The top leadership books of 2025

Our newest crop of must-reads for managers features AI, the economy and even the human touch.

With the world changing often at whiplash speed and the internet awash with questionable news sources, it has never been more important to have an informed perspective on a range of key topics. Reading books, particularly non-fiction, can significantly enhance your knowledge, critical thinking and decision-making skills. That’s particularly true when those books are written by experts in their fields and based on in-depth research.

With that in mind, we’ve got you covered. These releases from our professors dive into some of the most crucial issues of today, from the challenges of AI to the dilemmas of modern capitalism. And in an increasingly automated era, many of these books also make a case for the human touch: from communication to trust and putting human beings at the center of our companies and societies.

Happy reading!

Humanism and Artificial Intelligence
By Antonino Vaccaro and Rosa Fioravante
Featuring insights from prominent international scholars, this book examines the major ethical challenges that artificial intelligence poses to organizations, all through a humanistic lens. It addresses pressing topics such as the blurring boundaries between humans and machines, the importance of spirituality and virtue ethics in fostering a human-centered approach to AI, and the need for a humanistic outlook in managing data.

Gray Matters
By Javier Diaz-Gimenez, Miguel Ors and Pedro Artiles
Not your typical economics text, this book was actually born as a podcast, and it approaches its topic as literally out of this world. When an alien arrives on Earth and wants to understand how the economy works, IESE professor Javier Diaz-Gimenez agrees to private lessons. The resulting mixture of humor, economics and social criticism addresses some of the great dilemmas of contemporary capitalism.

The Humanistic Person-centered Company
By Domenec Melé
What does it mean to lead a person-centered company? Domenec Melé proposes an approach based on personalist humanism, in which profit is a means, not an end in itself. Purpose, continuous improvement and the common good become the pillars that give meaning and legitimacy to our businesses.

Crisis Management in Universities: Case Studies, Best Practices and a Crisis Manual
By Yago de la Cierva, Mercedes Castello and Paulina Guzik
Even the most prestigious universities can falter in the face of a crisis. This book analyzes 24 real-life cases — from ethical scandals to natural disasters — and offers practical tools for preparing for, acting in and recovering from crises. The authors propose 11 key steps and a framework that can be adapted to other contexts. An essential guide to strengthening resilience and turning adversity into an opportunity for learning and improvement.

Trust Is Priceless
By Jordi Gual
Trust is crucial, for companies, for public institutions and for governments. Yet levels of trust, in everything from our elected officials to our businesses and the media, have been declining for decades. Gual draws on his experience as chairman of CaixaBank to show how, with effort, this situation can be reversed: from taking responsibility for meeting the expectations placed on us to sharing the values of honesty, loyalty and commitment. There is still time to restore trust in capitalism.

The Routledge Handbook of Identity and Consumption
By Inigo Gallo, co-author of the chapter “Implications of brand purpose for consumer identity”
Our consumer choices say a lot about us, from our values to our hopes for the future, and what we buy can even become a key part of our identity. In a chapter in The Routledge Handbook of Identity and Consumption, Inigo Gallo looks at the links between a brand’s purpose and identity drivers in consumers. He speaks about how brand purpose, done well, can help customers discover their human purpose, build self-esteem and achieve a more meaningful life.

Fundamentals of Human Ecology as a Paradigm for a More Sustainable Economy
By Nuria Chinchilla and Pilar Garcia-Lombardia
Just as natural ecosystems can be degraded by toxic elements, the human ecosystem can also suffer setbacks that affect all spheres of a person’s life — from business, family and society, to a sense of self. Nuria Chinchilla and researcher Pilar Garcia-Lombardia look at what ails the “fundamentals of human ecology” and argue that the pressure to deliver results, poor flexibility in working hours and the scaling back of remote working are all pain points in our aim to create a more sustainable economy.

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