Nicole Perlroth’s sober investigation into the cyber arms race, This is how they told me the world ended, has been voted Financial Times and McKinsey Business Book of the Year for 2021.
The judges praised Perlroth’s unprecedented in-depth analysis, which they said opened the eyes to the possibility of a cyber disaster.
Roula Khalaf, FT editor and jury chair, said: “Cybersecurity is not high on CEOs’ agendas. I hope this award motivates them to read this book and pay attention.”
In the foreword to the book published by Bloomsbury, Perlroth hopes it will shine “a flash of light into the highly secretive and largely invisible cyberweapons industry to us. . . maybe have some much needed conversation now, before it’s too late.”
NS £30,000 prize, first presented in 2005, is the book that presents “the most engaging and interesting insight” into business issues.
Magnus Tyreman, McKinsey’s managing partner in Europe, who presented the prize to Perlroth at a ceremony in London, said it was “an alarming book” that “offers a compelling case, cost-wise detail and reality for how vulnerable global computer systems have become, even if it also comes with a plea for concrete and systematic action.”
Also at the ceremony, scholars Ines Lee and Eileen Tipoe received the sum of £15,000 Bracken Bower Award for best business book recommendations by authors under the age of 35 for No rank, on the future of higher education.
Tony Danker, General Manager of CBI, the UK business association, was the guest speaker.
Authors of five other people list book received 10,000 pounds. The other finalists are: World for sale, by Javier Blas and Jack Farchy, about the commodity boom; Empire of Pain, by Patrick Radden Keefe, on Purdue Pharma, the Sackler family, and the opioid epidemic; Conversation, by Robert Livingston, on race and racism in the workplace and in society; New climate war, by Michael E Mann, on how to deal with climate change; and The aristocracy of talent, by Adrian Wooldridge, on the backlash against the arbitration regime.
Last year’s winner was Sarah Frier for No filter, her analysis of the growth of the social media company Instagram and its takeover by Facebook.
The other judges for the 2021 awards are: Mimi Alemayehou, senior vice president of public-private partnerships at the humanitarian and development group Mastercard; Mitchell Baker, chief executive officer, Mozilla Corporation; Mohamed El-Erian, president, Queens’ College, Cambridge, and advisor to Allianz and Gramercy; Herminia Ibarra, professor of organizational behavior, London Business School; James Kondo, president, Japan International House; Randall Kroszner, professor of economics and associate dean of executive programs at the University of Chicago’s Booth School of Business; Raju Narisetti, publisher, global publishing, McKinsey; and Shriti Vadera, President, Prudential.
