What Billionaires and Astronauts Read: Jeff Bezos’ XNUMX Favorite Books

Billionaire Jeff Bezos conquered American business, e-commerce, and in July 2021 also space. Which books shaped his worldview and influenced his business – in the selection of Trends

Clayton M. Christensen, The Innovator’s Dilemma

One of the most popular books on why even large companies with a quality product can lose market leadership. Its author is a professor at Harvard University who backs up each of his conclusions with some kind of research. In the book, Christensen was one of the first to predict the surge in the popularity of electric vehicles, introduced the concept of disruptive innovation, and also defined the concept of Jobs to Be Done (work to be done), which explains the motivation of the buyer. Bezos calls this book “extremely influential” and applies the principles in it to the management of Amazon.

Jason Fried, David Heinmeyer Hansson, Rework. Business without prejudice»

In this book, Fried and Hansson share the secret of how to create a successful business without the “baggage” of unnecessary elements – meetings, expensive advertising campaigns, budgeting, and other routine, but, according to the authors, optional tasks. What appeals most about this book to Bezos is the approach: “The authors are not afraid to start over and rewrite the accepted rules of business.” The billionaire also notes that despite the intuitively contradictory approach of Fried and Heymeyer, he nevertheless turns out to be successful.

Jim Collins, Good to Great

We know hundreds and thousands of good companies, but not all of them were able to transform into great ones, and in his work, Jim Collins undertook to explain why. Together with a team of researchers, he explores how Abbott, Gillette, Kimberly-Clark, Philip Morris and others managed to make this transition, what decisions and steps helped them in this transformation, and also why not everyone succeeds in it. According to Collins, if you focus on the ideas expressed in the book, you can optimize and improve the processes in an existing business, as well as avoid many mistakes when opening a new one.

Nassim Taleb, Black Swan

The financial crisis and the pandemic have made the concept of “black swan” commonly used and one of the most popular. This is the name of unpredictable events that radically change the situation and destroy plans. In his book, former trader Taleb examines precisely such events, as well as the tendency of people to give simple explanations for them, but only in retrospect. He believes that it is the “black swans” that change the course of history, and in order to become successful, businesses need to be ready for them and even try to anticipate them.

Jim Collins, Jerry Porras, Built to Last

This work by Collins and Porras, the founder of Amazon calls his favorite book. It is based on a six-year study of the fundamental reasons for the time-tested success of companies such as Walmart, Walt Disney, Boeing, Sony, Hewlett-Packard and 13 others. The main question of researchers at the Stanford University Business School is “What distinguishes these successful companies with a long history from competitors?”. The book attracts with a lot of practical material – a lot of concrete examples from the past of existing companies, which turns the work into a real guide for businessmen and managers of different levels of experience.

Steve Grant, Creation: Life and How to Create It

Who, if not a practicing game designer, who single-handedly wrote 250 thousand lines of code for the popular game Creatures, should give advice on creating a new reality and, in fact, life? This work is a mix of philosophy, computer science, artificial intelligence and game development. The book contains practical advice that will be useful to both designers and anyone interested in the issues of “smart” systems.

Mark Jeffrey, “Data Driven Marketing”

In this paper, marketer Mark Jeffrey explains what metrics can help a company make marketing successful and profitable. He identifies 15 key indicators by which you can evaluate the effectiveness of marketing and, in the long term, improve it. Using examples from the working practice of international companies, the author consistently and clearly explains the principles of working with data and gives a universal system for evaluating marketing activities.

Alan Greenberg, Chairman’s Notes

Former head of investment bank Bear Stearns Alan Greenberg is known in the business world for his witty remarks about management, interaction with the team and employees. This book is an entrepreneur’s notes on doing business, company values, and useful qualities for a leader, among which Greenberg highlights politeness, modesty, and frugality. It was this book that inspired Bezos when writing the first letter to shareholders, which later became an annual tradition.

Eliyahu Goldratt, Purpose. The process of continuous improvement»

The Israeli economist Goldratt is primarily known as the creator of the Theory of Constraints and its famous “Five Steps” to improve efficiency. In this paper, Goldratt talks about how to improve management efficiency. He seeks to teach the reader to see cause and effect relationships in processes, as well as to structurally consider problems. Bezos believes that the book motivates leaders to look for limits in their activities and find optimization points that will help them get the most out of the limits. With the tips in this book, Amazon has been able to improve its processing and fulfillment centers.

Sam Walton, “Made in America: How I Created Walmart”

Walmart founder Sam Walton’s book explores the principles behind retailing and his desire to turn a tiny suburban store into the world’s largest supermarket chain. A separate bonus is the optimism and sense of humor of Walton, who does not hesitate to talk about mistakes and failures in his work. One of his principles – “willingness to try many things and make many mistakes” – Bezos included in the list of Amazon’s corporate values.