inside the tornado: marketing strategies from silicon valley's cutting edge: Geoffrey A Moore (1995)

The biggest problem with management books are there are very small number of books that stand the test of time. I feel "Inside the Tornado" proves it all wrong. The examples are dated. At least from the time when I had stepped into the tech industry. Some companies who ruled when the books were written have ceased to exist in today's times but you can always make a good mapping which companies exist in the race and where in the technology adoption cycle. I personally liked the description of the Main Street. A phase most technology companies miss out while planning and always prefer to be on the staircase S-curves. Some succeed and most fail. But I think it will be of significant value if someone clearly carves out a main street strategy. I think that's where the maturity of management comes to play than technology value. The real customer focus. In some sense the book has done such a great job of that part of adoption cycle I will probably like the in the Main Street as the name of the book.

The Maruti Story - RC Bhargava and Seetha (2010)

Written as a simple story on how Maruti came into being as company and went to be a leader in the car business in India. There is definitely a lot to be learnt on Maruti in the book. How the car came into being as a public sector initiative and ended up being the largest car manufacturer in India as described in very simple and lucid manner in the book. The challenges are described nicely and how the team Maruti addressed the issues are nicely portrayed.

As with every person writing an autobiography the focus is around how great things have happened around Maruti. The negative points have been toned down a lot. Just like the Nano story it seems to feel more like reading a success story but too silent on the challenges.

I am sure no company has everything that hunky dory there definitely a shade of grey to everything.

Field Marshal Sam Manekshaw: Soldiering with Dignity - Lt. Gen. Depinder Singh (2002)

Very few books have been written on war heroes of India. In that sense, this book is a good addition to let Indians know about one of the greatest soldiers of India who was instrumental in the win of a war with authority.The 1971 India-Pakistan war brought India to a military super power in the south Asian region and in the long run has changed the way the world has been looking at the country.

However, the book looks like a representation of street smartness of the Field Marshal than a serious account of life of the Field Marshal. Personally, I will not recommend this book unless someone wants to read about the Field Marshal as Indian history texts seldom talk about this celebrated soldier and his life.

Overall an average book.

First, Break All the Rules: What the World's Greatest Managers Do Differently - M. Buckingham and C. Cuffman (1999)

This book needs no introduction. This has been cited as one of the top 10 books in the management literature.

http://management.about.com/od/careerdevelopment/tp/TopMgtBooks.htm

Rather than writing a commentary on this book, I will suggest people to go through the reviews on Amazon. If you have not read this book, I will suggest you read it as soon as possible.

How the Mighty Fall - Jim Collins (2009)

One of my favorite authors of management literature. But this book seemed more like a forced attempt than concrete outcome of a thorough research. Writing on fallen heroes by own claims are always hard. The facts that made them heroes in wrong proportions bring to their fall as well. There is certainly good deal of research but the outcome looks more like philosophic. But the five stages of falling companies is well identified and examples of companies who have gone through the phases nicely identified.

1. Hubris born of success
2. Undisciplined pursuit of more
3. Denial of risk and peril
4. Grasping for salvation
5. Capitulation to irrelevance or death

 You can identify them very easily when you have faced them in anywhere you have been exposed to. I think over all a good coffee table read.

 

 

What the Dog Saw: And Other Adventures - Malcolm Gladwell (2009)

The Wikipedia link summarizes the theme of the book very well. However, I could not really correlate one story with another. I think each of the articles in the book are great but together as a book they do not provide enough interest. Each article is nicely written. Characterstic of the master story teller in Malcolm Gladwell.

I will advice anyone trying to read the book to read it as 19 pieces of essays loosely interconnected without trying to make sense out of it as a compilation.

Overall a good book to read if serious reading is what you like.

The World is Flat - Thomas Friedman (2005)

Some books are great when it's read in the times if is supposed to be read. I think the book has reached the expiry date. For the book to be talking about technology innovations in 2005 this is a great book. But when you read it in mid-2011 it has reached to its expiry. The settings and arguments are good but I must say not worth the time or effort to read it now.

The Bachelor of Arts - R. K. Narayan (1937)

The book does not need a review. But it's interesting still for me to write a couple of lines on it. A simple story written in 1937 but quite modern in its approach. The outline of the story is already stated in the Wikipedia link. What made this book unputdownable was the classic R.K.Narayan story telling. This is a book with a balanced dose of humour, emotions of an adoloscent, parental concerns and a man's confusion on choosing the right approach to his career and life.

Overall an interesting read.

Zero Percentile - Missed IIT Kissed Russia - Neeraj Chhibba (2009)

The book is about a student whose ambition was to get into IIT but could not make it due to circumstances which were beyond his control. Beyond that there is nothing much around IIT. The book has some typical situations of a transitional Russia and how harsh it had been for people in general. The book has very limited depth and towards end author tends to give a long discourse on love, sacrifice and has tons of rhetorics which only dilutes the theme of the story. The protagonist has been shown to have a champion business sense who could strike a deal with any situation.

Overall a very average book. Recommended if you have nothing better to read.

The Immortals of Meluha - Amish (2010)

010A definite page turner as there is not much of substance in it. A book of fantasy using some of India's mythological characters and tries to portray a bunch of standard philosphical concepts into a Mahenjadaro, Harappa structure. The level of conceptual research is lacking nor any originality. Someone actually conceived a "Lord of the Rings" trilogy without the depth but definitely for the Indian audience there will be an interesting movie around this trilogy.

If you have not read the book, I will suggest to hold on. You may watch the movie and need not read the book.

Recommended if you have no other interesting book in your bookshelf to read.

Heartbreaks and Dreams! - The Girls@IIT - Parul Mittal (2010)

Story looked quite predictable from the title but more close to reality than the earlier two instances of IIT story telling of Five Point Someone and Above Average. But writing style and quality was not as appealing as the other two books are. There are definitely some high points and low points in the book but not a book which will make you keep glued to it. In the days with limited communication opportunities and a closed social circle there is bound to be a lot of inner desire to socialize with the opposite sex. I guess the book focused too much into that aspect than getting to a complete view of the IIT life.

Overall a good read but not a great one.

The Macintosh Way - Guy Kawasaki (1990)

Is it worth reading or writing a review of a book which has been well accepted in market and is kind of a real life case of Guerilla marketing at its best? Personally, I felt the text is a worthwhile read but as you read to later chapters they seemed like a drag. But overall a great book to read. The Macintosh Way is doing the right thing in the right way. Morever there are lots of instances shown where you can directly relate why some operating platforms succeed while some do not. The first part focuses on doing the right things like setting up a right work environment, rewards, customer support and markting communications. Second part focuses on doing the right things like evangelism, providing right level of communication through user groups and demos that appeal to customers and users beyond the regular sales presentations.

One thing that stands out clearly in this book, is the difference the product mindset in the executives and particularly the CEO bring into the company: Steve Jobs, Bill Gates and John Warnock all had one thing in common they all loved the best in the products and brought out that class in any products they built or tried to ingrain that culture in the organizations they built. Otherwise the management literature has questioned several of their management styles but seldom they had questioned the DICE framework (depth, indulgence, completeness and elegance) of the great products they built.

I guess there are lots of personal biases in the book but overall still relevant book for someone who is looking at building insanely great products. You can read the initial chapters in details and skim through the later chapters as they looked more like adding best seller value to the book than substance.

Small Wonder - The Making of the Nano

Nano was the greatest engineering vision of the century. I am sure it has the potential to be the next serious innovation after Model-T. I think there is a limit to appreciating yourself or patting on one's own back. This book definitely chronicles a successful launch of a great milestone. Does that mean there is nothing negative about the vehicle? I am surprised to see there is no mention of the multiple fire accidents that has been reported. The car sold the minimum numbers in Nov. 2010, nowhere near the numbers Tata motors predicted. The car which only can speak for itself now needs serious advertisement and PR to survive. One of the efforts is probably to provide these kind of books.

The book is all about an advertisement for Tata motors and greatness of Ratan Tata and team in making Tata Nano happen. Anything that is not aligned has not been treated in any positive manner. I do not recommend a book that is so baised in its content.