The latest must-read books: on Google, social media and how to be a stellar CIO.

In the Plex
How Google thinks, works, and shapes our lives

By Steven Levy
Fortunately, the subtitle of this book is misleading. This is not another tired addition to the plethora of texts about how Google is changing the world. It is far, far better than that. This is a definitive history of one of the 21st century’s most important businesses, written by one of the US’s leading technology journalists. For more than a decade, working for Newsweek and Wired, Levy has had impressive access to this notoriously secretive Internet behemoth and the key players who have shaped its growth.

Such deep insider knowledge forms the basis of the book. As well as being an impressive study in how a small start-up combined unrivaled brain power and chutzpah to solve some of the Internet’s most difficult problems (search, monetizing the web, dealing with massive scale), it also examines how, despite the best efforts of founders Larry Page and Sergey Brin, Google has turned into a corporate giant with the associated problems of inertia, bureaucracy and litigation.

The long chapter on Google’s aborted entrance into China is worth the money alone, if only as a cautionary tale to any Western organization seeking to move into the world’s most dynamic economy. The section on “Google’s Cloud” is equally riveting: after all, few other $30 billion businesses can say they were born, and have always lived, in the cloud.

The Transformational CIO
Leadership and innovation strategies for IT executives in a rapidly changing world

By Hunter Muller
A classic ruse by inspirational speakers at CIO conferences is to ask the audience if they think of themselves as “transformational CIOs.” Of course, everyone in the room raises a hand, only to be told that most of them are delusional. Muller, who leads CIO leadership consultancy HMG Strategy, takes on the challenge of turning those mistaken perceptions into true capabilities by defining what it takes to be a transformational CIO and guiding “under-achievers” towards transformational greatness.

He certainly has some blue-chip help on hand. Anecdotes and hard-won lessons from a stellar group of CIOs — at Shell, Citigroup, Hilton, GM, GE, Kaiser Permanente, Kimberly-Clark and many others — fill the pages.

Indeed, that is both the strength and the weakness of the book. While the verbatim accounts all provide detail, they swamp much of the related analysis. Almost every time the text gets into any depth, it defaults to: “I’ll let Dave/Jay/Rich/Greg, etc pick up the story in their own words…” That reportage style does, however, succeed in capturing a sense of CIOs-in-action as they apply IT to bring successful outcomes to major business challenges, and it makes this book compelling reading for both CIOs and fellow executives who feel they should understand IT’s transformational potential.

Also recommended…

Everywhere
Comprehensive digital business strategy for the social media era

By Larry Weber
The founder of the world’s largest PR firm on how to put your digital communications strategy at the center of your organization. Read it before your CMO does.

Pre-Commerce
How companies and customers are transforming business together

By Bob Pearson
A masterclass on ensuring every part of your organization leverages the power of social media, by a Web 2.0 guru whose career spans both comms and IT.