Best Books For CFOs to Read & Study

He singled out Patrick Lencioni’s “The Five Dysfunctions of a Team” and “Crossing the Chasm: Marketing and Selling Mainstream Products to Disruptive Customers,” by Geoffrey A. Moore, as being two of his top picks.

What’s your favorite business or finance book? How has it impacted your life? If you’re feeling inspired, it’s time to dive into a book — after all, reading is good for your career. Not only is it a proven way to relieve stress, but reading improves empathy, broadens your vocabulary, improves decision-making faculties, and sparks creativity, to name just a few reasons to pick up a good book. It’s no wonder Warren Buffet famously recommended reading 500 pages a day as a recipe for success: “That’s how knowledge works. It builds up, like compound interest. All of you can do it, but I guarantee not many of you will do it.”

In an informal poll, some recommended books named by the Off the Ledger community of independent finance professionals included:

• “The Financial Controller and CFO’s Toolkit: Lean Practices to Transform Your Finance Team,” by David Parmenter
• “Controller’s Code: The Secret Formula to a Successful Career in Finance,” by Michael Whitmire
• “Extreme Ownership: How U.S. Navy Seals Lead and Win,” by Jocko Willink
• “Radical Candor: Be a Kick-Ass Boss Without Losing Your Humanity,” by Kim Scott

In addition to the books on the Forbes list, some recommendations from Airbase team members include:

• Airbase Founder and CEO, Thejo Kote: “Influence: The Psychology of Persuasion,” by Robert Cialdini
• Customer Success Manager and CPA, Jag Brar: “The Intelligent Investor,” by Benjamin Graham
• Senior Software Engineer, Peeyush Aggarwal: “The Undercover Economist,” by Tim Harford, and “The Rise and Fall of Nations: Forces of Change in the Post-Crisis World,” by Ruchir Sharma
• Account Executive, Skip Kovar: “Thinking Fast and Slow,” by Daniel Kahneman
• Director of Product (Bill Payments), Shreyas Subramaniam: “The Hard Thing About Hard Things: Building a Business When There are No Easy Answers” by Ben Horowitz
• Senior Marketing Programs Manager, McKenzie Wright: “Originals,” by Adam Grant, and “The Tipping Point,” by Malcolm Gladwell
• Senior Marketing Project Manager, Kendra Pecan: “Creativity, Inc.,” by Ed Catmull
• Vikas Gorur, Senior Director of Engineering: “The Smartest Guys in the Room,” by Bethany McLean
• Kaushal Sanghavi, Director of Product (Corporate Cards and Employee Reimbursements): “The Goal: A Process of Ongoing Improvement,” by Eliyahu M. Goldratt

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