The ''Financial Times'' and McKinsey Bracken Bower Prize (or simply the ''Bracken Bower Prize'') is an annual award given to the best business book proposal of the year by a young writer, as determined by the ''

Financial Times The ''Financial Times'' (''FT'') is a British daily newspaper printed in broadsheet and published digitally that focuses on business and economic current affairs. Based in London, England, the paper is owned by a Japanese holding company, Nik ...

'' and

McKinsey & Company McKinsey & Company is a global management consulting firm founded in 1926 by University of Chicago professor James O. McKinsey, that offers professional services to corporations, governments, and other organizations. McKinsey is the oldest and ...

. It aims to find the "best proposal for a book about the challenges and opportunities of growth by an author aged under 35". Established in 2014, the prize is named after Brendan Bracken, chairman of the ''

'' from 1945 to 1958, and Marvin Bower, managing director of McKinsey from 1950 to 1967. The prize is worth and is presented at the same time as the

Financial Times and McKinsey Business Book of the Year Award ''Financial Times'' Business Book of the Year Award is an annual award given to the best business book of the year as determined by the ''Financial Times''. It aims to find the book that has 'the most compelling and enjoyable insight into modern ...

. Several previous winners and finalists of the contest have landed book deals with major publishers. Siddarth Shrikanth, finalist for the 2020 prize, secured publishing deals with Duckworth Books and Penguin Random House for his book, ''The Case for Nature.'' Winner of the 2019 Prize, Jonathan Hillman had his book on China's global infrastructure expansion, ''The Digital Silk Road: China's Quest to Wire the World and Win the Future'', published by Harper Business.

Cambridge University Press Cambridge University Press is the university press of the University of Cambridge. Granted letters patent by Henry VIII of England, King Henry VIII in 1534, it is the oldest university press A university press is an academic publishing hou ...

published the book by 2018 Prize Winner

Andrew Leon Hanna Andrew Leon Hanna (born 1991) is an American lawyer, entrepreneur, author, and international human rights advocate. The son of immigrants from Egypt, Hanna was awarded the 2018 ''Financial Times'' and McKinsey Bracken Bower Prize for ''25 Million ...

, ''25 Million Sparks: The Untold Story of Refugee Entrepreneurs'', which tells the story of three Syrian women entrepreneurs in the Za'atari refugee camp and of refugee entrepreneurs around the world. From the same cohort, finalist Christian Busch had his book, published as ''The Serendipity Mindset: The Art and Science of Creating Good Luck'', released by

Riverhead Books Riverhead Books is an imprint of Penguin Group (USA) founded in 1994 by Susan Petersen Kennedy. Writers published by Riverhead include Ali Sethi, Marlon James (novelist), Marlon James, Junot Díaz, George Saunders, Khaled Hosseini, Nick Hornby, ...

. From the 2016 cohort, Kogan Page published ''Blockchain Babel: The Crypto Craze and the Challenge to Business'' by finalis
Igor Pejic

Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Houghton Mifflin Harcourt (; HMH) is an American publisher of textbooks, instructional technology materials, assessments, reference works, and fiction and non-fiction for both young readers and adults. The company is based in the Financial Dist ...

published venture capitalist and Bracken Bower finalist Scott Hartley's book, ''The Fuzzy and the Techie: Why the Liberal Arts Will Rule the Digital World'', a Financial Times Business Book of the Month that was mentioned on the longlist for the FT/McKinsey Business Book of the Year Award in 2017. Published in paperback by Mariner Books, it has been acquired by

Penguin Random House Penguin Random House LLC is an Anglo-American multinational corporation, multinational conglomerate (company), conglomerate publishing company formed on July 1, 2013, from the merger of Penguin Group and Random House. On April 2, 2020, Bertels ...

in India, and translated int
Portuguese
an
Korean
Among the 2015 cohort,

Penguin Press Penguin Group is a British trade book publisher and part of Penguin Random House, which is owned by the German media conglomerate Bertelsmann. The new company was created by a merger that was finalised on 1 July 2013, with Bertelsmann initial ...

agreed to publish '' Meltdown: Why Our Systems Fail and What We Can Do About It'', a book about the changing nature of failure in business and life, by 2015 Prize Winners and former derivates trader Christopher Clearfield and

University of Toronto The University of Toronto (UToronto or U of T) is a public research university in Toronto, Ontario, Canada, located on the grounds that surround Queen's Park. It was founded by royal charter in 1827 as King's College, the first institution ...

professor András Tilcsik. ''Meltdown'' won Canada's

National Business Book Award The National Business Book Award is an award presented to Canadian business authors. The award, presented every year since 1985, is sponsored by Bennett Jones, ''The Globe and Mail'', and The Walrus, DeGroote, and supported by CPA Canada and with ...

in 2019. Irene Yuan Sun's short-listed proposal for a book about China's economic role in Africa was picked up by

Harvard Business Review Press ''Harvard Business Review'' (''HBR'') is a general management magazine published by Harvard Business Publishing, a wholly owned subsidiary of Harvard University. ''HBR'' is published six times a year and is headquartered in Brighton, Massach ...

. The prize also led to a publishing deal for Saadia Zahidi, the first-ever Bracken Bower Prize winner in 2014; Nation Books acquired a book based on her proposal, ''Womenomics in the Muslim World'', in 2015, and it was retitled ''Fifty Million Rising: The New Generation of Working Women Transforming the Muslim World''.

Winners and shortlist

Blue Ribbon () = winner , Finalists (F) , Shortlist (S) 2014 * Saadia Zahidi, ''Womenomics in the Muslim World'', published as
Fifty Million Rising: The New Generation of Working Women Transforming the Muslim World
' (Bold Type Books, 2018) * (F) Alysia Garmulewicz, ''3-D Printing, Anything, Anywhere'' * (F) Jenny Palmer, ''One Level Up'' 2015 * Christopher Clearfield & András Tilcsik, ''Rethinking the Unthinkable,'' published as
Meltdown: Why Our Systems Fail and What We Can Do About It
' (Penguin Press, 2018) * (F) Jonathan Hillman, ''The Fog of More'' * (F) Irene Yuan Sun, ''Brave Old World: Why China's Investments in Africa Should Make Us Rethink Economic Development'' (Harvard Business Press, 2017) * (S) Edoardo Campanella * (S) Sangu Delle * (S) Cerys Hearsey * (S) Chizoba Nnaemeka * (S) Thomas Roulet,
The Power of Being Divisive: Understanding Negative Social Evaluations
' (Stanford University Press, 2020) * (S) Ryan Shaw * (S) David Skarbek * (S) Alexander Webb 2016 * Nora Rosendahl, ''Mental Meltdown'' * (F)'' ''Igor Pejic,
Blockchain Babel: The Crypto Craze and the Challenge to Business
' (Kogan Page, 2019) * (F)

Scott Hartley Scott Hartley (born July 18, 1983) is a venture capitalist and an author. He previously worked for Silicon Valley technology companies such as Google and Facebook as well as Harvard's Berkman Klein Center for Internet and Society. He was a Presid ...

,
The Fuzzy and the Techie: Why the Liberal Arts Will Rule the Digital World
' (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2017) * (S) Sophie Dickins * (S) Simon Hedlin * (S) Gavin McLoughlin * (S) Ross Murdoch * (S) Pavan Soni * (S) Alexander Webb 2017 * Mehran Gul, ''The New Geography of Innovation'' * (F) Michael Motala, ''The Peer-to-Peer Social Contract'' * (F) Alexandre Lazarow, ''Startup Heretic'' * (S) Christian Busch * (S) Wendy Bradley * (S) Walter Frick * (S) Geoffrey Gertz * (S) Alexander Goemans * (S) Jonathan Hillman * (S) Maja Korica * (S) Anika Nagpal &

Nina Vasan Nina Vasan (born January 27, 1984) is an American psychiatrist and author of the Amazon #1 best-selling book ''Do Good Well: Your Guide to Leadership, Action and Innovation''. She is a Clinical Assistant Professor in the Department of Psychiatry ...

2018 *

,
25 Million Sparks: The Untold Story of Refugee Entrepreneurs
' (Cambridge University Press, 2022) * (F) Christian Busch
''The Serendipity Factor,'' published as ''The Serendipity Mindset: The Art and Science of Creating Good Luck''
(Riverhead Books, 2020) * (F) Piyumi Kapugeekiyana, ''One Billion in Reserve'' * (S) Maneet Ahuja * (S) David Buckmaster,
Fair Pay: How to Get a Raise, Close the Wage Gap, and Build Stronger Businesses
' (Harper Business, 2021) * (S) Owen W. Cameron * (S) Neil Doig * (S) Muris Hadzic * (S) Edoardo Maggini * (S) Michelle Meagher * (S) Joel Modestus & Sreevas Sahasranamam * (S) Colette van der Ven 2019 * Jonathan Hillman,
The Digital Silk Road: China's Quest to Wire the World and Win the Future
' (Harper Business, 2021) * (F) Paulo Savaget * (F) Ernesto Zaldivar * (S) Alonso de Gortari * (S) Maram Ahmed * (S) Yaman Kaakeh * (S) Vardhan Kapoor * (S) Salil Motianey * (S) Katya Peremanova * (S) Thomas Roulet * (S) Siling Tan 2020 * Stephen Boyle, ''New Money'' * (F) Rola Kaakeh, ''Waiting on Medicines: Our Reliance on Medications to Shape our Future'' * (F) Siddarth Shrikanth, ''Money Trees: Making the Business Case for Nature'' * (S) Sophie Campbell * (S) Portia Crowe * (S) Sean Henry Drake * (S) Laura Fedoruk * (S) Anas Kaakeh * (S) Babatunde Onabajo * (S) Beniamino Pagliaro * (S) John Soroushian * (S) Sughra Shah Bukhari * (S) Alexander Webb 2021 * Ines Lee & Eileen Tipoe, ''Failing the Class'' *(F) Manuel Hepfer, ''The Cybersecurity Wake-Up Call'' * (F) Melissa Zhang, ''Trailblazers'' * (S) Lucy Christie * (S) Sri Muppidi * (S) Joanna Socha * (S) Richard Hudson * (S) Vardhan Kapoor * (S) Joel Modestus * (S) Ben Payton * (S) Jonathan Pierre * (S) Joe Sullivan * (S) Aaron Taylor * (S) Benjamin Tur 2022 * Âriel de Fauconberg, ''Before the Dawn'' * (F) Victoria Berquist, ''The Unstoppable Rise of Private Capital in Public Health'' * (F) Julia Marisa Sekula, ''Owning the Centre'' * (S) Otilia Barbuta * (S) James da Costa * (S) Will Hall-Smith * (S) Patrick Hinton * (S) Anas Kaakeh * (S) David Maggs * (S) Salil Motianey * (S) Drake Pooley

References

{{Reflist McKinsey & Company Financial Times British literary awards