5 Books A CFO Must Read!

"Not all readers are leaders, but all leaders are readers."

I vividly remember the title of the first non-academic book which I read.?

It was a popular self help book-?You can win?by Shiv Khera.??

Sounds familiar?

I read it in 1999 and that time I was in Bikaner to carry out the audit of World Food Programme (WFP) while pursuing my training with a CA firm in Delhi. We were a bunch of 4-5 people who had been sent for the audit work.

One of the trainee was carrying this book (You can Win) but it was in a very dilapidated state. However, it's title attracted me immediately and I couldn't put it down once I started reading it. I vaguely remember that my CA exams were approaching near.?

Now, when I look back, it seems this book was a god sent to me for two reasons:??

1. It gave me an upliftment and confidence which I badly needed.?

2. It was written in simple English which encouraged me to read it because so far my whole schooling was through pure Hindi medium (people who have come from Hindi Medium can better relate to my agony).?

Since then, now when I look back, I must have read more than 200 books which added huge value in my life and helped me to lead a wonderful life on daily basis.?

Though my reading interests are quite diverse but my all time favorites are Autobiography and Self-Help categories.?

My work mostly involves working with CFOs, and I am grateful to them for their role. To show my gratitude, I want to share a list of 5 books that will help them in their professional and personal life.

Why these 5 books??

I have shared these 5 books with many CFOs. They all liked these books after reading them. Moreover, I must have read each of these 5 books at least twice.

In this article, I am going to tell you about each book. I think that these books will make you want to read them.?

Ready?

Let's start!

1. Atomic habits?by James Clear

I must have read more than 10 best books on habits but nothing comes close to "Atomic Habits" by James clear. The research done by James for this book is outstanding. The best quote on habit, which resonated with me is this:

"Habits are the compound interest of self -improvement"

CFOs being in the finance field will be able to appreciate this more.

There is a story in this book and I want to tell it to you. It is too good not to share with you.

THE FATE OF British Cycling changed one day in 2003. The organization, which was the governing body for professional cycling in Great Britain, had recently hired?Dave Brailsford?as its new performance director.?

At the time, professional cyclists in Great Britain had endured nearly 100+ years of mediocrity. Since 1908, British riders had won just a single gold medal at the Olympic Games, and they had fared even worse in cycling’s biggest race, the Tour de France. In 110 years, no British cyclist had ever won this race.

In fact, the performance of British riders had been so underwhelming that one of the top bike manufacturers in Europe refused to sell bikes to the team because they were afraid that it would hurt sales if other professionals saw the Brits using their gear.

Enter Dave Brailsford!

What made him different from previous coaches was his relentless commitment to a strategy that he referred to as?“the aggregation of marginal gains,”?which was the philosophy of searching for a tiny margin of improvement in everything you do.

Brailsford said, “The whole principle came from the idea that if you broke down everything you could think of that goes into riding a bike, and then improve it by 1 percent, you will get a significant increase when you put them all together.”

The results?

During the ten-year span from 2007 to 2017, British cyclists won 178 world championships and 66 Olympic or Paralympic gold medals and captured 5 Tour de France victories in what is widely regarded as the most successful run in cycling history.

Isn’t this story super inspiring?

In this book, James talks about 4 steps pattern which causes any habit to get formed, whether good or bad. Of course, we would be using this knowledge to build good habits. These 4 steps are:

1. Cue: A piece of information that suggests there’s a reward to be found, like the smell of a cookie or a dark room waiting to light up.
2. Craving: The motivation to change something to get the reward, like tasting the delicious cookie or being able to see.
3. Response: Whatever thought or action you need to take to get to the reward.
4. Reward: The satisfying feeling you get from the change, along with the lesson whether to do it again or not.?

This 4 step pattern causes the formation of a habit loop.

Once, we get to know the reason behind habit formation, the next obvious question would be what to do to form a good habit and what to do or not to do to break a bad habit, isn’t it??

That's where the book becomes irresistible when James shares the blueprint to form any good habit and to break any bad habit.?

Here is the tabular summary of 4 laws of behavior change (read blueprint) to create a good habit and break a bad habit:

?I am tempted to share more about this book but this blog will become too lengthy:-)

?It's my challenge that when you will read this book, you will search for my contact number on google to get in touch and thank me for recommending this wonderful book.

?Ready to take on this challenge?

2. Your erroneous zones?by Wayne Dyer

I must have read and listened (the audio book version) this book at least more than 5 times and each time I read or listen I pick up something which seems quite new.

This is the first book written by Wayne Dyer and it has sold more than 30 million copies, yes 30 million.?

The key message in the book is that, although we can’t change everything about ourselves, we can take control of our feelings and decide not only how we react to situations, but who we want to be.?

3rd chapter of this book is my personal favourite- YOU DON’T NEED THEIR APPROVAL

Wayne says that needing approval is tantamount to saying, “Your view of me is more important than my own opinion of myself.”?

He further clarifies that approval seeking is not bad till the time it's your "want" but it gets converted into an erroneous zone when it becomes a "need" rather than a "want".

I got present that this behavior is ruining my happiness and peace of mind. I am sure you would also be able to relate to this self destructive behavior. There is one example in this chapter which always helps me to get rid of my approval seeking instinct.

Wayne says that at least half of the people in your world are going to disagree with at least half the things you say. In politics, if a politician wins 53% vote, it's considered a landslide victory (even though 47% people voted against him).

Ready to deal with your erroneous behaviour?

3. The Unusual Billionaires?by Saurabh Mukherjea

This unusual book?tells the story of 7 truly outstanding companies which delivered 10 per cent revenue growth over the last 10 years and 15 per cent return on capital employed on?consistent basis.

Consistency is the key here.

You might shrug off and think what's the great about this performance.

To avoid this mistake, let me inform you that these 7 companies have beaten 1493 listed companies to be included here. Yes, in India, we have approx. 1500 listed companies with a market capitalization of INR 100 crore or more (at the time of research of this book).

Saurabh and his team went through the financials performance of 1500 companies over these two parameters:

1. The company should have delivered 10% + growth in revenue over a period of 10 years, consistently.
2. The company should have delivered 15% + return on capital employed over a period of 10 years, consistently.

A company to qualify, should meet BOTH the parameters.

Then Saurabh talks in detail about each of the seven companies to reveal the secret sauce behind their stellar but consistent performance, which revolves around three critical areas:

1. Focusing on their core business
2. Deepening their competitive moats
3. Efficient capital allocation

The 7 companies mentioned in this amazing book are:

1. Asian Paints
2. Berger Paints
3. Marico
4. Page Industries (read Jockey)
5. Axis Bank
6. HDFC Bank
7. Astral Poly

Out of all the above 7 companies, Berger Paint story is my favorite one.?

There is an interesting fact about these 7 companies- 6 out of these 7 companies are promotor owned but professionally run companies.

3. Never spilt the difference?by Chris Ross

?When you will start reading this book, you will experience as if you are watching a thriller movie. This is the best book on "Negotiation"??I have ever read.?

Chris Ross is a highly successful FBI hostage negotiator with a career spanning over 20 years. During his career, he must have worked on 150+ international hostage cases.

In this book, Chris have shared the most advanced yet highly impactful negotiation techniques.?

The way he has narrated the incidents of his famous negotiations with the terrorist and other hostage situations along with how did he apply the negotiations techniques make it an interesting read.?

Language is sharp, clear and impactful.

Some of the most powerful techniques which he talks about in the book are:

• The power of active listening
• How to deploy "Tactical Empathy"
• How to use "Mirroring" to win someone over
• Power of open ended "Calibrated Questions"

You don’t need any other book if you are looking for sharpening of your negotiation skill.

Tip: You must read this book at least once every year to stay on the top of your negotiation game.

4. Unposted Letter?by Mahatria

In "Unposted Letter," Mahatria makes a case for the importance of mindfulness in shaping our outlook and how it can help us deal with day to day struggles.?

Through its simplicity, this book helps one realize their subconscious mind which is integral in understanding oneself better by facing the truth about ourselves. This self-introspection enables them to find happiness through small things like spending time alone or going on walks that lead into happier lives.

This book is a collection of short articles. Each article contain deep and profound reflections on many different topics related to life, work, situations, and attitudes.

The best part of this book is that you can read it from any page and you will get some insight to the problem you are currently dealing.?

Each chapter or letter takes 5-10 minutes to read. It's a must have in your list of "to be read" books.

6. Bonus Book:?How to Manufacture Time??by Chandan Goyal

This amazon bestseller has been written by me in 2020. It's highly popular among CFOs who are hard pressed on availability of time in their life.?

The out of the box but easy to implement framework shared in this book has helped thousands of CFOs to manufacture additional time worth 2 months in a year.

This book revolve around the biggest paradox in our life:

Time is what we want most but time is what we waste most.

You will get to know why most of the time management books and training doesn’t work after some time.

Do you want to know right now?

Ok let me share.

You need not to manage time but you need to manage the distractions in your life. Once you manage the distraction, time automatically become available.

Interested to manufacture time in your life?

So, these were the 5+1 books which every CFO must read to add huge value in their life.

I look forward to your feedback when you read these amazing books and in case you have already read few or all of them, please share your learnings and insights right now in the comment box.

What other books have impacted you and added value in your life??