Netflix Inc. (NASDAQ:NFLX) co-CEO Ted Sarandos credits fiction, rather than traditional management books, with shaping how he navigates leadership challenges and high-stakes business decisions.
Sarandos Says Fiction Shapes My Leadership
On Wednesday, Sarandos, 61, told CNBC’s Leaders Playbook that he rarely reads management books, preferring fiction to learn about leadership.
His favorite is Typhoon, a 1902 novella by Joseph Conrad about a steamship captain and crew battling a violent storm.
“It doesn’t sound like a management story on the surface, but I think it’s the most powerful leadership story I’ve ever read,” Sarandos said.
He added, “I read it over and over again because I find … I get something different in the book every time I read it.”
He recalled that when he first read the book, he saw the captain as reckless, but later recognized a deeper lesson about leading through uncertainty.
“The real leadership test is: How do you manage through that?” he said.
Applying Fiction Lessons To Netflix Risks
Sarandos connected the story’s lessons to his own career.
About a decade after joining Netflix as head of content operations, he spent $100 million on the company’s first original series, House of Cards, greenlighting two seasons without CEO Reed Hastings’ approval.
“If it succeeds, we could completely transform the business as we know it,” he said.
Leadership Lessons From Top CEOs And Investors
Earlier, Lyft Inc. (NASDAQ:LYFT) CEO David Risher, investor Kevin O’Leary and late Berkshire Hathaway vice chairman Charlie Munger shared leadership and productivity lessons.
Risher said his experience working under Bill Gates and Jeff Bezos helped drive Lyft to record performance in 2024.
He credits Gates with teaching him to focus on weaknesses rather than strengths and Bezos with instilling customer obsession. He said that the mindset shift helped Lyft post record-high annual ride numbers.
O’Leary said a productivity framework inspired by Steve Jobs, centered on completing three critical tasks each day, transformed how he worked and accelerated business growth.
In 2017, Munger said Berkshire Hathaway’s success stemmed from abandoning short-term, career-driven thinking in favor of an owner’s mindset focused on high-quality businesses with lasting advantages.
Disclaimer: This content was partially produced with the help of AI tools and was reviewed and published by Benzinga editors.
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