Antonio Neri, the Argentine-born HPE CEO, rises at 5:45 each day without an alarm, a habit traced to 25-mile early-morning bus rides to a military base for school. He catches up on news while shaving, having installed a TV in his bathroom, and arrives at the company's Houston office — a seven-minute drive — before 7 a.m.

"When I don't travel… I'm 100% of the time at the office," Neri said, explaining he wants to be accessible and values informal conversations between parking his car and reaching his desk. The engineer by training and occasional fine artist also had a hand in the building's interior design.

"If I were to start all over again, I would be an architect," he noted during a recent visit to the WSJ Leadership Institute, adding that the school environment shaped his need for routine, though he dislikes rushing in the morning.