The Must-Read Top 5 Books Recommended By Jeff Bezos

Amazon founder Jeff Bezos, who started Amazon as an online bookshop worldwide, Jeff Bezos is the world famous businessman known for his wisdom, his knowledge, and his courage in starting a huge e-commerce platform. He mentions books he's reading or has enjoyed in various interviews, podcasts, and public talks. We also get to know about books he is currently reading through news articles and media coverage. As we know, news publications often prepare lists of books Bezos has recommended over the years based on his various mentions. In this article, we will explore the list of five books that Bezos has publicly shared. The first book we have in the list is "The Innovator's Dilemma" by Clayton Christensen; the second book is "The Remains of the Day" by Kazuo Ishiguro; the third book is going to be "Built to Last" by Jim Collins; the fourth book queued on our list is "The Goal" by Eliyahu Goldratt; and at last, and one of his favorites, the fifth book, "Sam Walton: Made in America". Each book of this given list offers knowledge into innovation, helps in decision-making, and promotes personal excellence, leadership, profit, and long-term thinking that have influenced Bezos's approach to building a successful Amazon platform worldwide.

The Innovator's Dilemma by Clayton M. Christensen

The Innovator's Dilemma, with a New Foreword: When New Technologies Cause Great Firms to Fail

₹ 864

₹ 1,350 (36% off)

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Direct from the pick of Jeff Bezos's first book on the list is "The Innovator's Dilemma" by author Clayton M. Christensen. In this book the author writes and examines why successful companies always fail when faced with disruptive technological changes around the world. The author Christensen presents a framework in his book explaining how successful companies established a focus on serving existing customers with incremental improvements to better their customers' experience with them, while on the other hand, newcomer companies capture emerging markets with simpler, cheaper alternatives. In this book author uses case studies from the steel industries to demonstrate to us so that everyone can understand how market leaders lose ground despite making rational decisions. There is deep research, methodology, and analysis, with detailed industrial examples and strategic concepts on business and industry that are accessible to business leaders.

The Remains of the Day by Kazuo Ishiguro

The Remains of the Day (FF Classics)

₹ 335

₹ 502 (33% off)

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Bezos included this book in his recommended reading because it examines how a person reflects on their life, how they make decisions, and the consequences of the choices and decisions they make over a lifetime. Kazuo Ishiguro is the author of the novel "The Remains of the Day", published in 1989, a novel that narrates the story of Stevens, the protagonist of this novel, an imaginary character of the story who is an English butler. In this novel, Stevens reflects on his life when he was on a road trip serving the English countryside. The author of the book Ishiguro explores themes of human dignity, why humans regret, and the cost humans have to pay for suppressing personal feelings for professional duty. The narrative of the story unfolds reflections of Stevens on his relationship with housekeeper Miss Kenton and his unwavering loyalty to Lord Darlington. The writing style of prose in the novel uses restrained language that beautifully mirrors the protagonist's emotional control over his decisions and choices he makes. The novel won the Booker Prize for Stevens's personal sacrifice and was adapted into a 1993 film. 

Built to Last: Successful Habits of Visionary Companies 

Interestingly, Bezos referenced this book when discussing Amazon's success and how Bezos approached building institutions just like Amazon, enduring worldwide success, rather than optimising for short-term metrics. The authors distinguish between having a great idea and building an organisation that can repeatedly generate great ideas for you and for the welfare of your institution. The book "Built to Last" presents research on eighteen companies around the world that achieved long-term success with their great ideas, comparing them with competitor firms that did not sustain excellence much longer in the industry. So the authors of the book Collins and Porras, worked together to identify characteristics for their book, including core ideology based on ideation, cultures in the industry, goals, rather than time-telling leadership that can't last much longer.

Sam Walton: Made in America by Sam Walton with John Huey

Walmart is the world's first largest retail store, opened in Rogers, Arkansas, in 1962. It was founded by Sam Walton, who built the company on a strategy of offering low prices and great value to their customers, eventually growing it into the world's largest retailer. "Sam Walton: Made in America" is the autobiography of Walmart's founder. The writing style in the book is direct and honest, reflecting Walton's personality. The book was published in 1992, shortly before Walton's death, providing his final assessment of his career and the company culture he created. In this autobiography, you will go through his journey from operating a single start-up store to building the world's largest retailer. Walton carefully discusses his focus on everyday low prices for the buyers and on-time distribution efficiency for the customers, and he majorly focused on employee ownership by giving them perks to boost their confidence. To make Walmart better and more efficient, he started to learn from competitors. The book covers his early retail experiments, development strategy to deal with multiple things, technology adoption for the betterment of convenience, and management attitude to manage high and low periods of the market. 

The Goal: A Process of Ongoing Improvement 

The Goal: A Process of Ongoing Improvement - 30th Anniversary Edition

₹ 937

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The protagonist in the book is a manufacturing plant manager, Alex Rogo, who has ninety days to save his failing manufacturing facility under him. He goes to communicate about the ongoing downfall of his manufacturing firm with his former physics professor Jonah. Through conversations with him, Alex finally learns to identify restrictions that occurs on manufacturing facilities; he exploits them in his favor to save his falling company, giving a glimpse of american economy and subordinates other processes, and at that moment on how to elevate system-based performance to save his manufacturing facility. This book, "The Goal" uses a novel format from the beginning of each chapter that teaches the theory of limitations in the industry in the American economy and a management for identifying tie-ups in production systems of the industry. through the story of Alex's factory turnaround and marriage crisis, about his separation from his partner. Bezos has discussed how the concept of this book influenced his focus on Amazon by building staff efficiency and focusing on customer satisfaction.

How Reading A Good Book Improves Our Life And Career

There is a saying that reading books is equal to exploring the world. Through books we get to know about others' experiences in their life and the choices they made, and how to deal with unexplored emotions; they also help us to improve our lifestyle and prepare us for real-world experiences. There are practical benefits of reading books; it helps in improving vocabulary. People who read at night sleep better than ever, and it also makes our communication very effective, and our overall personality syncs with it automatically. 

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Final thoughts 

You can add those books to your habit. Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos pointed out books mostly in his famous annual letters to shareholders and also in his interviews and public appearances. We also get to know about his lifestyle and what he is currently interested in reading. Readers always want to know about these letters, and interviews are publicly available in which he recommends books. Bezos occasionally shares books on his Instagram and Twitter/X accounts, though he doesn't post extremely frequently. Stay tuned.