BRAToSPHERE

Category: Books

  • 31 – Book Review

    A month back, I was at the airport on the way home. And I had decided this time that I would not be carrying any book along. This one week at home is supposed to be spent with family and not with a book.

    And, guess what? I end up not only buying a book at the airport, but also spend the first two days at home glued to the book. Just had to.

    PhotobucketHave to admit, this is probably the first time that a book has been marketed so well that I just had to pick it up impulsively. A complete wall at the book store at the CSIA was branded with this latest offering from westland. A new author and I had not yet heard of the book, but the blurb on the backside just gave me in. I HAD TO READ THIS BOOK.
    31 by Upendra Namburi. Have to say, the title of the book does build up curiosty.

    31 stands for the 31 days in the month of March, and the book is neatly laid out with each chapter detailing each day of the month.

    Corporate thriller is not an easy genre to crack, and Upendra Namburi has given it a very good shot. Upendra succeeds in building an indian perspective and ensuring the humour is intact throughout the book. Any working individual would relate to most, if not all of the problems faced by Ravi Shastri, the main character in the book

    Talking about the Story, the first few chapters are used in introducing the characters and the setting of the book. The protagonist is in a multinational Bank as a branch manager for south. He just completes February month on a high, and is all geared up for the last month of the financial year.

    Target achievements, appraisals, reviews and pressures – all of these sound so familiar. Ravi Shastri is your regular professional trying to make a mark in this big bad world. All the clichés – an over demanding boss, Difficult recessionary times, head count reduction, arrogant HR guy, an even more arrogant top management, ex-flame, wife, kids and parents and of course the Black berries and twiiter. Upendra ensures all of them are tied in complete tandem with the main story.

    One thing to be highlighted here is the way twitter is used in the main story to add continuation.

    The litmus test for any thriller is the ending and Upendra does a fair job. Speaking any more of the ending would rob you of the pleasure of reading the book, and thus I keep my mouth shut.

    Without doubt, do pick this up. One of the better Indian books that I have read this year.

  • Delivering Happiness – Book Review

    About two months ago, browsing through my book shelf on the IPAD, I came across this wonderful cover – a big huge cardboard box being lifted by a person. This caught my interest and after realizing that this is the Zappos story, it just got me hooked.
    My passion of e-commerce and my preferred book categories – autobiographies, immediately took me to start reading the book.
    Tony Hsieh, candidly starts off from his childhood where, in his words, he admits that he was not what you would call a model student. He preferred reading a magazine rather than learning to play a musical instrument that his parents had him enrolled for.
    Right from a young age, the entrepreneurship bug had bitten him, and he details the earthworm venture that had failed before it had even started.
    His advertisement for a magic kit, generated only one order, but that did not loosened his spirit by a bit. In Harvard, he had figured out how to make money selling food on campus.
    His brief stint at oracle after campus is something that most of us would relate to. A normal job, being restless, finding it tedious and being drawn towards entrepreneurship – these are the things that I keep hearing from most people my age.
    Delivering HappinessLinkExchange, his first major business, which was a mix and match of a clever idea eventually got sold to Microsoft for 265 million dollars. This sale came with the caveat that he had to be a part of the company for a year.
    For a brief period of time, after the sale of Linkexchange to Microsoft, Tony dabbled with poker, investing and other things when Tony realized his real passion lies in building companies.
    In spite of the risk of losing the money, and trading a chill life, he again got back into business costing him 8 million dollars!
    This book is less about the e-commerce business company, and more about the great culture that he managed to imbibe into the organization. Today, without a doubt, everybody would agree that zappos is more known for its winning culture rather than the business of selling shoes.
    From day to day decisions that would be on the mind of any startup entrepreneur – whether to hold inventory or outsource it? To bigger life decisions like – sell off everything that he owned to put into the business, the book details it all out.
    From the beginning days of zappos itself, Tony was clear that the USP of the company had to be its “World’s best customer service”. The call centre reps had just one KRA : WOW the customers. And they did, in turn getting more orders and generating wide reaching word of mouth.
    Within a decade, Zappos hit a billion dollar in sales, and was the numero uno in online shoe selling. Eventually Amazon bought over the company for 1.2 bilion dollars and this particular chapter is detailed out with clear alacrity from the author. Reading this one, you actually feel a part of this whole happening and by then you start relating to the company as if you have been a part of it for a long time.
    The whole book is cleverly structured into three parts – Tony’s childhood till he starts looking after Zappos, The Zappos Story and finally Tony’s lessons in public speaking and public relations and the core that is within Zappos.
    The most important take out from the book is the chapter on the core values that make up the soul of zappos.
    Delivering happiness, as Tony Hsieh points out, is the single corporate mission for the company.

  • The Krishna Key – Book Review

    I was an avid book buyer till recently. Yes, a book buyer. At any point of time, there would be at least five unread books on my table. And none of my travel packing was complete without stuffing in two – three books at least. Even if it is a two day trip.

    This was about six months back. Then I got the IPAD and things never remained the same. A majority of books I have read this year are in the e format.

    But then, The Krishna Key by Ashwin Sanghi had to be an exception. The e format book was not released alongside the main book, and I wanted to lay my hands upon it as soon as possible.

    I had read Ashwin’s previous book Chanakya’s Chant sometime last year, and had loved it. Ashwin has this unique style to blend history and draw parallelism with present day life in an efficient manner making it an entertaining read.

    The book is very well researched, and the footnotes at the end of the book just prove it. There is a lot of information, and every conspiracy theory ever heard of finds it way in the book.

    The Mahabharatha story has very nicely been integrated into the beginning of each chapter in a brief and concise manner.

    Anagrams, coders, decoders, word puzzle – are all plenty in this book and have been used very intelligently. (No Wonder Ashwin Sanghi chose to use the pseudonym Shawn Haggins for his first book!)

    In the initial parts of the book, it is very fast paced and prompts you to turn to the next chapter by building a good suspense every now and then. As the book progresses, the data becomes so tedious, and everything seems to be placed so conveniently that you lose track of the main story.

    The convoluted screenplay adds to the woes. Characters enter and leave without a purpose, and it all seems like a set play narration in front of you, with the belief factor decreasing with every chapter.

    I know it is a fiction story, and is not supposed to be focusing a lot on believability, but then random happenings and planned heists, cannot be passed off as coincidences so many a times.

    Ashwin has used all the conspiracy theories ever to have surfaced in this realm, and mixed them all into a story. He seems to have ensured that he uses all the mail forwards ever done.

    The story in a nutshell – a young man, is led to believe that he is the Kalki – the final avatar of Krishna (also known as Vishnu in Indian mythology) and is on a murderous rampage to seek the secret.  Professors get murdered, bike and car chases Ensue, deceitful dealings occur, and it all ends like any popular Hindi Movie ending.

    The high point of the book is the teachings by Lord Krishna to Arjuna during the war. The gist of the Bhagwad Gita is explained in a very succinct, to the point format.

    This has actually now provoked me to read the Bhagwad Gita from the beginning.

    Overall, the verdict is, if you have read Chankya’s Chant or the Rozabal line and liked it, there are chances you might like this book as it follows the same pattern of story telling.

    For those of you who have not read any of the author’s two earlier books, you should definitely give this book a try just for the way the story is treated.

  • STEVE JOBS – Book Review

    I like reading, and biographies/ Autobiographies are one of my favorite genre.

    Last year, sometime in October, I laid my hands on “STEVE JOBS”, by Walter Issacson, but like every other book, it was just gathering dust on my rather overcrowded desk.

    Looking at the massive book itself, intimidated me. 800 odd Pages! I need to prepare myself to read this I thought. This is going to take time.

    June first week, my eyes fell on this book, and I just could not hold the temptation to read it full. So what if it weighs a ton, and so what if it appears to be a massive brick. I am going to read it. And wait, if I get bogged down by the size of the book, I can always read it digitally.

    Starting from Jobs birth, and adoption, his young years, Hippie teenager days, Play with electronics, Founding Apple with Wozniac, Apple 1, Apple II, Macintosh, Ouster from Apple, Next, Pixar, back to Apple, Digital revolution, iPod, iTunes, iPhone, iPad and iCloud and Cancer.

    56 years of illustrious life.

    One thing that was truly remarkable about Jobs, and very well captured by the author in various instances, is the reality distortion theory.

    “The reality distortion field was a confounding mélange of a charismatic rhetorical style, indomitable will, and eagerness to bend any fact to fit the purpose at hand”

    The author is at his best not when probing Jobs’ personal psyche, but when describing his rather grandeur vision for Apple. “Simplify”, “friendly,” “intuitive,” and “seamless”, these were not options, but the core necessity of any Apple product. Steve Jobs was more of a design and creative guy than an engineer. He did not do much on the technical side, but was micro involved in the look and feel of the product.

    For Jobs, design was not surface or facade, but a penetrating, complete aesthetic: one that expressed the very essence of the product at hand. As would befit this totalizing view, Jobs was deeply concerned with the appearance of the inside of his products. Interiors that few customers would ever see( Jobs used specialized screws unresponsive to commercially available tools, Jobs ensured that the case does not open to anyone)

    Open and closed is another war that Steve fought with complete passion till his end. First it was Microsoft, and then it was Google. Steve always believed that hardware and Software should be totally integrated, and should be kept in a closed vault, to give the user a seamless experience. While, the other camp believed in making it more open, and allowing it to be run on various platforms, and different machines. Each of the approaches had their own pros and cons, and each worked for the one who was making it.

    Jobs always believed that the aesthetic, the technical, and the corporate were seamlessly joined. As Jobs affirmed at the iPad’s 2010 unveiling, “technology alone is not enough”: “it’s technology married with the humanities that yields us the results that make our heart sing.”

    Many a times, while reading the book, Mark Zucherberg seemed so much like Jobs. A rebel, anti-establishment, and embodiment of all the values that Jobs lived for. So, is the desktop war of 80-90’s between Jobs and Gates, moved to the network, between Google and Facebook. Wait and Watch, the story just seems to be repeating itslf.

    Coming back to Jobs, his design successes are legendary, but he was no Einstein. Rather than inventing outright, Jobs capitalized on the innovations of others, manufacturing not only products, but desire and obsolescence.

    Jobs Legacy would be established, looking at how Apple would turn out eventually. How would it fare, without him at the helm. Whether he has been successful at building a company that lasts, or a company that depends on one person, still remains to be seen.

    But one this, the guy was a visionary, and thought  much ahead of anyone else, and beautifully with the liberal arts, and created an irresistible desire for his products.

    (Trivia: Ended up reading the major part of the book on my IPAD2, and to say the least, it could not have been better. My first book on the IPAD, and it is about the person who made it!)

  • Transganization – Book Review

    “The process of changing the organizational genetics at the time of changing market scenario or changing business model or during the phase-shift from one state to another is called TransGanization”. This is how the author defines the word transganization.

    The book, recently published by times books, makes it for an easy read. It is a relatively small book and finish-in-one-go kind of book. The additional disc given along with the book is a welcome add-on to listen to the authors views on the same. it probably could have been better if it could be more engaging than the monologue approach that it takes.

    The book succintly captures the operational issues cropping in during the trajectory of the growth of an organization. It very well explains the strategic approach to ensure the vitals are kept in place while the transition from a free spirited entrepreneurial start-up kind of a setup to a professionally run company. The interesting part of the book is where the author begins by explaining scenes from the movie Avatar, and links it to the main topic.

    The only disconnect with the book is – who is the target audience? Obviously not the big companies looking for a change!

    The entrepreneur who is ready to take off, and wants to build a perspective on organizatoinal change? Then why have all the copy-paste material from government sites as the the entire procedure and detail rules and processes involved?

    The book starts off well, but somewhere in the middle of the book it loses steam, and the large monotonous excerpts from the websites detailing the processes just tests your patience. You are here looking for live examples and stories of such changes in other companies. One would obviously go to the websites before taking the plunge. ( probably hire the author himself, to execute such a change in the company!)

    Overall, a good book to get a perspective on the concept, but it falls somewhere in between being an academic book and an engaging read.

    About the author, he is an engineer from IIT, and has done his management studies at ISB, Hyderabad. With more than 11 years of experience in the field of organizational change leadership he is probably the most apt person to write a book on this niche topic.

    Funny: Why was an ad of Jawed Habib’s pasted in the backside inside cover of the book? How is he involved with the book? Or have we reached the stage where even the covers are book are up for sale by the advertisers?

    (Disclosure: I received a free copy of the book, to review it)