The Best Business Books of 2025
Ten essential reads on money, leadership, and navigating a changing world
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 contributions
71 articles written
The Art of Public Speaking
Insights from the book ‘Say It Well’ by Terry Szuplat, Barack Obama’s speechwriter
The Power of Like
Insights from Martin Reeves and Bob Goodson’s new book, ‘Like’
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
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
The global trends to watch in 2025
Insights from The Economist’s report ‘The World Ahead 2025’
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
The new business theme: Love the product, hate the producer
Insights from economist John Kay’s new book ‘The Corporation in the 21st Century’
The Age of Information
Insights from Yuval Noah Harari’s book ‘Nexus: A Brief History of Information Networks from the Stone Age to AI’
How to reinvent your career
Insights from Herminia Ibarra’s book, ‘working Identity’