What Today’s Successful CEOs and CFOs Are Reading

The stories of today’s most innovative start-ups and most successful business leaders. The history of all of mankind. Or perhaps the tale of a major power outrage that left all of Europe in the dark. From management strategy books to literary fiction, these are just some of the books occupying the free time of today’s most influential CEOs and CFOs.

The Leading Corporate Transformation Podcast is a joint effort from WHU – Otto Beisheim School of Management and PwC. As part of each episode, the school’s ProfessorMartin Glaum and Professor Serden Ozcan, alongside co-host Gori von Hirschhausen of PwC, ask their guests which books they haven’t been able to put down lately. One such book even made the following list twice—perhaps making it a good last-minute holiday gift for your friends in management or maybe even for yourself.

• Kai Andrejewski (CFO Sixt SE): Franz Werfel’s Pale Blue Ink in a Lady’s Hand (Eine blassblaue Frauenschrift)
• Dr. Julian Deutz (CFO Axel Springer): Oliver Hilmes’s Berlin 1936: Sixteen Days in August (Berlin 1936: Sechzehn Tage in August)
• Gillian Drakeford (Group Head of Global Retail Experience IKEA): Simon Sinek’s Start with the Why
• Dr. Lars Grünert (CFO Trumpf GmbH): Maxim Biller’s Seven Attempts at Loving (7 Versuche zu lieben)
• Matthias Hartmann (CEO Techem Energy): Yuval Noah Harari’s Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind
• Lars Kaestle (CFO Breitling): Marc Elsberg’s Blackout – Tomorrow Will Be Too Late (Blackout – Morgen ist es zu spät)
• Eva Kienle (CFO KWS Saat): Antoine de Saint-Exupéry’s The Little Prince (Le petit prince)
• Dr. Hanns-Peter Knaebel (CEO Röchling): Geoff Colvin’s Talent is Overrated: What Really Separates World-Class Performers from Everybody Else
• Christian Ladurner (CFO Hensoldt AG): James Clear’s Atomic Habits
• Wolfgang Nickl (CFO Bayer AG): Stephen Lundin’s  Fish: A Proven Way to Boost Morale and Improve Results
• Dr. Sven Oleownik (Partner EMERAM Capital Partners): Select works by Herbert Henzler and Michael Porter
• Dr. Joachim Peerlings (CMD Keysight Technologies): Yuval Noah Harari’s Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind
• Gisbert Rühl (CEO Klöckner & Co): Clayton M. Christensen’s The Innovator’s Dilemma
• Sebastian Säuberlich (CFO Westwing):  William N. Thorndike Jr.’s The Outsiders
• Dr. Yorck Schmidt (CFO AVL List): Felix Oberholzer-Gee’s Better, Simpler Strategy: A Value-Based Guide to Exceptional Performance
• Harald Wilhelm (CFO Mercedes Benz): Stephen M. R. Covey’s The Speed of Trust
• Dr. Peter Zattler (CFO Giesecke+Devrient): Angela Duckworth’s Grit: The Power of Passion and Perseverance

All episodes of the Leading Corporate Transformation Podcast can be found on Spotify and other common podcast platforms.