Ted Sarandos’s favorite leadership manual is a 1902 sea storm story.
Netflix co-CEO Ted Sarandos credits his leadership wisdom not to business textbooks, but to a 1902 Joseph Conrad novella he has reread for decades. His favorite book, Typhoon, follows a steamship captain battling a ferocious storm with incomplete information and high stakes. For Sarandos, this fictional crisis mirrors the reality of managing a global streaming giant, proving that true leadership is revealed not in calm waters, but when plans disintegrate.
Sarandos explained to CNBC that he rarely reads traditional management literature, preferring fiction to explore decision-making. He first read Typhoon twenty years ago and initially viewed the captain as reckless. After years of rereading the 82-page story, his perspective shifted. He now sees a leader grappling with undesirable outcomes and limited data—a metaphor for the modern business landscape.
This literary philosophy translates directly to his career. A decade ago, Sarandos risked $100 million on House of Cards, Netflix’s first original series. He knew that if the show failed, the company would simply be overpaying for content—a common occurrence. But if it succeeded, it would fundamentally transform their business model. The gamble paid off, earning awards and cementing Netflix’s dominance. Typhoon prepared him for such moments, teaching him that the test of leadership isn’t avoiding the storm, but managing the chaos once it hits.
Like Jeff Bezos, who draws leadership lessons from Kazuo Ishiguro’s The Remains of the Day, Sarandos believes the best insights often come from the humanities rather than spreadsheets. For digital leaders facing rapid market shifts and algorithmic unpredictability, Typhoon offers a timeless lesson: adaptability under fire is the ultimate skill. By revisiting the story of a captain navigating the worst nature can offer, Sarandos models a leadership style grounded in resilience, intuition, and the courage to steer through the unknown.
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