This month we take a look at books that chart Google’s rise to fame, give the inside story on the origins of credit derivatives and provide tips on how to embrace change.

Googled: The End of the World as We Know It - by  Ken Auletta

From its auspicious origins in the labs of Stanford University to its position as perhaps the most influential technology company in Silicon Valley today, Googled, explains why Google matters to consumers, businesses and policy makers. Drawing on dozens of personal interviews with key players, the author explores why Google continues to define the media and technology landscape. This isn’t simply a rosy view of Google’s history - Googled raises concerns that the company’s founders could be overlooking external threats to its long-term viability.  Chief among these are legitimate public concerns about the use of private information for profit.

Fool’s Gold - by Gillian Tett

This fly-on-the wall description of how a bunch of partying, boozing bankers from JP Morgan came up with the idea of building a business around the new-fangled concepts of credit derivatives in the mid-1990s is essential reading for anyone interested in understanding how the financial crisis began.  The book provides a balanced look at the conditions, culture and tools that allowed a cadre of `quants' (quantitative analysts) to trump historically sound banking practices across the banking industry.  Tett is a renowned business journalist who writes regularly for the Financial Times. She is able to provide basic explanations of some of the most complex financial products - from Super Senior tranches to ABX indices, Conduits and SIVs.

Switch - by Chip and Dan Heath

Switch helps readers to understand why making changes in our personal and professional lives is so difficult.  By providing simple real-life examples to illustrate psychological theory, it provides new ideas on how to identify and overcome barriers to change. The authors explain that when we try to change, we need to use both the logical and the emotional parts of our brain. Most of the examples in the book focus on people who needed to effect significant change with little power and few resources available to them. One interesting example includes how a low-level NGO employee made a difference in alleviating the malnourishment of Vietnamese children, in just six months.