Five best business books of 2014

Whether you were looking for the perfect gift or to catch up on your reading, there were plenty of blockbuster business books in 2014. We've collected our favourites of the year:

The Virgin Way: Everything I Know About Leadership by Richard Branson

Richard Branson is a self-made billionaire who dropped out of high school to pursue a life as an entrepreneur. His latest book The Virgin Way is packed with littleknown anecdotes that illustrate valuable management principles.

For example, he explains why the time he called one of his companies demanding he speak with Branson himself was a valuable exercise in testing customer experience.

How Google Works by Eric Schmidt and Jonathan Rosenberg

Google's former CEO and current chair Eric Schmidt and former SVP of products Jonathan Rosenberg break down Google's internal working for you. How Google Works explains what the company looks for in a potential hire, how to run the most effective meeting, and how to foster your employees' creativity.

Creativity, Inc: Overcoming the Unseen Forces That Stand in the Way of True Inspiration by Ed Catmull

Pixar President Ed Catmull unwraps the exciting, strange history of the animation company as the reader gets a first-person view into the animation studio's incredibly difficult launch -their first product was a $125,000 computer that no one wanted and Disney wanted the original Toy Story to be a musical.

Overwhelmed: Work, Love, and Play When No One Has the Time by Brigid Schulte

In 2014, we felt busier than ever.In Overwhelmed, Schulte takes us on a tour of our busyness."What's weird is that we don't work that many more hours than generations before us. Instead, we only perceive that we're busier." She also explains what we can do about it.

How We Got to Now: Six Innovations That Made the Modern World by Steven Johnson

We usually think of history as a record of what people have done. In How We Got to Now, Johnson takes the machine's view of cultural development. The connections Johnson draws are astounding.