Serving leaders

Manage Mentor
The Secret
Ken Blanchard and Mark Miller
(http://www.tatamcgrawhill.com/)

The SERVE mantra

Most of our corporate leaders and political netas may fail at one of the first questions that Ken Blanchard and Mark Miller pose in The Secret: What great leaders know and do, second edition: “Am I a self-serving leader or a serving leader?”

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Organisational hierarchy

Manage Mentor
The Accountable Leader
Brian Dive
(http://www.vivagroupindia.com/)

Managing the Chinese hat

Traditionally, organisational hierarchy is depicted as a pyramid, but the real picture, in most cases, is like a Chinese peasant hat, observes Brian Dive in The Accountable Leader. The top is a sharp point, with strategic responsibilities vested with a very few people, while many more people are at the brim of the hat, at work level 1, he explains.

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Change for the better

Books of Account
The Surprising Solution
Bruce Piasecki
( http://www.sourcebooks.com/)

Leverage the mechanics of money

Over the last century, the global consequence of our publicly-held corporate sector has surpassed the expectations and comprehensions of public policymakers and corporate executives alike, observes Bruce Piasecki in The Surprising Solution: Creating possibility in a swift and severe world.

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The classic innovation wisdom

Books of Account
SuperCorp
Rosabeth Moss Kanter
( http://www.landmarkonthenet.com/)

Reap the values dividend

‘When the climate is right, a thousand flowers can bloom.' With this adage begins a section titled ‘Investing the values dividend,' in SuperCorp, by Rosabeth Moss Kanter.

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The best 'e-communication'

Books 2 Byte
Txtng: The Gr8 Db8
David Crystal
(http://www.oup.com/)

Texting, a language in very rapid evolution

Why did texting become so popular so quickly? Partly because texting was less expensive than voice on mobiles, reasons David Crystal in Txtng: The Gr8 Db8. Apart from the economic factors, it was the nature of the communicating medium itself that proved appealing, he continues.

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Publicness is a community asset

Books 2 Byte
What Would Google Do?
Jeff Jarvis
(http://www.landmarkonthenet.com/)

In Googley terms, life is a beta

Google is not merely changing our societies, lives, relationships, and worldviews; it is probably changing even our brains in ways we can only begin to calculate, writes Jeff Jarvis in What Would Google Do?

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Six drivers of bank valuation

Books of Account
Bank Valuation & Value-Based Management
Jean Dermine
( http://www.tatamcgrawhill.com/)

Bank valuation

The first of the six drivers of bank valuation is economic growth, writes Jean Dermine in Bank Valuation & Value-Based Management. Around the world, the nominal growth of the balance sheets of banks is closely linked to the nominal growth of gross domestic product (GDP), he adds. “Nominal growth includes real growth plus inflation.

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High-frequency data

BookValue
Market Models
Carol Alexander
( http://www.wileyindia.com/)

Data forecasting

One of the chapters in Carol Alexander's Market Models: A Guide to Financial Data Analysis is about forecasting high-frequency data. It begins by citing studies suggesting that market prices are not completely random, and that there are non-linear dependencies in financial returns.

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Calibrate your victories

Book Mark
At the Helm
Peter Isler
(http://www.macmillanpublishersindia.com/)

Innovate, be creative, says Peter Isler in

`Rule six - push the limits,' a chapter in At the Helm: Business lessons for navigating rough waters. He avers that every product can be improved; every service can be provided to customers and clients better, more efficiently, and more effectively; every customer can experience an even better relationship with your firm and its employees.

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Change, a simple fact of life

Book Mark
Change Is Your Competitive Advantage
Karl G. Schoemer
(http://www.vivagroupindia.com/)

Four guarantees about change

Four inevitable attributes of change have created the new business reality, says Karl G. Schoemer in Four guarantees,' a chapter in Change Is Your Competitive Advantage.

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The consequences of a merger

Books of Account
Valuation for Mergers, Buyouts, and Restructuring
Enrique R. Arzac
( http://www.wileyindia.com/)

A dive into deal-making

To evaluate the consequences of a merger, it is best to build a financial model of the merged firm starting from its balance sheet at the planned closing date, advises Enrique R. Arzac in Valuation for Mergers, Buyouts, and Restructuring, second edition.

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Financial stability

Books of Account
India's Financial Sector
Vyuptakesh Sharan
( http://www.sagepublications.com/)

The financial stability imperative

When the structural adjustment or macroeconomic reforms were designed originally during the early 1980s, the aspect of financial stability was not assigned too much of significance, reminisces Vyuptakesh Sharan in India's Financial Sector: An era of reforms.

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Increasing women's self-efficacy

Books of Account
Women's Health and Poverty Alleviation in India
K. S. Mohindra
( http://www.academicfoundation.com/)

Micro-credit and health

An interesting chapter in K. S. Mohindra's Women's Health and Poverty Alleviation in India is about the relationship between micro-credit and health. Greater income can support healthy food choices, making it possible to purchase non-staple foods, and reduce consumption of those unhealthy foods, high in fat and refined sugar, which are often cheap and fast meals, she writes.

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The basics of the financial products

Books of Account
Futures and Options
Sunil K. Parameswaran
( http://www.tatamcgrawhill.com/)

Understanding financial derivatives

A key factor in the development of derivatives exchanges has been the rapid growth of IT (information technology) and telecommunications, observes Sunil K. Parameswaran in Futures and Options: Concepts and applications. From streamlining backend operations in the exchanges and brokerage houses to facilitating stock index arbitrage, computers have played a pivotal role in the growth of these markets, he adds.

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Effective auditing

Books 2 Byte
Applied Oracle Security
David C. Knox et al.
(http://www.tatamcgrawhill.com/)

Consolidated auditing system

The new era of GRC (governance, risk management, and compliance) is firmly upon IT professionals, reminds Applied Oracle Security: Developing secure database and middleware environments, by David C. Knox et al.

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The security at the vault

Books 2 Byte
The Doomsday Key
James Rollins
(http://www.orionbooks.co.uk/)

Vibrations in the vault

It's 11:01 a.m., and the venue is Spitsbergen, Norway. The name of this island of the Svalbard archipelago translated from the Dutch meant ‘jagged mountain,' writes James Rollins in The Doomsday Key. Soon, he would lead us into the Doomsday Vault…

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Approach team-building with caution

Books 2 Byte
Your Next Move
Michael D. Watkins
(http://www.harvardbusiness.org/)

Relationship reengineering

Just as global businesses often try to improve their odds of success by fundamentally reengineering processes to meet their changing needs, so can transitioning executives improve their chances of realising positive change by redefining their relationships in light of shifting roles, says Michael D. Watkins in Your Next Move.

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Avoid bad loans

BookValue
The 250 Questions You Should Ask to Get Out of Debt
David and Marcia Rye
( http://www.vivagroupindia.com/)

Get control over your spending habits

Avoiding bad loans is the focus of one of the chapters in The 250 Questions You Should Ask to Get Out of Debt, by David and Marcia Rye. A bad loan, as the authors explain, has interest rates that exceed the prevailing rates by 20 per cent or more and loan terms that include unreasonable late payment penalties, prepayment penalties, or loan costs.

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Pricing by the railways

BookValue
Indian Railways Turnaround
R. N. Misra
( http://www.jaicobooks.com/)

Management lessons from the railways

Of every rupee spent by the railways on fuel such as HSD (high speed diesel) ‘only 48 paise is the real intrinsic value,' rues R. N. Misra in Indian Railways Turnaround: A Study in Management. In the remaining 52 paise are “taxes such as customs, cess, sales tax and other local taxes.

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Digital marketing

Book Mark
Six Pixels of Separation
Mitch Joel
(http://www.hachettebookgroup.com/)

Digital marketing is about being slow

Why does the online auction eBay work? Why do most people buy from someone they do not know, based on a bunch of positive peer reviews and ratings from people they do not know? The answer, as Mitch Joel writes in Six Pixels of Separation, is that we have an inherent trust in those who have taken the time to publish their personal feedback.

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Indian vs global markets

Book Mark
India by Design
Michael Boroian and Alix de Poix
(http://www.wiley.com/)

Addiction to luxury brands

To most Indians, luxury goods are those that cost a great deal and come from foreign markets, observe Michael Boroian and Alix de Poix in India by Design: The pursuit of luxury & fashion. With the exception of international brands implanted in the major cities, India is practically devoid of any Indian branded fashion and luxury goods today.

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The role of media organisation

Book Mark
Understanding Community Media
Kevin Howley
(http://www.sagepublications.com/)

Pervasive media environment

Together with blogs, global trends such as wikis and podcasting show that more and more people are changing from consumer passivity to producer activity, says Otto Leopold Tremetzberger in one of the essays included in Understanding Community Media,' edited by Kevin Howley.

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'What sort of people were we becoming?'

Say Cheek
Good Value
Stephen Green
( http://www.landmarkonthenet.com/)

Correcting the disconnect in a connected world

Should we do anything for posterity? The answer is ‘no' if one's view of ethics is contractual, since there is ‘no apparent reason to do good to those who are incapable of returning the favour,' observes Stephen Green in Good Value: Reflections on money, morality and an uncertain world.

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A great truth about 'money'

Books 2 Byte
Fight for Your Money
David Bach
(http://www.landmarkonthenet.com/)

Grow your money by avoiding financial leakages

Be it buying a car or settling a hospital bill, booking an airline ticket or shopping online, you, as a customer, run a ripe chance of getting ripped off. A simple insurance against such risks can be David Bach's Fight for Your Money. The great truth about money is that in order to keep it and grow it, you have to fight for it, he says in the introduction.

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On the 'Harvard Connection'

Books 2 Byte
The Accidental Billionaires
Ben Mezrich
(http://www.landmarkonthenet.com/)

Mashed faces in a Harvard truck

In Ben Mezrich's The Accidental Billionaires, you can catch up with not only ‘the founding of Facebook' but also ‘sex, money, betrayal.' For instance, in chapter 10, titled ‘November 25, 2003,' you'd read about ‘a vanlike bus that travelled between the Harvard campus and a half dozen of the nearby all-girl schools – as well as a few of the more liberal-minded coed party campuses – shuttling kids back and forth, most often on weekends.'

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Computers expand the range of our senses

Books 2 Byte
The Loom of God
Clifford A. Pickover
(http://www.landmarkonthenet.com/)

Reasoning beyond intuition

Likening the universe to a mathematical carpet which is perceived by creatures looking at it through imperfect glasses, Clifford A. Pickover suggests that computers may yet allow humanity to perfect those glasses. The beauty and importance of computers lie mainly in their usefulness as a tool for reasoning, creating, and discovering, he writes in The Loom of God: Tapestries of mathematics and mysticism.

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Towards a framework of 'hard money'

BookValue
Gold
Nathan Lewis
( http://www.landmarkonthenet.com/)

A call for a new gold standard

It may take many more years, even decades, but the era of soft money is slowly coming to a close, predicts Nathan Lewis in Gold: The once and future money. The world really has no choice but to move back toward a framework of hard money, because the never-ending and completely unnecessary difficulties of floating currencies can be solved in no other way, he adds.

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On stock returns

BookValue
The Future for Investors
Jeremy J. Siegel
( http://www.landmarkonthenet.com/)

Three investment directives

Dividends, international, and valuation: these three are ‘the D-I-V directives' prescribed by Jeremy J. Siegel in The Future for Investors: Why the tried and the true triumph over the bold and the new.

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