Business Book of the Year Award 2020

ABOUT THE AWARD

2020 Business Book Of The Year Award Winner

AUTHOR: SARAH FRIER

Publisher: Random House Business (UK); Simon & Schuster (US)

No Filter tells the story of the rise of Instagram and how, in just a decade, it became the immense social and cultural influence it is today. Sarah Frier brings us behind-the-scenes access to the app’s co-founders and some of its biggest influencers. From its humble beginnings as ‘Burbn’, to being bought by Facebook for $715 million - a deal arranged over just one weekend at a barbeque in Mark Zuckerberg’s back garden - disputes and successes are laid bare.

No Filter investigates the role Instagram has played in shaping global business, with its modern ‘influencer’ economy and business model that sells an aspirational lifestyle to its users. Frier looks at the impact the app has had on popular culture and how it has warped our understanding of celebrity, putting pressure on its users to perform online. Buying Instagram was the most successful investment Facebook ever made. But, as Frier explains, we’re still learning about what it has cost the rest of us.

the shortlist

Deaths of Despair and the Future of Capitalism

by Anne Case & Angus Deaton

Princeton University Press (UK) & (US)

No Filter: The inside story of how Instagram transformed business, celebrity and our culture

by Sarah Frier

Random House Business (UK); Simon & Schuster (US)

No Rules Rules: Netflix and the Culture of Reinvention

by Reed Hastings & Erin Meyer

WH Allen, Penguin Random House (UK); Penguin Press (US)

Reimagining Capitalism: How Business Can Save the World

by Rebecca Henderson

Penguin Business, Penguin Random House (UK); PublicAffairs (US)

If Then: How one Data Company Invented the Future

by Jill Lepore

John Murray Press (UK); W.W. Norton (US)

A World Without Work: Technology, Automation and How We Should Respond

by Daniel Susskind

Allen Lane (UK); Metropolitan Books (US)

The Financial Times and McKinsey & Company Business Book of the Year Award was established in 2005. Now in its 16th year, the Award is recognised as the leading business book award and continues to build on its reputation for highlighting ground breaking books which explore important business and economic issues. The Award is given to the book that the judges agree provides ‘the most compelling and enjoyable insight into modern business issues, including management, finance and economics.’

The winner of the Financial Times and McKinsey & Company Business Book of the Year Award will receive £30,000 and the other finalists will receive £10,000.