Netflix CEO Ted Sarandos doesn’t have management books stashed in his work bag, on his desk or piled on his nightstand.
Sarandos doesn’t really read management books at all, he said in an interview for an episode of CNBC’s “Leaders Playbook,” a series set to premiere on Wednesday. Instead, he reads fiction novels to learn about leadership, he said. His favorite management book: “Typhoon,” a 1902 novella by Joseph Conrad about a steamship captain and crew navigating a severe storm while at sea.
“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,” said Sarandos, 61. “I read it over and over again because I find ... I get something different in the book every time I read it.”
When Sarandos first read the book roughly 20 years ago, he thought the captain was a reckless “hot dog” who put himself and his family in jeopardy, he said. On more recent reads, he’s come away with a more salient lesson about leading in the face of conflict and uncertainty.
“Now, what I see is that when you go through life and you go through business, you make a lot of decisions that don’t turn out the way you thought they would,” said Sarandos. “The real leadership test is: How do you manage through that?”
