Summary of Trailblazer

Not all the same

Not all CEO autobiographies are the same. Some are more narcissistic, some more insightful, some more self-congratulatory, some better written. Generally speaking, CEO autobiographies from more traditional industries – manufacturing or finance, for example – seem to offer less self-insight and more hard and fast business instruction.

But, as top-down leadership fades in importance and more horizontal organizational structures dominate, CEO biographies are coming to reflect this trend with more thoughtful, egalitarian, communal philosophies. It’s hard to imagine anyone like Salesforce CEO Marc Benioff writing this work – or, indeed, having Benioff’s career path – in, for example, the go-go 1990s, and it’s even harder to conceive of such a journey during the deranged run-up to the 2008 financial crisis.