Long days spent at home are worth spicing up with an interesting read. Reading books not only has a positive effect on our development and broadens our knowledge, but also allows us to age more healthily, according to research published in Neurology. Huffington Post reports that reading can delay age-related mental decline by as much as 32 percent.

CEOs of the world's largest corporations, in order to achieve success, had to subordinate their entire lives to pursuing it. What books do they read? What inspires them to keep working? We've gathered a few books recommended by Indra Nooyi, Elon Musk and Jeff Bezos.

Indra Nooyi (PepsiCo's CEO)

1. The Three-Box Solution: A Strategy for Leading Innovation

author: Vijay Govindarajan

Leaders already know that innovation requires a different set of actions, skills, methods, metrics, a mindset and a leadership approach. And it's well known that creating a new company and optimizing an existing one are two fundamentally different management challenges. The real challenge for leaders is doing both at the same time. How do you meet the performance requirements of a company - one that is still thriving - while reinventing it? How do you anticipate a change to the current business model before a crisis forces it to change?

2. The Silo Effect: The Peril of Expertise and the Promise of Breaking Down Barriers

author: Gillian Tett

Gillian Tett, a journalist (The New York Times), answers questions using her experience as an anthropologist and her experiences from the 2008 financial crisis. The Silo Effect is divided into eight different stories about silo syndrome, concerning Bloomberg's City Hall in New York, the Bank of England in London, a clinical hospital in Cleveland, Ohio, the UBS bank in Switzerland, Facebook in San Francisco, Sony in Tokyo, the BlueMountain hedge fund and the Chicago Police. Some of these stories show how foolishly people can behave when they apply a silo structure. Others, however, show how institutions and individuals can manage silos.

3. Unfinished Business: Women, Men, Work, Family

author: Anne-Marie Slaughter

It concerns the challenges of career advancement for professional women with children and the "unfinished business" of the women's movement. Drawing on her own experiences as a mother and an official at the Department of State, Slaughter argues for the importance of valuing care: the work of nurturing our friends, family and loved ones.

Elon Musk (SpaceX, Tesla)

1. Einstein: His Life and Universe

author: Walter Isaacson

We know who Albert Einstein was. We know - at least superficially - the list of his most important achievements, including the world's most famous formula, we remember the Nobel Prize, and we can easily recall the image of a smiling man with a bushy, unruly mop of hair.
The uniqueness of Isaacson's biography lies not only in the fact that thanks to it we realize how little we actually know. And not only in the fact that it verifies common opinions, such as the one about Einstein supposedly being a terrible fiddle player.

Walter Isaacson's book is exceptional because it clearly shows how Albert Einstein became the great Einstein. It was by no means destined for him. In the difficult and discouraging early days of his career, he could just as well have taken a different path; become the director of the patent office in Bern or an outstanding constructor of innovative electrical devices.

2. The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy

author: Douglas Adams

A series of humorous science fiction novels by Douglas Adams, and also the title of the first volume of this series, which originated from a radio broadcast aired by the BBC since 1978. The entire series consists of five volumes, which the author called a trilogy in five parts. Recently, a sixth part by Eoin Colfer was added to the trilogy: "And Another Thing...".

3. Structures: Or Why Things Don't Fall Down

author: J. E. Gordon

Structures: Or Why Things Don't Fall Down is an informal explanation of the fundamental forces that hold together the ordinary and essential things of this world - from buildings and bodies to flying airplanes and eggshells. The book combines masterful wit with an encyclopedic range of references. Gordon included chapters such as "How to Design a Worm" and "The Advantage of Being a Beam", offering a humorous insight into human and natural creations.

Books recommended by CEOs – what the leaders of global business read

CEO books: what do the leaders of global business read?

Architects and engineers will appreciate the clear and thoughtful explanations of the concepts of stress, shear, torsion, fracture and compression. If you're building a house, a sailboat or a catapult, here's a useful tool for understanding the mechanics of woodwork, floors, ceilings, hulls, masts - or flying buttresses.

Jeff Bezos

1. Success Built to Last: Creating a Life that Matters

author: Jerry I. Porras, Stewart Emery, Mark Thompson

Co-author: Jerry Porras, whose earlier bestseller "Built to Last" examined corporate successes, analyzes the traits of successful people and creates a set of simple practices that change life and work. The book is based on conversations with hundreds of remarkable men and women, including CEOs, national leaders, Nobel Prize winners and celebrities, as well as heroes who achieved lasting impact without obvious power and charisma. Famous or not, most started out ordinary. Discover how successful people "collect" their strengths and weaknesses, their victories and surprising failures. The book lets you discover how you can find meaning in your life and work. Summon the courage to follow your passions.

2. Memos from the Chairman

author: Alan C. Greenberg

"Ace Greenberg did almost everything better than I do - bridge, magic tricks, dog training and arbitrage - all the important things in life." —WARREN BUFFETT Alan C. Greenberg, former chairman of Bear Stearns and a well-known philanthropist, was known throughout the financial world for his quirky but invaluable and wise notes. Read by everyone from Warren Buffett, Jeff Bezos and Tom Peters ("I love this book," said the co-author of In Search of Excellence),

Memos from the Chairman is a unique and exceptionally simple management philosophy. Make decisions based on common sense. Avoid herd mentality. Control expenses through constant observation. Conduct your business morally. Unleash motivated, intelligent people. Always answer the phone quickly and politely. Never believe that your body odor is perfume. And stay humble, humble, humble.

3. Sam Walton: Made In America

author: Sam Walton, John Huey

Meet a true American hero, cut from the heartland of America: Sam Walton, who turned a "five-and-dime" store in a declining cotton town into Wal-Mart, the world's largest retailer. The undisputed king of retail at the end of the 20th century. Truly modest, yet always confident, in ambition and achievement. Sam shares his thinking in a candid, straightforward style.

 

source: https://www.theceolibrary.com/

Summary

The CEOs of the world's largest corporations – Indra Nooyi, Elon Musk and Jeff Bezos – eagerly reach for titles that combine business strategy, personal development and science. Nooyi recommends works on innovation and breaking down silos, as well as on the challenges of combining career and family. Musk draws on Einstein's biography, a cult science fiction series and books on the physics of structures. Bezos, meanwhile, points to the story of Sam Walton and management principles by Alan Greenberg, including humility and common sense.

Interestingly, these choices show that leaders don't limit themselves to purely business literature – they also reach for anthropology or humorous novels, seeking inspiration there to think outside established patterns.