首席執(zhí)行官并不是最適合推薦圖書的人群，因為他們幾乎沒有閑暇時間讀書。盡管如此，《財富》雜志在最近調(diào)研《財富》美國500強企業(yè)首席執(zhí)行官時提出問題：過去一年你讀過最好的一本書是什么？答案還挺豐富，我們收集到約40本書，既有《曼德拉傳：漫漫自由路》（Long Walk to Freedom）之類自傳，也有經(jīng)典如《圣經(jīng)》（The Bible），還有虛構小說《朝圣者》（I Am Pilgrim）和《美國的靈魂》（The Soul of America）等非虛構文學作品。

調(diào)研中有七本書被多次提起，所以在此特別介紹一下。七本書中有兩本都是羅恩·徹諾的作品，分別是三位首席執(zhí)行官提到的《格蘭特》（Grant）和兩位首席執(zhí)行官提到的《漢密爾頓》（Hamilton）。七本書中只有兩本獲得三位首席執(zhí)行官推薦，除了《格蘭特》，另一部是對沖基金經(jīng)理、億萬富翁瑞·達利歐所著的《原則》（Principles），他在書中向世人分享了成功的秘訣。值得一提的是，有一位首席執(zhí)行官推薦了《坦誠相待》（Radical Candor），作者是前谷歌高管吉姆·斯科特，他也認同達利歐的一個關鍵思想。

其他四本得到兩位首席執(zhí)行官推薦的書分別是：

——經(jīng)濟學家羅伯特·戈登所著《美國經(jīng)濟增長的起伏》（The Rise and Fall of American Growth）（我們沒問受訪者讀沒讀完這部785頁的大部頭。）

——華裔心理學家李惠安所著《毅力》（Grit），這本書據(jù)說提供了各領域皆適用的成功秘訣。

——J.D.·萬斯回憶錄《鄉(xiāng)下人的悲歌》（Hillbilly Elegy），相當值得一讀，特朗普當選美國總統(tǒng)后沖上了暢銷書排行榜。

——關于商業(yè)成功的經(jīng)典指南《從優(yōu)秀到卓越》（Good to Great），盡管是吉姆·科林斯將近二十年前的作品，今天仍然吸引著商界讀者。

既然到周日了，看看讀者的評論吧：

我曾在報道里提到，將近15%的《財富》美國500強企業(yè)首席執(zhí)行官描述自己的領導風格為“仆人式領導”。從事招聘工作的讀者D.M.諷刺說：“不是故意挑刺”，“別看仆人式領導提得多，理論上也挺高級，但現(xiàn)實生活中很少有，也極少人能真正做到……倒是希望‘說到做到’變成新潮流。”

我曾報道，雖然大部分首席執(zhí)行官都確信人工智能對企業(yè)“很重要”，但實際投資很少，另一讀者P.B.評論稱：“這些企業(yè)緊跟潮流并不是很適合。”（財富中文網(wǎng)）

譯者：Pessy

審校：夏林

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The CEO crowd isn’t the best place to go for book suggestions because they have so little free time to read. Nevertheless, we asked in our recent survey of Fortune 500 CEOs: What’s the best book you have read in the last year? And we got a grab bag of answers–some 40 different books, ranging from autobiographies (Long Walk to Freedom) to classics (The Bible) to fiction (I Am Pilgrim) to nonfiction (The Soul of America.)

Only seven books got mentioned more than once, so I’ll highlight those here. Author Ron Chernow wins the prize for writing two of the seven: Grant (3 mentions) and Alexander Hamilton (2). The only book besides Grant to get three mentions was Principles, which is billionaire hedge fund manager Ray Dalio’s effort to share the secrets of his success with the rest of the world. Worth noting that a fourth CEO cited Radical Candor, by former Googleexecutive Kim Scott, who shares a key element of Dalio’s philosophy.

Four other books got two mentions:

— The Rise and Fall of American Growth, by economist Robert Gordon (we didn’t ask whether they actually finished the 785-page tome.)

— Grit, by psychologist Angela Duckworth, which claims to offer the secret to success in any field.

— Hillbilly Elegy, the highly readable memoir of J.D. Vance, which rocketed on the bestseller lists after Trump’s election.

—And the classic guide to business success, Good to Great, written by Jim Collins nearly two decades ago, but still captivating business readers today.

Meanwhile, since it’s Sunday, a bit of reader feedback:

D.M., who works as a recruiter, took a cynical view of my report that nearly 15% of Fortune 500 CEOs used the term “servant leadership” to describe their own leadership style. “Not to sound cynical,” he said, but “servant leadership, while noble in theory and widely proclaimed, rarely exists in reality and/or execution…Here’s hoping we see a new trend of ‘practicing what they preach.’”

And P.B. commented on my report that most CEOs, while convinced AI is “very important” to their business, are making only modest investments in it. “The fast follower approach does not bode well for these companies.”