Axiom Business Book Awards 2017 | AXIOM BUSINESS BOOK AWARDS | 21 October 2017 | Axiom Awards, 1129 Woodmere Ave – Suite B Traverse City, MI 49686

The Axiom Business Book Awards are intended to bring increased recognition to exemplary business books and their creators, with the understanding that business people are a very well-read and informed segment of the population, eager to learn about great new books that will inspire and inform them, and help them improve their careers and businesses.

The awards were created in 2007, and have since become the largest and most respected critical guidepost for business books in today's new world of publishing. These prestigious and competitive awards are presented in 22 business categories and serve as the premier list to help readers discover new and innovative works.

The Axiom Awards are presented by Jenkins Group, a Michigan-based book publishing and marketing services company that has operated the popular Independent Publisher Book Awards contest since 1996. Founder Jerrold R. Jenkins is the author of three books on the business of publishing: Inside the Bestsellers, Publish To Win, and The Independent Publisher: How to Build and Promote Your Best-Selling Book.

2017 Winners

1. Business Theory
Gold (tie): Strategy that Works: How Winning Companies Close the Strategy-to-Execution Gap, by Paul Leinwand, Cesare Mainardi with Art Kleiner (Harvard Business Press)

Beyond Competitive Advantage: How to Solve the Puzzle of Sustaining Growth While Creating Value, by Todd Zenger (Harvard Business Press)

Silver: Non-Obvious 2017- How to Think Different, Curate Ideas and Predict the Future, by Rohit Bhargava (Ideapress Publishing)

Bronze: The Thrive Cycle: Unlock the Adaptive Organisation Within, by Kate Christiansen (The Adaptive Advantage)

2. Business Commentary

Gold: Chaos Monkeys: Obscene Fortune and Random Failure in Silicon Valley, by Antonio García Martínez (HarperOne)

Silver: D.A.N.G.E.R. Report: Definitive Analysis of Negative Game Changers Emerging in Real Estate, by Stefan Swanepoel/Swanepoel T3 Group (National Association of Realtors)

Bronze: Saving Investa: How and Ex-Factory Worker Helped Save One of Australia’s Iconic Companies, by Scott MacDonald (Next Century Publishing)

3. Economics

Gold: Matchmakers: The New Economics of Multisided Platforms, by David S. Evans & Richard Schmalensee (Harvard Business Review Press)

Silver: The Road to Ruin: The Global Elites’ Secret Plan for the Next Financial Crisis, by James Rickards (Portfolio/Penguin)

Bronze: The Sharing Economy: The End of Employment and the Rise of Crowd-Based Capitalism, by Arun Sundararajan (The MIT Press)

4. Career (job search, career advancement)

Gold (tie): Power Your Career: The Art of Tactful Self-Promotion at Work, by Richard Dodson and Nancy Burke (Beaver’s Pond Press)

Pivot: The Only Move that Matters is Your Next One, by Jenny Blake (Penguin Portfolio)

Silver: The 20-Minute Networking Meeting-Professional Edition, by Nathan A. Perez and Marcia Ballinger, PhD (CreateSpace)

Bronze: The Long View: Career Strategies to Start Strong, Reach High, and Go Far, by Brian Fetherstonhaugh (Diversion Books)

5. Sales (sales skills, negotiating, closing)

Gold: Dealstorming: The Secret Weapon that Can Solve Your Toughest Sales Challenges, by Tim Sanders (Penguin Random House)

Silver: The Rival: Play the Game, Own the Hustle, Power in Competition, Longevity in Collaboration, by Benjamin Von Seeger (iUniverse)

Bronze: HBR Guide to Negotiating, by Jeff Weiss (Harvard Business Review)

6. Leadership

Gold: The Moon Shot Effect: Disrupting Business as Usual, by Lisa Goldman & Kate Purmal (Greenleaf Book Group)

Silver: The Founder’s Mentality: How to Overcome the Predictable Crisis of Growth, by Chris Zook and James Allen (Harvard Business Review Press)

Bronze (tie): Leading Teams: 10 Challenges, 10 Solutions, by Mandy Flint and Elisabet Vinberg Hearn (Pearson)

The Leader’s Mindset: How to Win in the Age of Disruption, by Terence Mauri (Morgan James)

7. Networking (social networking, communication skills)

Gold (tie): Putting Stories to Work: Mastering Business Storytelling, by Shawn Callahan (Anecdote International)

Illuminate: Ignite Change Through Speeches, Stories, Ceremonies, and Symbols, by Nancy Duarte and Patti Sanchez (duarte, Inc.)

Silver: Digital Vortex: How Today’s Market Leaders Can Beat Disruptive Competitors at Their Own Game, by Jeff Loucks, James Macaulay, Andy Noronha and Michael Wade (IMD Business School)

Bronze: There’s Not An APP for That! Communication Skills to Become an Irreplaceable Leader, by Cary Pfeffer (Wise Ink)

8. Business Ethics

Gold: The Art of Authenticity: Tools to Become an Authentic Leader and Your Best Self, by Karissa Thacker (Wiley)

Silver: A Field Guide to Lies: Critical Thinking in the Information Age, by Daniel J. Levitin (Dutton)

Bronze: Enlightened Negotiation: 8 Universal Laws to Connect, Create, and Prosper, by Mehrad Nazari, PhD, MBA (SelectBooks, Inc.)

9. Operations Management / Lean / Continuous Improvement

Gold: Sprint: How to Solve Big Problems and Test New Ideas in Just Five Days, by Jake Knapp with John Zeratsky & Braden Kowitz (Simon & Schuster)

Silver: Let My People Go Surfing: The Education of a Reluctant Businessman, by Yvon Chouinard (Penguin Books)

Bronze (tie): On the Brink: A Fresh Lens to Take Your Business to New Heights, by Andi Simon, PhD (Greenleaf Book Group Press)

5% More: Making Small Changes to Achieve Extraordinary Results, by Michael Alden (Wiley)

10. Human Resources / Employee Training

Gold: An Everyone Culture: Becoming a Deliberately Developmental Organization, by Robert Kegan, Lisa Laskow Lahey, Matthew L. Miller, Andy Fleming, and Deborah Helsing (Harvard Business Review Press)

Silver: The Future Workplace Experience: 10 Rules For Mastering Disruption in Recruiting and Engaging Employees, by Jeanne Meister and Kevin Mulcahy (McGraw-Hill Education)

Bronze: The Work-Life Equation: Six Key Values That Drive Happiness and Success, by William L. Maw (Preager)

11. Entrepreneurship

Gold: The Language of Man. Learning to Speak Creativity, by Larry Robertson (Daymark Press)

Silver (tie): Simply Brilliant: How Great Organizations Do Ordinary Things In Extraordinary Ways, by William C. Taylor (Portfolio/Penguin)

The Purpose is Profit: The Truth About Starting and Building Your Own Business, by Ed “Skip” McLaughlin, Wyn Lydecker & Paul McLaughlin (Greenleaf Book Group Press)

Bronze (tie): The Farm on the Roof: What Brooklyn Grange Taught Us About Entrepreneurship, Community, and Growing a Sustainable Business, by Anastasia Cole Plakias (Avery Books)

The Start-Up J Curve: The Six Steps to Entrepreneurial Success, by Howard Love (Greenleaf Book Group Press)

12. Philanthropy / Nonprofit / Sustainability

Gold: Somebody Else’s Problem: Consumerism, Sustainability & Design, by Robert Crocker (Greenleaf Publishing)

Silver: Sustainable Innovation- Global Compact International Yearbook 2016, by Dr. Elmer Lenzen (Macondo Publishing GmbH)

Bronze: Business on a Mission, by Andy Last (Greenleaf Publishing)

13. International Business / Globalization

Gold: The Euro and the Battle of Ideas, by Markus K. Brunnermeier, Harold James, and Jean-Pierre Landau (Princeton University Press)

Silver: Gaining Currency: The Rise of the Renminbi, by Eswar S. Prasad (Oxford University Press)

Bronze: Successful Global Leadership: Frameworks for Cross-Cultural Managers and Organizations, by Ramon Henson (Palgrave Macmillan)

14. Personal Finance / Retirement Planning / Investing (estate planning, stocks, bonds)

Gold: The Laws of Wealth: Psychology and the Secret to Investing Success, by Dr. Daniel Crosby (Harriman House)

Silver: The Tools of Money: Hands-On Financial Skills for Teens, Parents, and Adults, by Life Leadership (Obstacle Press)

Bronze: Family Inc: Using Business Principles to Maximize Your Family’s Wealth, by Douglas P. McCormick (Wiley)

15. Business Technology

Gold (tie): The Network Imperative: How to Survive and Grow in the Age of Digital Business Models, by Barry Libert, Megan Beck & Jerry Wind (Harvard Business Review Press)

The Signals are Talking: Why Today’s Fringe is Tomorrow’s Mainstream, by Amy Webb (PublicAffairs)

Silver: Blockchain Revolution: How the Technology Behind Bitcoin is Changing Money, Business, and the World, by Don Tapscott and Alex Tapscott (Portfolio/Penguin)

Bronze (tie): Digital Vortex: How Today’s Market Leaders Can Beat Disruptive Competitors at Their Own Game, by Jeff Loucks, James Macaulay, Andy Noronha and Michael Wade (IMD)

Mastering Digital Business: How Powerful Combinations of Disruptive Technologies are Enabling the Next Wave of Digital Transformation, by Nicholas D. Evans (BCS, The Chartered Institute for IT)

16. Women / Minorities in Business

Gold: Accelerate Your Impact: Action-based Strategies to Pave Your Professional Path, by JJ DiGeronimo (Smart Business Books)

Silver: The Refractive Thinker, Vol XI: Women in Leadership, edited by Dr. Cheryl Lentz (The Refractive Thinker Press)

Bronze: Get Over Your Damn Self: The No-BS Blueprint to Building A Life-Changing Business, by Romi Neustadt (LiveFullOut Media)

17. Success / Motivation / Coaching

Gold: Ego is the Enemy, by Ryan Holiday (Portfolio/Penguin)

Silver: Art Thinking: How to Carve Out Creative Space in a World of Schedules, Budgets, and Bosses, by Amy Whitaker (HarperOne)

Bronze: Emotional Agility: Get Unstuck, Embrace Change, and Thrive in Work and Life, by Susan David, PhD (Avery Books)

18. Advertising / Marketing / PR / Event Planning

Gold: The Attention Merchants: The Epic Scramble to Get Inside Our Heads, by Tim Wu (Borzoi Books/Alfred A. Knopf)

Silver (tie): Hug Your Haters: How to Embrace Complaints and Keep Your Customers, by Jay Baer (Portfolio/Penguin)

The Analytical Marketer: How to Transform Your Marketing Organization, by Adele Sweetwood (Harvard Business Review Press)

Bronze: Pre-Suasion: A Revolutionary Way to Influence and Persuade, by Robert Cialdini (Simon & Schuster)

19. Corporate History / Milestone

Gold: From the Rear View Mirror- The ASL Paving Story, by Suzanne Paschall (ASL Paving Ltd.)

Silver: With Gratitude, Johnny Carrabba: Celebrating 30 Years of Recipes, Stories, and Family, by Johnny Carrabba (Johnny Carrabba Family of Restaurants)

Bronze: Huntington at 150: A Banking Genealogy, by Adam Nemett (The History Factory)

20. Business Reference (legal, how-to)

Gold: Small Business Taxes Made Easy, Third Edition, by Eva Rosenberg, EA (McGraw Hill Education)

Silver: TED Talks: The Official TED Guide to Public Speaking, by Chris Anderson (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt)

Bronze: Good Charts: The HBR Guide to Making Smarter, More Persuasive Data Visualizations, by Scott Berinato (Harvard Business Review Press)

21. Memoir / Biography

Gold: The Third Wave: An Entrepreneur’s Vision of the Future, by Steve Case (Simon & Schuster)

Silver: To Pixar And Beyond: My Unlikely Journey with Steve Jobs to Make Entertainment History, by Lawrence Levy (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing)

Bronze: Heretics to Heroes: A Memoir on Modern Leadership, by Cort Dial (Bee Cave Publishing)

22. Business Fable

Gold: That’s Not How We Do It Here!: A Story About How Organizations Rise and Fall -- and Can Rise Again, by John Kotter and Holger Rathgeber (Penguin Random House)

Silver: A Tale of Two Owners: Achieving Exit Success Between Business Co-Owners, by Patrick A. Ungashick (Booklogix)

Bronze: Cape, Spandex, Briefcase: Leadership Lessons from Superheroes, by David Kahn (Starewell Publishing)