|
-
Free is
the new book by Wired Editor “Chris Anderson”. His earlier book “Long
Tail” was an acclaimed work that is quoted in almost every conversation with the
word “Web” in it over last few years. This book’s title though had the potential
to capture the same level of imagination, unfortunately doesn’t.
First, Chris Anderson should be congratulated for handling such a controversial topic
like “Free”. Each of us have our own understanding of the word, how it works, whether
it works or not and so on. In trying to answer these questions he has done a good
job. He writes his findings on “Free” from history, culture, marketing to economics.
He does a great job of explaining how “Free” became popular in modern days, its power
and potential. He does a fine job of categorizing various near-zero business models
and how they work with examples. He clearly disambiguates English word “Free” into
“Gratis” (free of charge) and “Libre” (freedom), often people confuse between the
two, especially in the software world. His re-quote of “Information wants to be free”
is certainly true and thought-provoking.
Where he falls flat is in his generalizations and in his examples of success stories.
For examples he repeatedly points only to Google and in few cases of open source software
& Web 2.0. I am unable to shake off the feeling (of-course unfounded) the book
could a PR campaign sponsored by the Mountain
view chocolate factory (thanks Register UK for the term) Google. For me, Google
certainly is not the epitome of “Free”, it makes its money by selling advertisements
for hard-cash and that’s not free. Wikipedia and FireFox would have been more befitting
candidates, but probably Chris Anderson felt obligated to Google – as he was using
their free Google Docs to write this book (as he says himself). To be fair to
the author, he does quote in two places where Microsoft offers “Free” through its
BizSpark program and Internet Explorer. I also fail to understand how he says Apple
through its iPod wants content to be free so that it gets paid for the device. iTunes
through the sales made from iPod and iPhone are the big money earners for Apple and
it is not free!
The other area where I disagree with him is on what seems to be his attempt at equating
“Piracy” to “Free”. “Piracy” is stealing, plain and simple. Though many of us may
be guilty of the crime (knowingly or unknowingly) to various degree, it can’t be praised
or supported. If in China music piracy is rampant, then it is the mistake of pricing,
distribution and education. It is certainly not that people there will not buy Music.
If Hulu.com and CBS.com today are making some money out of their advertisement driven
site it is because the money from advertisements comes to the producers who made the
shows, not to the pirates and other video sharing sites. If everyone in the world
moves to “Pirated” version of watching TV shows from YouTube, then soon there will
be no new professional TV shows to watch. Google too is very much aware of this threat,
that’s why it is trying
hard to woo producers into building legal channels for them on its site and share
revenue with them. The real question is whether this money alone will be sufficient
for producers to compensate for their investments. Even in the example the author
begins his book, MontyPython group deciding to put their clips legally free in YouTube
– they too made their money by selling legal versions of their CDs and DVDs. If their
entire collection is made “free” in YouTube HD then how will they survive to make
new episodes. The author leaves us with many of these questions unanswered.
A disclosure: I listened to the Audio book (unabridged) version that was offered free
of charge by Wired
from here. The e-book download seems to be time-limited (for a month and that’s
over) and geography limited (US only) from
here. Though I got the entire book free as an audio book, this limited free distribution
of the e-book seems to be more a 20th century free, than the 21st century free that
the author preaches throughout the book. He should have known better, he says repeatedly
that “Free” is the most powerful marketing tool ever invented and he should have known
to handle it with better for his book.
My recommendation: If you are in the Internet/Software business then this book is
a must read, but for others you may want to think twice before opening your wallet
to buy it. You may want to listen to the free
audio book like I did :-)
|
-
Few weeks back while at my US trip I read this book "Notes
from a Big Country" by Bill
Bryson. Like his other books, Bryson's humour is unmistakable in this book as
well. Like others have said in the Amazon's book comments you will find yourself laughing
loud in many places.
The book is a collection of a weekly column in Mail
on Sundays Night and Day magazine in UK. So this book has been written more
for an international audience who will find things different in USA from their country.
Having visited USA many times I can say I was baffled too at many of similar scenes
observed by Bryson. So in many places of the book I could relate to his experience
and enjoy the scene. Commenting on common American living habits, you might be mistaken
like some Americans (who have commented in Amazon)
that Byrson is making "fun" of Americans at large. This being my fourth
book written by Bryson, I can say that he has nothing against America, this is his
style - It is the same when he writes about UK, Europe or
even Shakespeare,
so nothing different here. More than the scenes described, what I really liked is
Bryson's extraction of Humour from all the weird situations like the once I have mentioned
below:
-
Picture ID to be shown in US Airports (Bryson calls this as Permissible Visual Cognitive
Imaging)
-
Junk Food Heaven - "We don't usually clean our fridge - we just box it up
every four or five years and send it off to the Centers for Disease Control in Atlanta
with a note to help themselves to anything that looks scientifically promising"
-
The countless forms used by American Immigration - "You can spend days repeatedly
dialling a phone number that is forever engaged, only to be told when you finally
do get through that you must call another number, which the person tells you once
in a mumble and you don't quite catch before you are cut off"
-
Commercials - "The new Dodge Backfire. Rated number one against the Chrysler
Inert for Handling. Rated number one against the Plymouth Repellant for mileage"
-
Cupholder Revolution - "But our computers don't come with cupholders"
-
Why no one walks - "Not long after we moved here we had the people next door
round for dinner and - I swear this is true - they drove"
-
The great indoors and the obsession for living always in a climate controlled environment
- "Skywalks - enclosed pedestrian flyovers"
-
Abundance of choice in American super markets - "Thirty five varieties of
Crest Toothpaste"
-
Spinning the truth - how the "special offer" advertisements exasperates
the truth
If you have visited USA and felt things are different from your country then this
book is a must read for you.
|
-
 Truly
one of India's 20th and 21st Century industrial success story is of Tata Steel. The
first time I read about them was in the earlier book of R.M.Lala "Creation
of Wealth", which was more of an overview of entire Tata Group. In his new
book "The
Romance of Tata Steel" Lala has focused only on Tata Steel. The author traces
a hundred years and more of exciting history of Tata Steel—from men searching
for iron ore and coking coal in jungle areas, traversing in bullock carts before the
site was found, to the company’s modern status as a world-class company.
Though the writing style makes it appear like a Textbook, you can still enjoy it.
You learn that though the initial crew of the plant in Jamshedpur was of a medley
of nationalities, it worked well to a great extend - the Crew of Steel works
and superintendent were Germans, the English worked
in the Ring Rolling Mills, Clerical Staffs were chiefly Bengalis and Parsis,
a certain number of Austrians, Italians and Swiss
worked in other departments, and the Chinese worked as carpenters
and in pattern shop. One of the interesting quotes in the book is made by R.D.Tata
on 4th June 1925:
"We are like men building a wall against the sea. It would be the height
of folly on our part to give away any part of the cement that is required to make
the wall secure.
That is why we and you have to use this money ... to build
this great industry"
For any entrepreneur like me, it is inspiring to read the innovative HR practices
that Tata Steel has pioneered over the years. After finishing the book we are left
with true admiration for the vision of Jamshedji Tata in setting up Tata Steel and
Jamshedpur city.
|
-
 I
have never been into reading poetry, poems or other forms of heavy literature. I have
only read Shakespeare's works in few chapters in English textbooks and seeing the
plays in few movies. So why did I pick this book, which is a biography of Shakespeare
- simply because of "Bill
Bryson" name in the title. I have enjoyed so much his previous books "The
Thunderbolt Kid" and "Neither
here Nor there", that the minute I saw his name I bought the book. Anyways
after buying it, I decided to read it. And in the course of reading I learned a great
deal about Elizabethan times and of course about Shakespeare. Of course, Bryson with
his signature humour has handled the subject very easy to read and enjoy.
Little is known about Shakespeares life, and in this biography Bryson makes no attempt
to expand on the known details. Starting by presenting the paucity of facts, he goes
on to sketch the life of the worlds greatest playwright, from Stratford to London
and back again. He also discusses the theories suggesting that Shakespeares works
were written by someone else, dismissing them as ludicrous. We learn a great deal
from the book:
-
That Shakespeare names is written with different spellings throughout his life and
after. Oxford English Dictionary endorses the spelling Shakspere.
-
He created the most number of un-prefixes words including unmask, unhand, unlock,
untie, unveil and more
-
He created numerous new words in English including excellent, extract, frugal,
critical, antipathy, hereditary, assassination, lonely, leapfrog, well-read, indistinguishable and
others. Imagine an English language without these words!
-
In his works, Shakespeare is known to have used over 29,066 words
-
If we take Oxford Dictionary of Quotations as our guide, then Shakespeare produced
roughly one-tenth of all the most quotable utterances written or spoken in English.
These included Vanish into thin air, budge an inch, bag and baggage, cold comfort,
flesh and blood, foul play, tower of strength, foregone conclusion and many others.
-
English was rising in his times as it is telling, that William Shakespeare's birth
is recorded in Latin but that he dies in English as "William Shakespeare, Gentleman"
|
-
The New Imperialists (How Five Restless Kids Grew up to virtually rule your world)
by Mark Leibovich is a book I read recently. Though the book that talks about 5 technology
leaders and visionaries is little old (it was written in 2001/2002 and a lot happens
in technology industry in 5 years) I still purchased the book as I got it for a steal
in Landmark
sale last year (Rs.149 against the original price of Rs.1025, a saving of nearly
$22).
Leibovich a technology reporter for the Washington Post sets out to explain why he
selected this particular 5 people whom he calls "The New Imperialists".
The list of 5 are AOL's Steve Case, Amazon.com's Jeff Bezos, Cisco's John Chambers,
Oracle's Larry Ellison and of course Microsoft's Bill Gates. Leibovich tries to show
throughout the book that these men's ruthless drive must stem from childhood and the
reason he calls them imperialists are because they are near equivalent of modern-day
emperors. Leibovich's narrative style which makes the reading very lively and you
can't keep the book down without completing it. If you thought you know a lot about
these 5 people, Leibovich tries his best to show a side of them public haven't seen
before. At the same time the book is not imtruding their privacy and most of it seem
to be written with the individuals (or their PR) permission.
He talks about Ellison's Larryland near hills of Woodside designed by a Japanese Zen
Monk; about how Jeff Bezos wrote the business plan for Amazon on a car trip with his
girlfriend to Seattle and about Jeff's thing; How John Chambers battled dyslexia and
for a time believed he was stupid; The equation and friendship between Bill Gates
and Steve Ballmer and how the loss of his best friend Kent Evans 30 years affected
Bill Gates; How Steve Case saw with clarity what was happening with the connected
world.
|
-
Two
weeks back on my way back to Chennai in Mumbai Airport I picked up this book - Cold
Steel "Lakshmi Mittal and the Multi-Billion-Dollar Battle for a Global Empire" by
Tim Bouquet and Byron Ousey. The book is about the story of the world’s biggest and
most hard-fought industry takeover of recent years. It is the story of Lakshmi Mittal
taking over (or merging) with European steel giant Arcelor to form ArcelorMittal.
What I liked about the book was that it is told in a thriller fashion on what happened
each day of this six month battle. Each day is being narrated by the authors in a
scene by scene fashion including dialogs spoken. Once you start reading the book you
can't keep it down.
I always admired Mr.Mittal for his humble beginnings to become the "King of Steel"
and for his vision which he followed to grow his company at unprecedented rates. His
growth story is something that is made of numerous acquisitions of assets around the
world which have all been successfully integrated. My admiration keeps growing as
I read more - all his ventures have been outside his home country (India) in all far
off places of the world and he still proudly sports an Indian Passport. This
book goes into detail of all the things (Politics and Racism) that happened behind
closed doors to prevent him from taking over Arcelor. As the book says it - Mr.Mittal
certainly is someone who is "Stoic"
- a term meaning someone who just puts up with whatever is thrown at them. It is a
very apt term to summarize what Mr.Mittal had to put up with during this battle -
right from Racist like comments to protective behaviour of several European governments
and finally the unprecedented stone-walling by Arcelor board for every step of Mr.Mittal.
The takeaway for me as a Corporate head from the book was how the entire team at Mittal
Steel worked together as a single team to triumph over the fragmented Arcelor team.
Consider the fact that Mittal Steel team was not composed of one organization but
it nearly a dozen entities from Investment bankers, lawyers, PR Agencies, to Mr.Aditya
Mittal and Mr.Lakshmi Mittal himself. The whole battle is pure project management
brilliance of how all of them were kept in sync, said the same story, were in the
same page all the time. Add to that the fact they used modern communication tools
(Email and Blackberries) for effective collaboration increased my interest on reading
the book fully.
I highly recommend this book for any one wanting to survive in today's globalized
corporate world.
|
-
The other day in a dinner conversation the topic was on how India has a nation has
grown in spite of everything - Corruption, Inefficient bureaucracy and all the differences.
That's when this book came up "In
Spite of the Gods: The Strange Rise of Modern India by Edward Luce". I bought
the book immediately and I finished reading it during my travel now.
The book is an excellent work done by Mr.Edward Luce, who is a journalist with Financial
Times. During his various assignments he had worked in London, New Delhi and now in
Washington. Mr.Luce is best suited to do this book because of his long stay
in India, his wife being an Indian and finally he being a Britisher (lot of things
in India are still colonial hangovers). Without these background he couldn't have
done such a wonderful job.
Mr.Luce finely balances a westerner viewpoint and Indian insight in a lucid manner
- you don't see contradictions anywhere. Many things about India is puzzling to understand
even for Indians, and many times you have to go back to long gone history to truly
understand. For doing this Mr.Luce start with detail of larger than life figure of
3 modern day Indians - Mahatma Gandhi, Jawaharlal Nehru and BR Ambedkar. People who
know India know that North India is very different from South India and so on., so
Mr.Luce seems to have done extensive travel to report both sides.
I was happy to read about the good things he talks about the work of my state (Tamilnadu)
government. I learned many things from the book about India that I didn't know before
or haven't seen it that way. One observation I really liked is Mr.Luce's case on how
several welfare programs in India like anti-poor program, literacy programs, free
power, labour laws which are all created with good intentions are not effective because
of the very bureaucracy that is created to run it. Mr.Luce talks with ease of
both India's strength and weakness.
If you are an Indian or someone interested about India, this is a must read book.
Thank you Mr.Luce.
|
-
Last month before boarding my long return flight from Seattle to Chennai, I checked
out Borders store for some reading material to keep me occupied. I picked this book
- Think
Big and Kick Ass by Donald Trump. I have heard about the US TV Reality Show - Apprentice but
I didn't know anything about Trump. So I had no expectations and didn't buy the book
for Donald Trump's name. I wanted an interesting lite reading book and found this
to fit the bill. I finished a portion of it in the flight, but managed to complete
the entire book in my vacation last week in Kodaikanal.
I don't like Copy-Pasting from other sources into my blog, but this time I am making
an exception. The below snippet
from a comment in Amazon for the book captured exactly what I wanted to write,
so even if I had written myself it would appear to be a copy - "...Trump
is an egotistical, self-serving man, no doubt. But let's be totally objective, as
I was that day: good advice is good advice. And, most writers do not have the courage
to dispense such advice in such raw terms as Trump does. This book holds nothing back.
Trump lays it all out on the table with blatant opinions, ideas and thoughts about
those who've crossed him, helped him, etc. He tells you how you need to be (not just
what you need to do - read that again!) to be successful. However - and this is the
most important point of my review - there's truth to so much of what he says. It's
helpful. You'll look at yourself differently. You'll gain insight, and you'll learn
things about yourself that you did not previously know. You might even be vaulted
to a new level based on what you read; I don't know - that depends on you, the reader,
and your potential application of what Trump discusses. I'm not a huge fan of Trump,
the man, but I cannot argue with his success. Forget those who claim he was born into
money; that may be true, but he continues to make headlines with regularity..."
|
-
I have been enjoying "Archie"
comics for over two decades now. I was introduced to them during my high school
days by my cousin "Anand" who is now working in USA. Those days (and even
now in Indian Rupees) they used to be very expensive and not available in Chennai.
So the option was to rent them from book
lending libraries and my favourite was Raviraj
Lending Library in Usman Road (Opposite to first GRT Thanga Maligai). Those days
the membership was like Rs.25 or Rs.50 and even if you take half-a-dozen books for
reading you paid only few rupees (which itself was got after a big fight with my mother).
Nowadays whenever I take my nephews to "Eloor" lending library in North
Boag Road I still take few of them and I still enjoy reading Archie comics once in
a while.
And whenever I travel to USA and shopping in Safeway I end up buying the latest issue.
At $3 per issue they are expensive but then cheaper than a Starbucks coffee, right?.
Last week when I was there I bought Feb
'08 issue of Pals 'n' Gals double digest. What pleasantly surprised me was seeing
the main theme to be "Raj" an Indian Student whose parents where Dr. Ravi
Patel and his wife Mrs.Mona Patel. The character "Raj" is shown as a tech
whiz taking a school film for fun.
|
-
_thumb.jpg)
ஓவியர் மதி அவர்களின் “அடடே”
புத்தக வெளியிடு நேற்று மிக பிராமாண்டமாக “Music
Academy"யில் நடைப்பெற்றது. இந்தப் புத்தகத்தை வெளியிடுபவரான எனது நண்பர் திரு.பத்ரி
சேஷாத்ரி அவர்களின் அழைப்பில் விழாவிற்கு சென்றிருந்தேன். இப்படி ஒரு பெரிய விழாவைத்
திட்டமிடுவது, இவ்வளவு எண்ணிக்கையில் இத்தனை சிறந்த முக்கியஸ்தர்களை சம்மதிக்க செய்து
அழைப்பது, கடைசியாக அரங்கம் நிறையக் கூட்டத்தை வரவழைப்பது என்பது மிக மிக கடினம். எங்களது
புத்தக (லிப்கோ)
நிறுவனத்தில் எனது தந்தையின் இது போன்ற உழைப்பை நேரில் பார்த்தால் எனக்கு இந்த சிரமம்
நன்றாகத் தெரியும். இவ்வளவு பாடுப்பட்டு மிக சிறப்பாக செய்ததற்கு எனது நண்பர் திரு.பத்ரி
சேஷாத்ரி நிச்சயம் சந்தோஷப் படலாம்.
|
-
Though
I purchased the book "The
HP Way" long time back, I just managed to finish reading it few weeks back.
The book is written by HP (Hewlett Packard) co-founder & Silicon Valley legend David
Packard. This small book of 200 pages is a must read for anyone in High Tech
Industry. David talks about their early days around starting HP, how it got named
and their initial challenges. One of the common business management myths the book
dispels is that you need a clear laid out Vision and Business Plan to run a successful
business.
Though the book talks in detail about early decades in HP, it has little information
on modern day HP as we know it mainly because David handed over the reins to John
Young as CEO in 1978 itself.
|
-
I recently finished reading "The
Alchemist" by Paulo
Coelho. The book reads like a novel of a story of a Spanish Boy who follows his
dreams (or listens to his heart) and finds his love and treasure by venturing into
the unknown in the middle east deserts. Nice self-motivating book which is fun to
read and as well encouraging. Must read.
|
-
I
finally finished reading the book "It
happened in India", the reason I am saying finally is because that I have been
reading this book for nearly 2 months but managed to complete the last 30 pages only
today. The book is kind of an auto-biography of Mr.Kishore Biyani on the story of
Pantaloons, Biz Bazaar & Central retail stores.Let me say at the beginning, I
am a little biased in favour of Indian success stories - apart from being an Indian,
the reason is because I feel there is a dearth of good books on Indian business stories.
The first thing that you notice when you pick the book is a close resemblance of the
title It happened in India with Made in America (Sam
Walton's classic book). When you start reading you will continue
to see the unmistakable resemblance in the presentation format as well. The chapters
are presented in a fashion of first person voice intertwined with quotes from various
stake holders (business partners, employees & friends of the author). While reading
the first few chapters this resemblance put me off a little as I thought Kishore Biyani
had nothing original to say. Only after I finished nearly half of the book I realized
how mistaken I was, the chapters starting to get interesting and the experiences outlined
are very much India specific and original. Definitely Kishore Biyani and his team
have to be congratulated on their exciting journey in the world of Indian retail and
for brining many of the now common innovations. I was happy to read in pages 116-199,
Kishore Biyani quoting Chennai's own Saravana Stores as the inspiration
behind their Big Bazaar venture. He writes on how his team camped in Chennai visiting
Saravan Stores every day for weeks in understanding their merchandise mix and pricing.
The book tapers off towards the end where the author starts talking about his personal
philosophies & beliefs on business.
Overall, a good book to read at an attractive price of Rs.99 (~USD 2.5)
|
-
I just finished reading Men
of Steel by Vir Sanghvi. Vir
Sanghvi should be appreciated whole-heartedly for two things - first for writing
a very
needed book that compiles the stories of India's most successful business leaders
and second for writing it in a lively, enjoyable format. The book is a result of compilation
of Vir Sanghvi's articles that appeared on Hindustan Times Mumbai HT Leadership series
and so each of them are not more than 2000 words.
The book covers well known people like Ratan Tata, Nandan Nilekani, Azim Premji, Kumar
Mangalam Birla, Sunil Bharti Mittal & Vijay Mallaya. Apart from that about people
I knew very little before - Bikki Oberoi, Uday Kotak, Rajeev Chandrasekha, Subhash
Chandra & Nusli Wadia. It was revealing. Every aspiring Entrepreneur in India
should read this book once.
One spelling mistake that caught my eyes - Airtel's Chairman Sunil Bharti Mittal was
spelled wrongly with his middle name as "Bharati". See
the screenshots below - the left is from the book (wrongly given in that fashion throughout
the chapter) and on the right is from their website.
|
-
Last
month I attended a SPIN Chennai program on Balanced
Scored by Mr.Sudipto Marjit. Offline when I was speaking with Mr.Marjit he noticed
the book I was reading (while waiting for the talk to start) - Profitable
Growth Is Everyone's Business by Mr.Ram Charan. Immediately he recommended that
I also read Ram Charan's What
the CEO wants you to know?. I did exactly that this week and here is the
review.
The first thing that strikes about the book (USD 20, INR 428) is its attractive title
and the second is its thin size (about 140 pages). Before I say anything about the
book I must say that this is a must read for anyone in any Business and it doesn't
matter whether you are working, managing or leading a business. Having said that the
book can be a let down if you had focused too much on its lofty title. The book should
have been titled "What everyone in business should know" or better "Quick start manual
for businesses" . Let me give you a brief review of the book's coverage:
-
If you were wondering for a better term for saying "Business is in her blood" or "His
gutfeel on business" Ram Charan has coined a beautiful phrase "Business Acumen"
and he introduces the term and what it means very well.
-
Introduction and simple english explanation to business speak like P/E Ratio, Return
on Assets, Sales Turnovers.
-
He introduces an simple formulae of R = M x V, where R is return
on assets, M is After-Tax Margin and V is Velocity or Inventor turn. I found the way
he talked about Velocity as a very useful idea.
-
Need to have Right People in Right Job, the importance of Coaching
-
Ram Charan introduces one more term "Social Operating Mechanism"
which basically is how to motivate people at all levels and have them connected seamlessly
as a team all the time
Overall a must read for every business person. Thanks Mr.Marjit for recommending this
book.
|
Browse by Tags
All Tags » Books ( RSS)
More Posts Next page »
|
|
|