Books of 2006!

Continued from the previous post…….

Thanks to a colleague, this book has happened. I should have read this earlier, but its better late then never:-) This no brainer really reminds you of your college days and I have finished it in one sitting:-))

If your are the one, who is interested in knowing numbers, business comparisons, understand the history behind companies and stories behind their brand names..then this is the book for you. A quick read and a good reference book too!

In this one, Richard Schoch derives the secrets of being a happy human being from the teachings of six different religions. Though the book falls into the category of philosophy, its easy and interesting to read.. I have finished this on my train journey from Bangalore to Hyderabad:-)

This one made Alexander Botts my new hero. The book is a collection of funny and educative stories on the adventures of Botts while selling Earthworm tractors. The author is really innovative in coming up with situations that puts Botts in the most difficult selling situations yet Botts always come up in flying colours.

This book by Prof. Prahlad is a wakeup call on the potential of market that is either ignored or wrongly approached so far. Personally, some of the case studies and thoughts presented in the book really inspired me. Here is Prof. Prahlad’s autograph on my copy of FBP:-)

Some of my re-reads are

• If you want to write… my review of this

• Siddhartha… I just love read this again and again..and..review of this
• Selling the wheel..I read this to review on the blog🙂

A friend of mind commented that I don’t read enough fiction…. umm..thats in a way is true… I have decided to finish atleast top 25 novels in 2007🙂

Books of 2006!

Regarding books, this has been an interesting year for me. I read and re-read some interesting books.
My book roll goes like this…. ( not in any specific order)

What a blockbuster sequel from Prof.Christensen stable..These books when read together, gives a good framework for the process of innovation and definitely changed my thinking about innovations.

I almost read the contents in this book even before reading this one through Guy Kawasaki’s blog. This is must for anyone who wants to understand how to start and succeed.

Thanks to a friend at ISB, this book has happened. The book compares the phenomenal growth of Singapore with that of its Asian counterparts like India and China etc. This one is a masterpiece for those who wants to understand how societies develop.

 

I reviewed this book sometime back. This is a journalist narration of the geopolitical impact of globalaization..outsourcing etc. The book, though some of its sections are exagerated in a typical journalistic way, is a good read to understand the emerging World.

 

This is really one of the accidental interesting books I found this year. The book based on the lastword column in Newscientist magazine, is an attempt to look at the science behind everyday questions. I just got my copy of its sequel, Why Don’t Penguins’ Feet Freeze. It’ll be my first read in 2007:-)

 

 

 

This book was recommended by John Doerr when he visited India. Infact, this one took longest time for me to complete and nevertheless an interesting read. The book is about medieval Europe, dominance of church and renaissance. To understand the book fully, I was almost sitting next to Wikipedia. William Manchester also explained how a few individuals, who were neither most intelligent nor powerful in their times, infact led the renaisssance!

To be continued…….

Kishore Biyani: Singing the tunes of protectionism?

       
These days I rarely read TOI but a few weeks back, while waiting for a flight, I had no option but to browse through sunday times.  One of the articles that caught my attention was by Kishore Biyani, the founder of Future group.

The article is  a blatant pitch by Mr. Biyani to prevent Wal-Mart from entering Indian market. I found the arguments he made to support his case are self serving and pointless. They reminded me of the Bombay club of early nineties. Some of his arguments are

•  We have suffered once by offering our ‘trade’ to outsiders. This time we need to be careful.  Come on Biyani, comparing Wal-mart with East Indian Co is a far stretched argument…
• But should we allow them to dominate us? (them meaning Wal-Mart)  Who asked them to dominate us ? Let your Future group provide best value to the customer…and..dominate the market.. Who is stopping you from doing this?
• What is it that a Walmart can do that an Indian retail company cannot?  Thats the point.. then why are you so afraid of Wal-Mart then…
  
• What is the BIG attraction in bringing Wal-Mart? Its not capital/efficiency/employment etc as you pointed out.. I think its to help domestic retailers like yours to benchmark with the best in the World.
• Let them expand the consumption in the upper end of the market by bringing luxury and home goods. ………..…Let foreign companies be allowed to develop second tier cities and smaller towns and create the ‘infrastructure’ that they have been talking about.  So, you want the foreign players to sell luxury goods in second tier cities… what a generous offer for the foreign players:-)

I always thought Mr.Biyani is a street smart and forward looking entrepreneur..but now he is only another businessman who got into such a low defence when his own territory is attacked…

You have lost an admirer, Mr.Biyani!

Ten things we can try in 2007

I have come across this interesting article in Bangalore ryze network. This is a collection of advices from top CEOs on what everyone could/should do in 2007…. The list is

• Turn Your Passion Into an Empire
• Succeed With Simplicity
• Think Big
• Obsess About Solutions, Not Problems
• Turn Your Biggest Weakness Into Your Greatest Asset
• Dare to Be a Social Entrepreneur
• Strive for Moral Authority
• Be an Industry Disruptor
• Evangelize for Technology
• Trust Your Gut

Interesting list….definitely tough to follow!

I am on the cover of Time Magazine!

so as everyone who is involved in the new web2.0 revolution. This is worth considering because other than in 1982, when computer was the person of the year, this is the second time a trend is the person of the year. Lets see how the new technology is headed in the future!

@Bootstrap.Bangalore

Its good to catch the Bangalore bootstrappers this Thursday. The turnout was good. Apart from meeting old friends like Manish, Karthik and Shoumitro , I had a chance to meet other new members.

The discussions ranged from Bootstrap Community to proposed finance sessions for bootstrappers by Shoumitro’s company. Finally we ended up discussing the most important problem that faces any company in Bangalore – Big or small.. recruiting and retaining people. I think this is slightly related my previous post. The group has agreed to disagree the notion that paying high salaries can attract good and passionate people. Deepak shared his experiences on how business models linear to number of employees are detrimental to startups in the current scenario. What I observed from the discussion was some of the amenities like a good office and a better work place are becoming a given thing even from a startup point. I think many people who work in a big company constantly worry about the impact they are making in the work place. But to join a startup they look for great work and simultaneously a higher pay to compensate their risk. This is something tough to match. I also came to know that many people look startups not as the places to work but as stepping stones to joining a bigger companies. The discussions also revolved around lack of awareness about stock options ( the funny thing was when Manish told that a candidate ased for 1/6th of company to join their team:-)) Towards the end I could observe many members concluding that good work + sharing overall vision + equity can help in retaining employees…

I am sure its easier said than done! Awaiting for the next version of bootstrap-Bangalore….

 

Buffet for a starved nation..

…..that was the comment on Indian job market by Vasanthi Srinivasan, an Associate Professor of IIM-Bangalore, at one of the TiE Bangalore meetings. With supply and demand mismatch in the skills, people have suddenly become more valuable beyond their realization… This statistic from the Economist talent survey really shows the poaching trend in India:-)

If you want to live…..

 

 

This book came to my radar when Guy Kawasaki named it in his top ten favourite books. I should thank Guy for introducing such a wonderful title.

Through this 170 pages odd book, Brenda Ueland tried to share her views on becoming a good writer. In trying to do so, she really explained her experiences on how to be more creative, imaginative and be a free individual. Here are the author’s 12 mantras for being an indepedent soul:-

• Believe that you have talent, something important to say and are original. You do not know what is in you – an Inexhaustible Foutain of Ideas!
• Work with love and think of liking it when you do it. Working is thinking, feeling, hearing and understanding more and more.
• Write freely, recklessly, in first drafts. Be Careless, Reckless! Be a Lion! Be a Pirate! When you write.
  
• Write on anything you want that comes naturally.
• Don’t be afraid of writing bad stories
• Don’t be fret or be ashamed of what you have written in the past.
• Try to discover true, honest, untheoretical self.
• Remember how wonderful you are. What you are reflects in your writing.
  
• If you are never satisfied with what you write, that is a good sign.
• Don’t be discouraged. She quoted Van Gough “If you hear a voice within you say you cannot paint, then by all means paint, and that voice will be silenced”
• Don’t be afraid of yourself when you write.
  
• Don’t always be appraising yourself, wondering if you are better or worse than other writers.
  

This book surprised me for a couple of reasons. This was first published in 1938 and each of the words in the book are so relevant even today. This is also one of the few books on how to write rather than explaining the technicalities of writing ( sentence constructions, paraphrasing etc). Another surprising detail is that Brenda has only two published books in her career. So she really adhered to her maxim of “Art for Art sake business”

On the face of it, Brenda shared her views on how to get started in writing. However, after reading a couple of pages it is apparent that the book tells how to lead a life that we love. To quote from the author herself

“Whenever I say “writing” in this book, I also mean anything that you love and want to do or to make”

That’s why it is not suprising that Guy Kawasaki had recommended this for entrepreneurs in his art of the start articles! I found the book very relevant in the today’s impagination economy.

My recommendation: Read this one and get a life:-)

PS: Don’t forget to read the footnotes in this book. It is full of important details.

Re-emerging World!

Economist has come up with an interesting survey of World economy in one of the recent editions. The survey went beyond details like Chindia factor, growing current account deficit of US etc to understand the growth engines for the World. Some interesting facts to share are…

• There is no clear definition of an emerging economy – many surveys including this treats Hongkong and Singapore in emerging markets list!
• Africa has put on a spurt, with GDP growth above 5% for three consecutive years. May be African countries are the future Chinas and Indias….
• America is less important as a locomotive for global growth than it used to be, thanks to the greater vigour of emerging economies.. Good for the World:-))
• World GDP per head has grown by an average of 3.2% a year.. Thats good but what about wealth distribution?
• Emerging economies hold 70% of World’s foreign exchange and America today has a deficit of 7% of GDP. So the poor are funding the rich…very funny indeed!

• Developing countries always outgrown developed economies but the widening in growth rates is more now….

• The growth and resources are finally following the population.. wow..World is becoming more inclusive:-)

The World is not emerging but re-emerging…..so am I living in an re-emerging economy??

• In 2040 the average American will still be three to four times richer than the average Chinese, so as other emerging economies. Its all in the denominator (the no of heads!)

I really liked the concluding note of the survey..:-))

To understand the world economy, it is now necessary to understand and track the new world, especially Asia. That is why this correspondent is about to move herself and her economic toolkit from London to Hong Kong.

@ Blogcamp.in

Had a wonderful time at Blogcamp…The unconference was well organized to the minute detail..including the party at the beach resort:-) I got to meet people from diverse backgrounds and had fruitful discussions… My list of top five favourite sessions

1. Rajesh Shetty on blogging in a global World

2. Sunil Gavaskar on the power of new media

3. Session on Podcasting

4. Atul Chitnis on the Blogging in ’90s

5. Professional blogging by Amit Agarwal

Off course the discussion at the end on reflections on blogging…