Lateral Marketing - Philip Kotler and Fernando Trias de Bes (2003)

A very simple yet very effective framework to bring in innovation in any marketing set up. The basic concepts is fairly simple choose one of the 4Ps and apply one or more of the following transformations:

1. Substitute it
   
2. Invert it
   
3. Combine it
   
4. exaggerate it
   
5. Eliminate it
   
6. Reorder it

A gap will be apparent due to these transformations. The idea is to create an offering which is relevant to the gap created. The difference between lateral and vertical marketing is, while lateral marketing emphasizes on creating gaps and filling it with new offerings, vertical marketing creates a segment where a gap may not be apparent and a segmentation can create a new range of offerings. An excellent example given is of a heavy consumer vs a normal consumer. The gap does not exist yet through vertical marketing concepts you will typically create an offering (bigger container) for a heavy consumer purely for targeting. Overall, as per the authors lateral markets create new markets while vertical markets create better segmentation, targeting and positioning (STP) thus grow markets. Both kinds of practices have their own advantages and one cannot be replaced for the other.

Unlike brainstorming where ideation is a team effort, lateral marketing concepts can be used by individuals and more over lateral marketing is far more focused as it's conceptually based on changing part of an existing paradigm. The book also suggests methodologies for storing unused ideas for later reference.

A must read for any marketing executive.

A Search in Secret India - Paul Brunton (1934)

The book is about Paul's search for a guru and achieving realization in the end with help of his master Ramana Maharishi, one of the greated seers of modern times. Written in a simple language and aimed towards western audience, I think this book also provides a lot to learn for native Indians to understand their own country.

Must read if someone is trying to get an idea of existence of various forms of yoga that is practiced still in India.

The Cathedral & The Bazaar - Musings on Linux and Open Source by an Accidental Revoloutionary (2001) : Eric S. Raymond

The book although published in 2001, there articles presented in various different times. In last five years open source initiative have taken software to new areas and heights. I guess some of the ideas presented may have not be very relevant in today's times. There is a lot of new advances like Microsoft being more standards concious are not part of the book. Two articles I felt were important to understand the open source community at large:

1. Homesteading the Noosphere
2. The Magic Cauldron

The reason I liked the two articles as the first one talks about the community and how the gift economy works and the second one is about how to create a business model around open source and the sustainability of the same. I think the revolution is a long way to go. However, the way open source is fuelling the evolution of software there is a possibility of software as services may work out as the eventual model.

However, there is still some time may be in next 2-5 years.

A must read book for anyone who wants to understand the vision and motivation of open source. But, I still would say this book is not enough still to provide the needed insight to model a business around open source as there are not enough data to create a perceived value for your business.

Open Sources: Voices from the Open Source Revolution (1999) : Edited by - Chris DiBona, Sam Ockman & Mark Stone

This book is a bit dated in comparison to changes that have taken place and the acceptability Open Source Software has garnered over the last five to six years. Of course, the examples used may not be all relevant to the current context. For example, the lack of software project management practices are actually gone. We see more accurate and much more well thoughtout design documents in many open source implementations. There has been large number of companies who have started to contribute to open source in a bigger way. It will be probably hard to imagine a company today can shut its eye to open source.

What do we learn from this book?

This book is about vision as seen by almost big names in the open source community. All have there unique outlook for open source. Some do it because they believed in the cause, some out of frustration and some may have seen a business need to accept it. It's a place where people having variety of interests have come in to create a community of "Diligence, Patience, and Humility" while preserving "laziness, impatience, and hubris" of individuals as Larry Wall has put it.

An interesting read to understand various facets of one of the neo-technology movements of our times.

Innovation Happens Elsewhere - Ron Goldman and Richard P. Gabriel

This book introduces Open Source initiatives in a different light. Unlike the standard OSS gurus writing about how freedom is not granted etc., this book goes a bit deeper to create a marriage between open source and business. Of course there is nothing like a free lunch. Hence, do not expect yourself to get a complete Open Source based business plan after you read this book. It will give a clearer understanding of the Open Source processes, licenses, motivation factors and how you can use all that to your advantage if you are building a business model around open source software.

A must read if you are looking at using open source as part of your business strategy.

The Google Story - David A. Vise (2005)

Nothing Succeeds like Success - I guess the strategic impact Google has brought about to dotcom era is significant. This book describes some of that. Some parts of it may sound like more fiction than real. Some parts will look bizarre. I guess that makes this company a proven ground for the iconoclast.

For a more detailed review please look at:

http://sammiereviews.blogspot.com/2006/06/google-story.html