasingly divided society, helping organizations and individuals navigate the terrain of an ever more polarized world. (Now available)

Strategy

Ryan Hamilton – “The Growth Dilemma: Managing Your Brand When Different Customers Want Different Things”

Emory University Goizueta Business School marketing professor Ryan Hamilton explores the difficulty of managing the diverse needs of customers as brands grow, providing leaders with easily applicable strategies for identifying target markets and managing a diversity of customer segments. (June 10^th)

Nelson Repenning & Donald Kieffer – “There’s Got to Be a Better Way: How to Deliver Results and Get Rid of the Stuff That Gets in the Way of Real Work”

MIT Sloan School of Management professors Nelson Repenning and Donald Kieffer discuss their ground-breaking Dynamic Work Design framework, helping organizations understand their workflow to improve productivity, bring down costs and boost efficiency, all while prioritizing growth, profit and engagement. (August 26^th)

Barbara Kahn – “Visual Marketing: A Practical Guide to the Science of Branding & Retailing”

Barbara Kahn, University of Pennsylvania Wharton School of Business marketing professor, helps marketers and designers build a solid understanding of the principles of visual marketing. She reveals how visual marketing is designed to engage customers and how different strategies can affect decision-making at each touchpoint. (Now available)

Stephan Meier – “The Employee Advantage: How Putting Workers First Helps Business Thrive”

Stephan Meier, chair of Columbia Business School’s Management Division, highlights firms that emphasize an employee-centric business model that treats workers as critical stakeholders. He illustrates how companies can boost profitability and innovation while lowering turnover to become magnets for top talent. (Now available)

Global Economies & Geopolitics

Dan Wang – “Breakneck: China’s Quest to Engineer the Future”

Global technology and geopolitics researcher Dan Wang presents a timely analysis of US-China dynamics to connect the threads between many of today’s policy debates. Contrasting America’s “lawyerly society” with China’s “engineering state,” he demonstrates how these differing approaches have led both countries down greatly different paths. (August 26^th)

From cutting-edge emerging technology to sustainability, innovation and more, our globally recognized speakers and advisors from the worlds of academia, technology and business are consistently releasing new thought-provoking work. Click below and bookmark our new and upcoming books page to stay up to date with the latest thought leadership from Stern’s roster of top experts.

Whether you’re on the beach or winding down after a busy day of work this summer, having a good book handy can spark innovation, demystify new technology and entertain. Stern Strategy Group connects you with renowned thought leaders whose insights, strategies and management frameworks help organizations fuel growth and disruptive innovation to better compete in a constantly changing world. Let us arrange for these esteemed experts to advise your organization via virtual and in-person consulting sessions, workshops and keynotes.