Stephen Boyle wins the Bracken Bower Prize 2020
The Financial Times and McKinsey & Company today announce that Sarah Frier is the winner of the 2020 Business Book of the Year Award for No Filter: The Inside Story of How Instagram Transformed Business, Celebrity and Our Culture, published by UK Random House Business in the UK, and Simon & Schuster in the US.
The Award recognises a work which provides the ‘most compelling and enjoyable insight into modern business issues’. It was awarded today to Sarah Frier at a virtual event, co-hosted by Roula Khalaf, Editor of the Financial Times and chair of the panel of judges, and Kevin Sneader, Global Managing Partner, McKinsey & Company. The keynote speaker at the event was Laxman Narasimhan, Chief Executive of Reckitt Benckiser.
No Filter saw off strong competition from a shortlist of titles with a focus on subjects ranging from the future of work, corporate culture, technology and the US economy, to win the £30,000 prize. Each of the five runners-up will receive £10,000.
Roula Khalaf, Editor, Financial Times said, “No Filter is a topical and well-reported account of the rise of Instagram and its takeover by Facebook. But it also tackles two vital issues of our age: how Big Tech treats smaller rivals and how social media companies are shaping the lives of a new generation.”
Kevin Sneader, Global Managing Partner, McKinsey & Company, said: “Sarah Frier has written a compelling saga about how this start-up phenomenon deeply embedded itself into the global cultural Zeitgeist of this digital era, in just one decade after its creation.”
The distinguished judging panel for the 2020 Financial Times and McKinsey Business Book of the Year Award, chaired by Roula Khalaf, comprised:
- Mitchell Baker, Chief Executive Officer, Mozilla Corporation; Chairwoman, Mozilla Foundation
- Mohamed El-Erian, President of Queens’ College, Cambridge, and Chief Economic Advisor, Allianz (BBYA Winner, 2008, When Markets Collide)
- Herminia Ibarra, Charles Handy Professor of Organisational Behaviour, London Business School
- Randall Kroszner, Professor of Economics and Deputy Dean for Executive Programs, University of Chicago Booth School of Business
- Dambisa Moyo, Global Economist and Author, Non-Executive Director, 3M Company, Chevron & Conde Nast
- Raju Narisetti, Global Publishing Director, McKinsey & Company
- Shriti Vadera, Chair-elect of Prudential
The Financial Times and McKinsey & Company also announced Stephen Boyle as the winner of the 2020 Bracken Bower Prize. The Prize is designed to encourage young authors to tackle emerging business themes in a proposal for a book that is not yet published. Its aim is to unearth new talent and encourage writers to research ideas that could fill future business books of the year.
Stephen Boyle was awarded £15,000 for his book proposal, New Money, about how central bank digital currencies could transform the economy – and why you might not want them to.
The distinguished judging panel for the Bracken Bower Prize comprised:
- Lorella Belli, Founder and Director, Lorella Belli Literary Agency Limited
- Isabel Fernandez-Mateo, Adecco Professor of Strategy and Entrepreneurship, London Business School
- Jorma Ollila, former Chairman, Royal Dutch Shell and Nokia
- Saadia Zahidi, Managing Director and Head of the Centre for the New Economy and Society, World Economic Forum. (BBP Winner, 2014, Fifty Million Rising)