Price discrimination

Books 2 Byte
Basic Instincts
Pete Lunn
( http://www.marshallcavendish.co.uk/)

Fair price

We expect that prices of high-tech products fall substantially with time, but not very fast, says Pete Lunn in Basic Instincts: Human nature and the new economics. He cites the example of how the early buyers of iPhone felt ripped off when Apple could knock a third off the price and could still make a profit.

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Virtual reality

Books 2 Byte
Against Happiness
Eric G. Wilson
( http://www.fsgbooks.com/)

Artificial culture

Our recent culture has made it startlingly easy to live only in a world of personal dreams, a realm from which hard reality has largely been vanquished, rues Eric G. Wilson in Against Happiness.

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The ‘pure’ sounds

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Alpha Beta
John Man
( http://www.rbooks.co.uk/)

Speech synthesiser

Pure sounds may exist for seconds in music, but in speech no sound stays ‘pure’ for more than milliseconds, unless uttered in special laboratory conditions, writes John Man in Alpha Beta: How our alphabet shaped the modern world.

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Modern capitalism - high fixed costs, but low production costs

Books 2 Byte
Creative Capitalism
Michael Kinsley
( http://www.landmarkonthenet.com/)

Win-win possible in creative capitalism

“If you figure out how to give good customer service, you are allowed to brag about how you have great customer service. If you figure out how to make governments love you by helping the poor people in that country, you get both the benefit of the government loving you and you get to say you helped the poor in that country,” reads a snatch of the dialogue in Creative Capitalism: A conversation with Bill Gates, Warren Buffett, and other economic leaders, edited by Michael Kinsley.

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Three classes of 'the erring philosophers'

BookValue
Extraordinary Popular Delusions and the Madness of Crowds
Charles MacKay
( http://www.randomhouse.com/ )

Study of presumption

It is happy for man that he does not know what the morrow is to bring forth, but, unaware of this great blessing, he has, in all ages of the world, presumptuously endeavoured to trace the events of unborn centuries, and anticipate the march of time, rues Charles MacKay in Extraordinary Popular Delusions and the Madness of Crowds.

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Art transactions

BookValue
Everything you Wanted to know about Investing in Difficult Times
Deepa Venkatraghvan
(Network 18)

Art as an asset class

How has Indian art performed as an asset class over the last few years? The numbers can leave you totally surprised, says Deepa Venkatraghvan in Everything you Wanted to know about Investing in Difficult Times (Network 18). In 2005, when shares gave a return of 46.7 per cent and gold, 24.6 per cent, art gave no less than 154.8 per cent, she informs.

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An advice to China

BookValue
Fixing Global Finance
Martin Wolf
( http://www.landmarkonthenet.com/ )

The China effect

The US is at least as much the victim of decisions made by others as the author of its own misfortunes, argues Martin Wolf in Fixing Global Finance.

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Fanzines: Their production, culture and future

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Alternative Journalism
Chris Atton and James F. Hamilton
( http://www.sagepublications.com/)

Power of fanzines

Fanzines often arise because the objects of their study (such as football, film, comics and popular television serials or music) are ignored by mainstream journalism, find Chris Atton and James F. Hamilton in Alternative Journalism.

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Great content from new sources

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Get Content Get Customers
Joe Pulizzi and Newt Barrett
( http://www.tatamcgrawhill.com/)

Targeted content

Search engines such as Google have democratised content, and so you have the opportunity to replace formerly vital media choices with your own high-quality content, advise Joe Pulizzi and Newt Barrett in Get Content Get Customers: Turn prospects into buyers with content marketing.

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Live brand experiences

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Experiential Marketing
Shaz Smilansky
( http://www.vivagroupindia.com/)

Move from CRM to CEM

Life is ultimately an amalgamation of daily experiences, writes Shaz Smilansky in Experiential Marketing: A practical guide to interactive brand experiences. She assures that live brand experiences — that is, brand-relevant, two-way communications between consumers and brands — can be delivered face to face or remotely.

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Assimilate past experience

Manage Mentor
How Lance Does It
Brad Kearns
( http://www.tatamcgrawhill.com/)

Three dimensions of specialised intelligence

If you can assimilate past experience, cultivate intuition, and gain big-picture perspective about your endeavours, you can be assured of specialised intelligence in your area of peak performance, says Brad Kearns in How Lance Does It: Put the success formula of a champion into everything you do.

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Managing the recession

Manage Mentor
The Upside of the Downturn
Geoff Colvin
( http://www.nicholasbrealey.com/)

Riding the economic storm

Seeing the current downturn as a bunch of statistics is easy, tempting, and almost useless, observes Geoff Colvin in The Upside of the Downturn: Ten management strategies to prevail in the recession and thrive in the aftermath. This recession is constantly talked about as some kind of freestanding event, but thinking of it that way won’t help you manage it, he instructs.

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`Bullnomics', the pied-piping of America

BookValue
Bad Money
Kevin Phillips
( http://www.penguin.com/ )

Battered ‘bullnomics’

Derivatives, even though mere fifteen- to twenty-year-old conceptual adolescents, were, well… as safe as houses,” recounts Phillips in Bad Money: Reckless finance, failed politics, and the global crisis of American capitalism.

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When you are in a financial mess ...

BookValue
Debt Cures
Kevin Trudeau
(Equity Press)

Take control

Shazam! Abracadabra! These may be the words that magicians use for introducing an extraordinary deed, story or transformation, but if you are in a financial mess, with debt sharks in hot pursuit, the two magic words you would need are ‘take control,’ counsels Kevin Trudeau in Debt Cures (Equity Press).

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Morals and markets are adaptable

BookValue
Morals and Markets
Daniel Friedman
( http://www.landmarkonthenet.com/ )

New market structures

Can we solve the present economic crisis by launching ‘a new moral crusade to shame corporations into social responsibility,’ or by building ‘big bureaucracies to micromanage them’? No, we can’t, says Daniel Friedman in Morals and Markets: An Evolutionary Account of the Modern World.

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Engaging in leisure activities

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Indian Youth in a Transforming World
Peter Ronald deSouza, Sanjay Kumar, and Sandeep Shastri
( http://www.sagepublications.com/)

Understanding the youth

Are there any clear patterns in the leisure activities of the younger generation? Some answers emerge from a chapter in Indian Youth in a Transforming World: Attitudes and perceptions, edited by Peter Ronald deSouza, Sanjay Kumar, and Sandeep Shastri.

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Challenging PR jobs

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Public Relations
Iqbal S. Sachdeva
( http://www.oup.com/)

PR pyar

The days of PR people working as errand-boys between the organisation and media are over, declares Iqbal S. Sachdeva in Public Relations: Principles and Practices. “The multipli city of TV channels, the mind-boggling number of newspapers, particularly the emergence of financial journalism…

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'Branding' in marketing

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In Search of the Obvious
Jack Trout
(Westland)

When branding runs aground

Branding has become a subject in marketing that has been turned from a molehill into a mountain, rues Jack Trout in In Search of the Obvious (Westland). The subject of branding has spread from products to rock groups, movie stars, and even symphonies, he notes. “Maybe it’s time to cut through all the silliness and clarify things.”

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De-stress with yoga

Books 2 Byte
Effective Yoga for Health and Happiness
B. K. Trehan and Indu Trehan
( http://www.macmillanpublishersindia.com/)

Stress warning signs

Check if you experience one or more of these: A decreased quality and output of work; carelessness leading to sudden increase of errors or accidents; difficulty in taking decisions; isolation and aloofness from colleagues and friends; working late... These are some of the stress warning signs listed in Effective Yoga for Health and Happiness by B. K. Trehan and Indu Trehan.

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Teams have a cutting edge over groups

Books 2 Byte
Organisational Behaviour
Sarma V. S. Veluri
( http://www.jaicobooks.com/)

Group vs Team

In recent years, most organisations have replaced the concept of groups with the concept of teams, finds Sarma V. S. Veluri in Organisational Behaviour: An interactive learning approach.

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Research in defence

Books 2 Byte
India’s Foreign Policy
Anjali Ghosh, Tridib Chakraborti, Anindyo Jyoti Majumdar, and Shibashis Chatterjee
( http://www.pearsoned.co.in/)

Combat-management systems

Research in defence is moving from tactical electronic support measure (ESM) to more strategic electronic intelligence (ELINT) systems, which can track ships and aircraft passively, informs Jyotirmoy Banerjee in one of the essays included in India’s Foreign Policy.

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Behind the growth of Internet ...

Books 2 Byte
Politics of Globalization
Samir Dasgupta, Jan Nederveen Pieterse
( http://www.sagepublications.com/).

Dubious commerce thriving on the Net

Can you name an industry that is among the top five groups buying state-of-the-art computer equipment, and which was the first to buy and use expensive T3 phone lines that transmit compressed, high-resolution images? Not IT (services) or the BPO (business process outsourcing) companies, but the sex industry, as Samir Dasgupta informs in one of the essays included in Politics of Globalization, a book that he has co-edited with Jan Nederveen Pieterse.

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'Make friends with failure'

BookValue
The Ultimate Secrets of Total Self-Confidence
Robert Anthony
( http://www.harpercollins.co.in/)

Break free

Respond to life with action, exhorts Robert Anthony in The Ultimate Secrets of Total Self-Confidence. A weak, timid, indecisive approach to life breeds inertia, failure, and disappointment, he adds. “Many people fail to act because they are afraid to make a mistake or think that what they conceive can never become reality.”

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'Imagination is more important than knowledge'

BookValue
Changing the Rules
Geoff Herridge
( http://www.macmillanpublishersindia.com/ )

Thinking differently

Why do people postpone exercising? Because it takes work and commitment to start, and the ‘cost’ in the short-term of not undertaking some sort of exercise and health programme is not significant, says Geoff Herridge in Changing the Rules.

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Invest with knowledge

BookValue
A Gift to my Children
Jim Rogers
( http://www.wiley.com/ )

Investing and life

In investing, as in life, the small details often spell the difference between success and failure, counsels Jim Rogers in A Gift to my Children: A Father’s Lessons for Life and Investing.

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Luxury car for the elite buyers

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Toyota
K. Dennis Chambers
( http://www.macmillanpublishersindia.com/)

Listening to customers

In 1986, a team of Toyota designers and engineers came to southern California to “live the good life.” And the expense accounts which they sent caused near-fainting spells back at the home office. Toyota had decided to make a giant leap and get into the elite-car business alongside Jaguar, BMW, Mercedes, and Cadillac. It realised it knew virtually nothing about the typical buyers of these special cars, and so it sent them to live among those pe ople and see firsthand what they cared about, narrates K. Dennis Chambers in Toyota.

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'Headcount freeze'

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The Real Deal
James Caan
( http://www.virginbooks.com/)

When recession started to grate

James Caan retells the story of ‘the recession, 1992-1993,’ in one of the chapters in The Real Deal. “I couldn’t believe that you could work as hard as I had, absorb that much stress, create that much energy and end up with £1,475. I knew the economy had been going through a tough time, but I was still absolutely stunned when my accountant brought me the end-of-year figure. I was spending more than that a year on petrol.”

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Show respect to business cards

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How to Instantly Connect with Anyone
Leil Lowndes
( http://www.tatamcgrawhill.com/)

Card care

The Japanese may not be touchy-feely with people, but they sure are with business cards, observes Leil Lowndes in How to Instantly Connect with Anyone. “Th ese polite people call it meishi. The word has the cachet of the ceremonial aspect of exchanging cards.”

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