·Work, Careers & Personal Mastery
The Best Business Books of 2025
Ten essential reads on money, leadership, and navigating a changing world
DS
D Shivakumar
Operating Partner | Advent International
DS
D Shivakumar
Operating Partner | Advent International
Shivakumar is Operating Partner at Advent International. Before this, he was President (Corporate Strategy and Business Development) at Aditya Birla Group. Earlier assignments include: Chairman & CEO at Pepsico India and prior to that, Managing Director at Nokia India. Before joining Nokia, he worked with consumer electronics maker Philips and top consumer goods firm Hindustan Unilever. He is an engineer from IIT Chennai and an MBA from IIM Calcutta.
Shivakumar has written three books: Reflections - a collection of Shivs articles; The Right Choice - Resolving Ten Career Dilemmas; and The Art of Management. The latter two are business bestsellers.
My Work at Founding Fuel
·Work, Careers & Personal Mastery
The Art of Public Speaking
Insights from the book ‘Say It Well’ by Terry Szuplat, Barack Obama’s speechwriter
DS
D Shivakumar
Operating Partner | Advent International
·Business & Strategy
The Power of Like
Insights from Martin Reeves and Bob Goodson’s new book, ‘Like’
DS
D Shivakumar
Operating Partner | Advent International
·Leadership & Organisation
Character is about who we choose to be
Insights from General Stanley McChrystal’s new book ‘On Character: Choices That Define a Life’. The book is in Shivakumar’s list of best books of summer 2025
DS
D Shivakumar
Operating Partner | Advent International
·Leadership & Organisation
My 10 best business books of summer 2025
On what makes a leader, how to stop wasting energy on the wrong things, speaking well, the history of attention, understanding India’s economic planning, and more
DS
D Shivakumar
Operating Partner | Advent International
·Economy, Policy & Society
The global trends to watch in 2025
Insights from The Economist’s report ‘The World Ahead 2025’
DS
D Shivakumar
Operating Partner | Advent International
·Business & Strategy
My top ten business books of 2024
The best books of the year on how the past informs the future, tackling tough situations, and technology
DS
D Shivakumar
Operating Partner | Advent International
·Economy, Policy & Society
The new business theme: Love the product, hate the producer
Insights from economist John Kay’s new book ‘The Corporation in the 21st Century’
DS
D Shivakumar
Operating Partner | Advent International
·Technology & the Future
The Age of Information
Insights from Yuval Noah Harari’s book ‘Nexus: A Brief History of Information Networks from the Stone Age to AI’
DS
D Shivakumar
Operating Partner | Advent International
·Work, Careers & Personal Mastery
How to reinvent your career
Insights from Herminia Ibarra’s book, ‘working Identity’
DS
D Shivakumar
Operating Partner | Advent International
·Work, Careers & Personal Mastery
The principles of excellence
Insights from sportswriter Sally Jenkins’ book ‘The Right Call: What Sports Teach Us About Work and Life’
DS
D Shivakumar
Operating Partner | Advent International
·Work, Careers & Personal Mastery
Why being process-driven trumps being results-oriented
Insights on high-performance, distilled from Dr Dana Sinclair’s latest book
DS
D Shivakumar
Operating Partner | Advent International
·Work, Careers & Personal Mastery
My 6 best business books of summer 2024
The best books of the year so far, on being better, power of rituals, bad leaders, thriving, and being super communicators
DS
D Shivakumar
Operating Partner | Advent International
·Business & Strategy
Eight best business books of 2023
An annual round up of the most memorable books of the year
DS
D Shivakumar
Operating Partner | Advent International
·Entrepreneurship, Startups & Innovation
The risk taker
What makes Elon Musk tick? Insights from the biography by Walter Isaacson
DS
D Shivakumar
Operating Partner | Advent International
·FF Life
My six summer must-read books of 2023
FF Life: My choice of the 2023 summer books is reflective of the times we live in and the key topics on executives’ minds
DS
D Shivakumar
Operating Partner | Advent International
·Business & Strategy
12 Deadly Sins That Bedevil Incumbents
Here’s a pattern that I’ve observed throughout my career: incumbents mostly lose; they somehow survive but don’t thrive. An incumbent growing faster than the market over a decade is more an exception, rather than the rule.
DS
D Shivakumar
Operating Partner | Advent International
·Work, Careers & Personal Mastery
A personal brand is a must
It is the intersection of what you say about yourself and what others say about you
DS
D Shivakumar
Operating Partner | Advent International
·Leadership & Organisation
The Top 10 business and leadership books of 2022
Books about a fearless industrialist, building a great culture, regret and fulfilment, building careers, world strategy, reinventing work, and becoming a strategist
DS
D Shivakumar
Operating Partner | Advent International
·Economy, Policy & Society
Top Ten books of 2021
This year’s list reflects and helps us decode a lot that has changed since the pandemic
DS
D Shivakumar
Operating Partner | Advent International
·Leadership & Organisation
‘A leader’s role is to shape the decades ahead, not just react to the present’
Insights from Indra Nooyi’s memoir ‘My Life in Full’, on leadership in a world “where authority and brilliance, to many people, still look like an older gentleman”
DS
D Shivakumar
Operating Partner | Advent International
·Work, Careers & Personal Mastery
My five summer books of 2021
Nobel laureate Jennifer Doudna's work on gene editing; the courage to stand up for what's right; which habits will stay, which will change; adaptive leadership; and giving your career a different direction
DS
D Shivakumar
Operating Partner | Advent International
·Leadership & Organisation
The 10 best business and leadership books of 2020
An inside look at US presidency, leadership, changing trends, and life after the pandemic
DS
D Shivakumar
Operating Partner | Advent International
·Leadership & Organisation
‘Trust is not a matter of morality, but of predictability’
Predicting behaviour isn’t rocket science, say Robin Dreeke and Cameron Stauth in their book, ‘Sizing People Up’. It is a social science, and requires you to apply the right equation of logic, strategy, scepticism, observational skills, and the ability to accept unwelcome truths
DS
D Shivakumar
Operating Partner | Advent International
·Work, Careers & Personal Mastery
How to live better into old age
In their book ‘The New Long Life’, Andrew Scott and Lynda Gratton say, as individuals and as a society, we need to reimagine work, career, learning and relationships, among other things. And both the young and the old will need to share the burden and opportunities of longer lives
DS
D Shivakumar
Operating Partner | Advent International
·Business & Strategy
My five summer business books
A history of GDP; pursuing social value; inside Samsung; how longer life is redefining life, learning and work; the four-day work week
DS
D Shivakumar
Operating Partner | Advent International
·Leadership & Organisation
For good leadership, principles need to be a notch above the rules
Technology is changing the rules of business. But business leaders aren’t skilling themselves for the new world. And without principles, the company won’t go anywhere
DS
D Shivakumar
Operating Partner | Advent International
·Work, Careers & Personal Mastery
What you can do in uncertain situations
Three great books on handling uncertainty
DS
D Shivakumar
Operating Partner | Advent International
·Business & Strategy
Anticipating inflection points
Insights from Columbia Business School professor Rita McGrath’s book ‘Seeing Around Corners: How to Spot Inflection Points in Business Before They Happen’
DS
D Shivakumar
Operating Partner | Advent International
·Economy, Policy & Society
The global trends to watch in 2020
Insights from The Economist’s report ‘The World in 2020’
DS
D Shivakumar
Operating Partner | Advent International
·Leadership & Organisation
Ten best business books of 2019
What Uber, Netflix and Walt Disney Company show us about thriving in a tech world; leadership skills for sustainable success; and how human behaviour shapes decisions
DS
D Shivakumar
Operating Partner | Advent International
·Work, Careers & Personal Mastery
Becoming indistractable
Nir Eyal wrote the definitive book on how to design tech products that will get people hooked. His latest book ‘Indistractable’ has advice on how to avoid digital distractions and hold our own in this war for our attention. Some insights from the book
DS
D Shivakumar
Operating Partner | Advent International
·Leadership & Organisation
Bosses need to be coaches in the new workplace
Insights from Jim Clifton and Jim Harter’s book ‘It’s the Manager’. The book is based on the largest global study by Gallup on the future of work
DS
D Shivakumar
Operating Partner | Advent International
·Leadership & Organisation
‘The power of coaching is to offer a different perspective’
Google’s Eric Schmidt, Jonathan Rosenberg and Alan Eagle share what they learnt from their mentor, legendary coach Bill Campbell, in their book ‘Trillion Dollar Coach’
DS
D Shivakumar
Operating Partner | Advent International
·Leadership & Organisation
Must reads: Five books on the surprising traits of best employees & leaders
The best books of 2019 (so far) on finding people with unique strengths, coaching, productive meetings, and bad bosses
DS
D Shivakumar
Operating Partner | Advent International
·Leadership & Organisation
Forging strong, compassionate leaders
In their book, ‘Character Carved in Stone’, Pat Williams and Jim Denney talk about the values the United States Military Academy at West Point cultivates to make strong leaders
DS
D Shivakumar
Operating Partner | Advent International
·Leadership & Organisation
Top 10 Business Books of 2018
Books about the evolution of India's billionaires, understanding data, shared values, the economy, organisational culture, the risks and rewards of technology, and the rise of strongmen
DS
D Shivakumar
Operating Partner | Advent International
·Leadership & Organisation
Talent drives strategy in the digital era. Is HR ready?
Today business strategy means sensing new opportunities, and people are the key to creating value. So how do you approach human capital in this new era? Corporate guru Ram Charan, McKinsey’s Dominic Barton and Korn Ferry’s Dennis Carey explore in their book ‘Talent Wins’
DS
D Shivakumar
Operating Partner | Advent International
·Economy, Policy & Society
The trends to watch in 2018
Insights into the forces that will shape the world, from The Economist report, ‘The World in 2018’
DS
D Shivakumar
Operating Partner | Advent International
·Technology & the Future
Disruptive tech: There’s hope for the future. But fear too
We are facing an avalanche of disruptive technologies. But adapting to change will not be easy. Sometimes it will even seem traumatic. Some insights from Vivek Wadhwa with Alex Salkever's book ‘The Driver in the Driverless Car’
DS
D Shivakumar
Operating Partner | Advent International
·Entrepreneurship, Startups & Innovation
Celebrate authentic failures
In his new book ‘A Biography of Innovations’ R Gopalakrishnan, former Tata Sons executive director, talks about learning from mistakes and the importance of intellectual curiosity, collective ingenuity and storytelling
DS
D Shivakumar
Operating Partner | Advent International
·Work, Careers & Personal Mastery
Get Smart: Making effective decisions
Think long term, plan for success based on real facts, and have clear goals, says Brian Tracy in his book ‘Get Smart!: How to Think and Act Like the Most Successful and Highest-Paid People in Every Field’
DS
D Shivakumar
Operating Partner | Advent International
·FF Life
‘Playing boldly is a philosophy’: Life lessons from golf legend Arnold Palmer
Nicknamed The King, Arnold Palmer played a big role in making golf popular and not just a game for the elite. His rivalry with Gary Player and Jack Nicklaus is legendary. In his memoir ‘A Life Well Played’, he shares his experiences
DS
D Shivakumar
Operating Partner | Advent International
·Business & Strategy
How Nokia rewrote its story
In his book ‘Against All Odds’, Nokia’s former CEO Jorma Ollila chronicles how a troubled conglomerate engaged in rubber, cable, forestry, electronics and power generation businesses became a global mobile phone behemoth, but lost out to the iPhone
DS
D Shivakumar
Operating Partner | Advent International
·Leadership & Organisation
Making tough calls in business and life
In his book ‘Managing in the Gray’, HBS ethics professor Joseph L Badaracco presents a framework to arrive at the best possible decisions in a hard situation
DS
D Shivakumar
Operating Partner | Advent International
·Leadership & Organisation
When growth leads to a slowdown, how do you tackle the paradox?
In their book ‘The Founder’s Mentality’, Chris Zook and James Allen, partners in Bain & Company, talk about what leaders can do for sustainable and profitable growth
DS
D Shivakumar
Operating Partner | Advent International
·Leadership & Organisation
Ask these questions to make your coaching and leadership effective
Coaching is an essential leadership skill. And questions are a good way to open doors, says Michael Bungay Stanier in his book ‘The Coaching Habit’
DS
D Shivakumar
Operating Partner | Advent International
·Entrepreneurship, Startups & Innovation
When Nike just did it
Quick takes from the book ‘Shoe Dog’, Phil Knight’s account of creating Nike
DS
D Shivakumar
Operating Partner | Advent International
·Leadership & Organisation
The secret of power: Not ruthlessness, but empathy
American psychologist Dacher Keltner says, those who gain power are the ones who work for the good of others. But paradoxically, power can lead to selfishness—and loss of power
DS
D Shivakumar
Operating Partner | Advent International
·Leadership & Organisation
Building a business in complicated times
Dynamic times call for dynamic leadership. Here are some insights from the book ‘The Hard Thing About Hard Things’ by Ben Horowitz, co-founder of venture capital firm Andreessen Horowitz
DS
D Shivakumar
Operating Partner | Advent International