Book Peek

Wealth building strategy

2012-01-23T15:20:00.003+05:30

BookValue
The Success Principles
Jack Canfield
(HarperCollins)

Begin by writing down your financial goals

To become wealthy, you will need to identify and replace any negative or limiting beliefs you may have about money, says Jack Canfield in ‘The Success Principles: How to get from where you are to where you want to be’ (HarperCollins).

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The power of ‘yes'

2012-01-23T15:15:00.003+05:30

Book Mark
Business at the Speed of Now
John M. Bernard
(http://www.wiley.com/)

Check if you can say ‘yes’ now

Customers increasingly demand the ‘yes’ answer to each and every question they ask, and they want what they want, and they want it now, says John M. Bernard in Business at the Speed of Now.

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'Think globally'

2012-01-12T14:57:00.003+05:30

Books of Account
The Shadow Market
Eric J. Weiner
(http://www.landmarkonthenet.com/)

Follow the ‘smart money'

Rich foreign governments control impressive amounts of capital today, running to several trillions, but they are relatively new to investing, observes Eric J. Weiner in ‘The Shadow Market: How sovereign wealth funds secretly dominate the global economy'.

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The strategic difference

2012-01-12T14:40:00.004+05:30

Books of Account
Good Strategy/Bad Strategy
Richard Rumelt
(http://www.vivagroupindia.com/)

Leverage the ‘pivot point'

When 7-Eleven was expanding its operations in China, what was the outstanding advantage that the company enjoyed? Cleanliness and service, says ‘Good Strategy/Bad Strategy: The difference and why it matters' by Richard Rumelt.

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The skill of learning new skills

2012-01-12T14:33:00.003+05:30

Books of Account
The DNA of Success Stories
Jack Zufelt
(http://www.tatamcgrawhill.com/)

Ability to earn is precious

Your most valuable asset is not your car, furniture, house, investments, or money in the bank, but your ability to earn money, each day, week, month, and year, says Brian Tracy in one of the chapters of ‘The DNA of Success Stories' put together by Jack Zufelt.

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Google, a biography

2012-01-11T16:18:00.002+05:30

Books 2 Byte
I'm Feeling Lucky
Douglas Edwards

‘Hard question' at Google interview

After having worked in Google as employee number 59 from 1999 to 2005, Douglas Edwards finds himself to be impatient with the way the world works. “Why is it so hard to schedule a recording on my DVR? Why aren't all the signal lights synched to keep traffic flowing at optimum speed? Why, if I punch in my account number when I call customer service, do I have to give it to them again when I get a live person?” Listing all these questions in I'm Feeling Lucky , he adds that these are all solvable problems, because smart people, motivated to make things better, can do almost anything.

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Organisational rigidities

2012-01-11T16:08:00.003+05:30

Books 2 Byte
Serial Innovators
Claudio Feser
(http://www.wiley.com/)

Age control for firms

The human brain regularly develops rigidities in the form of biases, lack of self-confidence, and habits; and organisational constructs composed of human beings are no different, underlines Claudio Feser in ‘Serial Innovators: Firms that change the world'.

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Empty calories of the paper economy

2012-01-02T14:21:00.003+05:30

Books of Account
Cannibal Capitalism
Michael Hill
(http://www.wiley.com/)

Starving economy

When exploitation overtakes creation, and investing is trampled by gambling with someone else's money, what you have is the modern form of cannibalism that used to be attributed to ‘some isolated South Pacific tribes or certain pre-colonial African cultures'. In truth, the existence of cannibalism among aboriginal peoples has been greatly exaggerated by the conquistadors and other colonialists to justify their aggression, notes Michael Hill in ‘Cannibal Capitalism: How big business and the Feds are ruining America'.

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'A key trait of tax havens is opacity'

2012-01-02T14:14:00.003+05:30

Books of Account
Tax Havens
Ronen Palan, Richard Murphy, and Christian Chavagneux
(http://www.landmarkonthenet.com/)

Stirring up the havens

A story narrated by Sigmund Freud in ‘The Interpretation of Dreams' is about a man who offered three arguments when accused by his neighbour of having returned a kettle in a damaged condition: That he had returned the kettle undamaged; that it was already damaged when he borrowed it; and that he had never borrowed it in the first place. The three arguments are inconsistent, and Freud notes that it would have been better if he had only used one, explains a Wikipedia page on the ‘Kettle logic.' The arguments offered by tax havens are no different, say Ronen Palan, Richard Murphy, and Christian Chavagneux in ‘Tax Havens: How globalization really works'.

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For the success of any enterprise ...

2012-01-02T13:45:00.003+05:30

BookValue
‘The Art of Effective Giving'
R. M. Lala
(Harper)

Role of philanthropy in business

One of the five ‘guidelines' J. R. D. Tata drew up for himself in 1965 was that no success or achievement in material terms is worthwhile unless it serves the needs or interests of the country and its people and is achieved by fair and honest means. Another guideline, as listed by R. M. Lala in ‘The Art of Effective Giving', is that good human relations not only bring great personal rewards but are essential to the success of any enterprise.

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Gender equity

2012-01-02T13:32:00.003+05:30

Book Mark
Media, Gender, and Popular Culture in India
Sanjukta Dasgupta, Dipankar Sinha, and Sudeshna Chakravarti
(http://www.sagepublications.com/)

Social experiments in gender equity

Originally an introverted game played in Britain and a few of her colonies, cricket has been commoditised and marketed to the maximum possible extent, aided among other factors by technology and epitomised by its latest incarnation Twenty20, write Sanjukta Dasgupta, Dipankar Sinha, and Sudeshna Chakravarti in Media, Gender, and Popular Culture in India: TrackingChange and Continuity.

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The floor of the New York Stock Exchange

2011-12-21T14:17:00.003+05:30

Books of Account
King of the Club
Charles Gasparino
(http://www.landmarkonthenet.com/)

Showmanship on stock exchange

What was the reception that Dick Grasso, the chairman and chief executive of the New York Stock Exchange from 1995 to 2003, got from top technology companies in the mid-1990s? Cold, one learns from ‘King of the Club: Richard Grasso and the survival of the New York Stock Exchange' by Charles Gasparino.

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Retaining and motivating leaders

2011-12-21T14:04:00.003+05:30

Books of Account
Transforming Capitalism
Arun Maira
(Westland)

Carrot-and-stick systems

At a time when the debate about soaring executive compensation rages on, what is required of our CEOs is to examine the underlying theories driving the design of their systems for retaining and motivating leaders, writes Arun Maira in ‘Transforming Capitalism: Improving the world for everyone' (Westland).

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Simple forecasting disciplines

2011-12-14T14:13:00.003+05:30

Books of Account
Ahead of the Curve
Joseph H. Ellis
(http://www.landmarkonthenet.com/)

Let go of anecdotal economics

Teaching of economics needs to include a more pragmatic approach, says Joseph H. Ellis in ‘Ahead of the Curve: A commonsense guide to forecasting business and market cycles'. He argues that both the beginning and advanced students need to know more about the relationships between key macroeconomic data series, especially how these series have played out against each other over time.

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88 time-tested Mafia strategies

2011-12-14T14:07:00.003+05:30

Books 2 Byte
Mob Rules
Louis Ferrante
(http://www.landmarkonthenet.com/)

Mafia lessons for business

Niccolò Machiavelli tells us to gain and keep the upper hand by any means, that there is no such thing as justice, honour, or integrity, and that morality should play no part in our dealings, unless we are pretending, but he failed to address that little idea called karma, writes Louis Ferrante in ‘Mob Rules: What the Mafia can teach the legitimate businessman’.

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Financial planning

2011-12-14T13:59:00.003+05:30

BookValue
In Search of the Perfect Model
Mary Rowland
(http://www.landmarkonthenet.com/)

Holistic financial planning

To those who are looking for ‘the distinctive business strategies of leading financial planners,' a handy reference can be Mary Rowland's ‘In Search of the Perfect Model'. Though not a new book, it introduces you to the world of advisers who continually raise the bar, to ‘some of the most creative minds in the industry.'

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Many choices but only one customer

2011-12-14T13:48:00.003+05:30

Book Mark
The Old Rules of Marketing are Dead
Timothy R. Pearson
(http://www.tatamcgrawhill.com/)

It pays to stick to the core

Marketers cannot sit idly by and let others make decisions on customer service, reputation management, pricing, distribution, or the myriad other issues that must be confronted; marketing must lead, says Timothy R. Pearson in The Old Rules of Marketing are Dead: 6 New Rules to Reinvent Your Brand & Reignite Your Business.

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When facing an economic crisis ...

2011-12-09T15:41:00.004+05:30

Manage Mentor
Banker to the World
William R. Rhodes
(http://www.tatamcgrawhill.com/)

Quick solutions, home-grown

When facing an economic crisis, the clock is always running against policymakers so they should act rapidly to implement the necessary reforms and programmes to avoid further deterioration, writes William R. Rhodes in Banker to the World: Leadership lessons from the front lines of global finance.

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Value chain analysis

2011-12-09T15:25:00.004+05:30

Books of Account
Markets and Rural Poverty
Jonathan Mitchell and Christopher Coles
(http://www.idrc.ca/)

Poorest on advantageous trajectories

Stated simply, ‘improvement in road infrastructure' may sound like a drab phrase. But, to farmers in Siay in the Philippines, it meant ‘significant improvements to the efficiency of the kalamansi value chain,' informs ‘Markets and Rural Poverty: Upgrading in value chains,' edited by Jonathan Mitchell and Christopher Coles.

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Trading styles

2011-12-09T15:20:00.002+05:30

BookValue
The Greatest Trades of All Time
Vincent W. Veneziani
(http://www.wiley.com/)

Lessons from master traders

The opening chapter in ‘The Greatest Trades of All Time: Top traders making big profits from the crash of 1929 to today' by Vincent W. Veneziani is about J. Kyle Bass, a hedge fund manager from Dallas, Texas. Why so? Because he was one of the youngest managers in the business to spot the subprime mortgage crisis coming and to actually place a large bet on it, explains the author.

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Monitoring and enforcement

2011-12-02T15:17:00.003+05:30

Books of Account
Economic Analysis of Institutions
V. Santhakumar
(http://www.sagepublications.com/)

Cost of unlawful action

A question that most of us can relate to is, “Do citizens' actions compensate for the weak enforcement of laws?” Devoting a chapter to this poser, V. Santhakumar writes in ‘Economic Analysis of Institutions: A practical guide' that poor enforcement of laws, such as of environment, creates social losses, which in turn encourage citizens to act by filing PIL (public interest litigation) or resorting to civil disobedience actions.

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China, in the path of US

2011-12-02T14:44:00.003+05:30

Books of Account
A Contest for Supremacy
Aaron L. Friedberg
(http://www.wwnorton.com/)

Blueprint of the China edge

Do you see a silver lining in the 2008-09 financial meltdown? The answer of Aaron L. Friedberg is in the affirmative because the crisis forced Americans to alter their spending habits and has produced at least a temporary jump in personal savings, as he reasons in ‘A Contest for Supremacy: China, America, and the struggle for mastery in Asia'.

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Managing your money

2011-12-02T14:33:00.003+05:30

BookValue
30-Minute Money Solutions
Christine Benz
(http://www.wiley.com/)

Start with a financial check-up

If you want to begin managing your money, hands on, begin by finding your baseline, instructs Christine Benz in 30-Minute Money Solutions: A step-by-step guide to managing your finances.

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Untapped market

2011-12-02T14:24:00.003+05:30

Book Mark
What You Need to Know about Strategy
Jo Whitehead
(http://www.wiley.com/)

EIEIO, the basic strategy questions

Strategy is both the goal of an organisation, and the pathway it follows to achieve that goal, defines Jo Whitehead in What You Need to Know about Strategy.

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Bollywood dance

2011-12-02T14:16:00.003+05:30

Book Mark
Is It All About Hips? Around the World with Bollywood Dance
Sangita Shresthova
(http://www.sagepublications.com/)

Dancing to narrative needs and audience preferences

Hindi film dances mediate between India's colonial and post-colonial histories and its future global ambitions, even as they cater to an increasingly transnational audience, writes Sangita Shresthova in Is It All About Hips? Around the World with Bollywood Dance.

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Business in the 21st century

2011-11-28T14:25:00.003+05:30

Manage Mentor
Working Together
Michael D. Eisner
(http://www.landmarkonthenet.com/)

Get the learning machine to work faster

Warren Buffett and Charlie Munger, Bill and Melinda Gates, Brian Grazer and Ron Howard, Valentino and Giancarlo Giammetti, Steve Rubell and Ian Schrager, Arthur Blank and Bernie Marcus, Susan Feniger and Mary Sue Milliken, Joe Torre and Don Zimmer, and John Angelo and Michael Gordon. What is common to the pairs? They are examples of successful partnerships that Michael D. Eisner showcases in Working Together.

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‘Building in' good qualities

2011-11-28T14:19:00.003+05:30

Books of Account
Raising Kids with Character that Lasts
John Yates and Susan Alexander Yates
(http://www.magnamags.com/)

Integrity lessons

In a world of half truths, we face the lifelong challenge of telling the whole truth even when it is inconvenient, write John Yates and Susan Alexander Yates in ‘Raising Kids with Character that Lasts'.

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‘Indian needs, Indian solutions'

2011-11-28T14:13:00.003+05:30

Books 2 Byte
The India Idea
L. K. Sharma

Harnessing diffused creative knowledge

The interplay between society and technology has intensified, each influencing the other, and its full force is being felt in India, declares L. K. Sharma in ‘The India Idea: Heralding the era of path-breaking innovations' . Reminding us that satellites and mobile phones are providing education, expert advice, weather information and other critical information to farmers and fishermen, patients, and students, Sharma paints a reassuring picture of the Indian villager who once had to trudge miles to sell her farm produce at whatever price she got: ...

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The ‘Ninja' loans

2011-11-28T13:58:00.005+05:30

BookValue
The Last of the Imperious Rich
Peter Chapman
(www.landmarkonthenet.com/)

Rise and fall of Lehman Brothers

“Grabbing and greed can go on for just so long, but the breaking point is bound to come sometime.” Opening with this quote of Herbert Lehman is The Last of the Imperious Rich by Peter Chapman, a tale about Lehman Brothers (1844-2008).

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Sales compensation strategy

2011-11-28T13:53:00.002+05:30

Book Mark
Unlocking Human Capital to Drive Performance
Sanjiv Anand
(http://www.tatamcgrawhill.com/)

Give incentives to those who generate revenue

Effective sales force compensation is one of the chapters in Unlocking Human Capital to Drive Performance: A CEO's Handbook by Sanjiv Anand. Sales compensation strategy is a mission-critical pay programme, the author underlines. It is a high-stakes, high-visibility pay system that requires focus and comprehensive design support, he adds.

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The story of a financial industry's collapse

2011-10-24T15:26:00.003+05:30

BookValue
The Weekend that Changed Wall Street
Ms Maria Bartiromo
(http://www.penguin.com/)

Unravelling financial crisis

Part of the negative public mood stems from the fact that three years after the financial disaster, there have been very few indictments, and even fewer convictions, over events that nearly sent the US into another Great Depression, writes Ms Maria Bartiromo in The Weekend that Changed Wall Street: And how the fallout is still impacting our world. “Added to that are some 8.4 million jobs lost in the recession, many of which have yet to come back.”

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Scouting, the backbone of creative anatomy

2011-10-24T15:20:00.002+05:30

Book Mark
Stimulated!
Andrew Pek and Jeannine McGlade
(http://www.kkbooks.com/)

Five habits for effective creativity

Scouting is the backbone of our creative anatomy, say Andrew Pek and Jeannine McGlade in Stimulated! Habits to spark your creative genius at work. The authors explain that scouting contains the essential orientation and energy we need to find, observe, and use to interact with stimulus and initiate the creative cycle we each possess.

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Pursuit of ‘bad'

2011-10-24T15:14:00.003+05:30

Books of Account
The Ultimate Question 2.0
Fred Reichheld
(Harvard)

Profits, good and bad

Say ‘profit,' and it perhaps sounds cool and makes you feel good. It can, therefore, be disturbing to open ‘The Ultimate Question 2.0' (Harvard) and find Fred Reichheld discuss two types of profits, viz. bad and good. In his view, good profits are earned with customers' enthusiastic cooperation, when the company so delights its customers that they willingly come back for more – and not only that, they tell their friends and colleagues to do business with the company.

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'Track your life'

2011-10-24T15:07:00.003+05:30

Books of Account
The Compound Effect
Darren Hardy
(Vanguard)

Transformation through tracking

Once you start tracking your life, your attention will be focused on the smallest things you are doing right, as well as the smallest things you are doing wrong, says Darren Hardy in ‘The Compound Effect: Multiplying your success, one simple step at a time' (Vanguard). And, when you choose to make even the smallest course corrections consistently, over time, you will begin to see amazing results, he assures.

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Water-sharing treaty

2011-10-21T15:23:00.003+05:30

Books of Account
Water
Brahma Chellaney
(Harper)

Munificent allocation

A section titled ‘The costs of a fragmented approach' in ‘Water: Asia's new battleground' by Brahma Chellaney (Harper) frets that the absence of institutionalised, integrated policymaking in India has blighted water resources management for long.

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Cost budget

2011-10-21T15:20:00.002+05:30

Books of Account
Implementing Beyond Budgeting
Bjarte Bogsnes
(http://www.landmarkonthenet.com/)

Ambition to action

The most stubborn myth in traditional management is probably that the only way to manage costs is through detailed cost budgets, with a tight follow-up to ensure that no more is spent than is handed out, writes Bjarte Bogsnes in ‘Implementing Beyond Budgeting: Unlocking the performance potential'.

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The 'early struggle'

2011-10-21T15:16:00.003+05:30

Books 2 Byte
Predictable Success
Les McKeown

The seven stages of a growth cycle

Early struggle, fun, whitewater, predictable success, treadmill, the big rut, and death rattle. These are the seven stages of growth cycle presented in Predictable Success: Getting your organisation on the growth track and keeping it there by Les McKeown.

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The scientists' journeys

2011-10-21T15:07:00.003+05:30

Books 2 Byte
Making the World Work Better
Kevin Maney, Steve Hamm, and Jeffrey M. O'Brien

‘Smuba' model for quickstarting progress

Among the many photos in Making the World Work Better: The ideas that shaped a century and a company, by Kevin Maney, Steve Hamm, and Jeffrey M. O'Brien , is one of John Powell, superintendent and asset manager of San Francisco Public Utility Commission Wastewater Enterprise.

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Capitalise on emotions

2011-10-20T14:32:00.003+05:30

BookValue
Investing and the Irrational Mind
Robert Koppel
(http://www.tatamcgrawhill.com/)

Know thyself to decode markets

Investing has less to do with the science of computation and more to do with the art of managing one's outlook, emotions, and consciousness, writes Robert Koppel in ‘Investing and the Irrational Mind: Rethink risk, outwit optimism, and seize opportunities others miss'.

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Marketing in rural areas

2011-10-20T14:19:00.004+05:30

Book Mark
Rural Marketing
Pradeep Kashyap
(http://www.pearsoned.co.in/)

Call of the small towns and villages

In Hindi, ‘aamne saamne' means face-to-face. To Ericsson, it is the name of a ‘video telephony service' using 3G that connects migrant workers to their families. “Ericsson converted the virtually dying PCOs into public video telephony booths. This way, the consumer paid only for the minutes used, while the actual investment was made by PCO (public call office) owners,” reads one of the many stories in Rural Marketing, second edition, by Pradeep Kashyap.

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Financial globalisation

2011-10-11T15:30:00.003+05:30

Books of Account
The Next Great Globalization
Frederic S. Mishkin
(http://www.landmarkonthenet.com/)

Give adequate resources to prudential regulators

Not long ago, Mishkin wrote ‘The Next Great Globalization: How disadvantaged nations can harness their financial systems to get rich’, which wrapped up by fretting that not every emerging market country has the political will of Chile, Hong Kong, Singapore, and Taiwan to adopt the reforms needed to make financial globalisation work.

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For a successful trading ...

2011-10-11T15:22:00.003+05:30

BookValue
Trading Triads
Felipe Tudela
(http://www.wiley.com/)

Focus on the market structure

The real secret to successful trading is the integration of money management and market structure, says Felipe Tudela in Trading Triads: Unlocking the secrets of market structure and trading in any market.

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A guide to financial service providers

2011-10-03T15:47:00.003+05:30

Books of Account
The Future of Finance
Adjiedj Bakas and Roger Peverelli
(http://www.landmarkonthenet.com/)

A role for finance in its original flavour

With so many new opportunities, financial service providers must position and organise themselves in a very different way, urge Adjiedj Bakas and Roger Peverelli in The Future of Finance.

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'Budget' - the word to master

2011-10-03T15:42:00.003+05:30

BookValue
The 10 Commandments of Money
Liz Weston
(http://www.landmarkonthenet.com/)

Begin with a budget that works

Before you start spelling ‘money,' the word to master is ‘budget' — a budget that works ‘in the real world,' as Liz Weston emphasises in The 10 Commandments of Money: Survive and thrive in the new economy.

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Different ways of looking at the world

2011-10-03T15:20:00.003+05:30

Book Mark
Predictable Magic
Deepa Prahalad and Ravi Sawhney
(Pearson)

Respond to consumer emotions

A leading audio products company, JBL, had a problem. After more than a decade as the leader in the portable power speaker market it created with the original EON line of portable public address (PA) speakers, JBL found its competition encroaching on the EON’s market share, as Deepa Prahalad and Ravi Sawhney narrate, in ‘Predictable Magic: Unleash the power of design strategy to transform your business’ (Pearson).

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How to add value to business as a finance professional

2011-09-28T14:33:00.004+05:30

Books of Account
Reinventing the CFO
Jeremy Hope
(Harvard)

Liberate yourself from low-value-adding work

If you keep asking yourself how you can add value to your business as a finance professional, check ‘Reinventing the CFO' by Jeremy Hope (Harvard). The author sees the CFO as a champion of change in the finance operation and performance management practices, but cautions against simply parachuting best practices from one organisation into another.

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'Google, the Microsoft of the Internet generation'

2011-09-28T14:28:00.003+05:30

Books 2 Byte
The Google Guys
Richard L. Brandt

Revenue versus principle

Becoming the new Microsoft may not be the description that Larry and Sergey would like to have, but it is inevitable, writes Richard L. Brandt in ‘The Google Guys' . Despite what the company's executives say, Google is no longer just a search company; it is an Internet software company, the author describes. “Larry and Sergey are on a grand quest to provide software for every device that connects to the Internet. Google is, in short, the Microsoft of the Internet generation.”

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'Past performance is no guarantee of future results'

2011-09-28T14:01:00.003+05:30

BookValue
The House that Bogle Built
Lewis Braham
(http://www.tatamcgrawhill.com/)

Wanted, an effective asset allocation index

Despite the plethora of index funds and ETFs (exchange traded funds), there is one investment solution that index investors still need, that does not exist yet in a suitable form, and that is an effective asset allocation index, opines Lewis Braham in ‘The House that Bogle Built'.

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Subjectivity can stoke fear

2011-09-28T13:55:00.003+05:30

Book Mark
Breaking the Fear Barrier
Tom Rieger
(Gallup)

Reward the courageous employee

A credit card company was faced with something apparently inscrutable: A negative correlation between its internal subjective perceptions of customer service and what customers actually thought, so much so that what the company defined as good service was actually bad service, and vice versa. But the company assumed it was doing the right thing because the employees followed predetermined steps with perfect compliance, reads a narrative in Breaking the Fear Barrier by Tom Rieger (Gallup).

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Corporate profits

2011-09-19T15:18:00.003+05:30

Books of Account
‘India Policy Forum 2010-11: Volume 7'
Suman Bery, Barry Bosworth, and Arvind Panagariya
(http://www.sagepublications.com/)

Business dynamism vs entrenchment advantage

Corporate profits generally make for happy tidings for investors, but a worrying question put forth by a paper in ‘India Policy Forum 2010-11: Volume 7' from the National Council of Applied Economic Research and Brookings Institution is whether the profits are from business dynamism or advantages of entrenchment.

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The five aspects about money

2011-09-19T15:05:00.003+05:30

BookValue
Unfair Advantage
Robert T. Kiyosaki
(http://www.landmarkonthenet.com/)

Let go of old ideas

Knowledge, taxes, debt, risk, and compensation are the five aspects about money that Robert T. Kiyosaki elaborately discusses in ‘Unfair Advantage: The power of financial education'. Before you jump into these, however, you would need to know how to catch a monkey, as explained in the introduction.

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The functions of HRA

2011-09-13T15:46:00.003+05:30

Books of Account
Human Resource Development
David McGuire and Kenneth Molbjerg Jorgensen
(http://www.sagepublications.com/)

Research journey into HR accounting

Human resource accounting is the focus of one of the chapters in Human Resource Development: Theory & Practice, edited by David McGuire and Kenneth Molbjerg Jorgensen. Employees have always been important in the production of goods and the provision of services, but what have traditionally been regarded as the primary engines of growth are land, financial capital, and technology, begins the essay.

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Emerging economies

2011-09-13T15:41:00.003+05:30

BookValue
Crisis Economics
Nouriel Roubini
(http://www.landmarkonthenet.com/)

Let's get the letters right

U, V, or W? No, this is not a test of your knowledge of the alphabet, but a question about recoveries, because they come in different forms, reflecting their relative vigour or sustainability, as Nouriel Roubini highlights in ‘Crisis Economics: A crash course in the future of finance'.

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Business planning

2011-09-13T15:35:00.003+05:30

Book Mark
Effectual Entrepreneurship
Stuart Read, Saras Sarasvathy, Nick Dew, Robert Wiltbank, and Anne
Valérie Ohisson
(http://www.routledge.com/)

Get your business plan right

Sample this: “Business plans have their time and place, though perhaps not in planning a business.” A shocker, but that is the opening line in a chapter on ‘business plans and business models,' in Effectual Entrepreneurship by Stuart Read, Saras Sarasvathy, Nick Dew, Robert Wiltbank, and Anne-Valérie Ohisson.

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To tackle corruption ...

2011-09-07T16:23:00.003+05:30

Books of Account
Corruption and Human Rights in India
C. Raj Kumar
(http://www.oup.com/)

Right to be corruption-free

We may be able to relate to this situation, cited in Corruption and Human Rights in India: Comparative perspectives on transparency and good governance by C. Raj Kumar: “Poor villagers in West Java were baffled when their government rice supply suddenly dried up. Suppliers complained that their payment was 60 million rupiah in arrears. But villagers were adamant that they had paid the bills…”

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'Act different, think different, and make a difference'

2011-09-07T16:04:00.003+05:30

Books 2 Byte
The Innovator's DNA
Jeff Dyer, Hal Gregersen, and Clayton M. Christensen
(Harvard)

Act now or it may be too late

Act different, think different, and make a difference. This is the signing-off message of Jeff Dyer, Hal Gregersen, and Clayton M. Christensen in The Innovator's DNA: Mastering the five skills of disruptive innovators (Harvard).

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Rethinking the role of boards

2011-09-05T16:16:00.003+05:30

BookValue
Fixing the Game
Roger L. Martin
(Harvard)

Restoring the core of capitalism

The world being a crowded, politically unstable, and economically inequitable place, the prosperity of its inhabitants depends in considerable part on the rational and responsible creation of wealth through the operation of successful businesses, says Roger L. Martin in Fixing the Game: How runaway expectations broke the economy, and how to get back to reality (Harvard).

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Characteristics of MBA aspirants

2011-09-05T15:55:00.003+05:30

Book Mark
Beyond the MBA Hype
Sameer Kamat
(http://www.harpercollins.co.in/)

Improve your MBA profile

If you are working hard to improve your MBA profile for the top B-schools, a sobering truth that Sameer Kamat highlights in Beyond the MBA Hype is that there is no ideal MBA applicant. “MBA admissions committees aren't looking for an ‘A' list candidate with Aamir Khan's creativity, Amitabh Bachchan's baritone, Amartya Sen's intellect and Mukesh Ambani's business sense,” he adds.

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Management teaching

2011-08-29T14:37:00.002+05:30

Books of Account
The Business of HR in Business Schools
V. R. K. Prasad
(http://www.vivagroupindia.com/)

Wise incentives for management teachers

Money still continues to be the single largest motivating and retention factor for any employee, more so for a knowledge worker such as management faculty, says V. R. K. Prasad in The Business of HR in Business Schools. He reasons that intense competition, fuelled by mushrooming growth of business schools, has created a dearth of quality faculty, and the resultant fattening of the financial packages.

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The 'three' kinds of managers

2011-08-29T14:24:00.003+05:30

Books 2 Byte
Manager's Guide to Social Media
Scott Klososky
(http://www.tatamcgrawhill.com/)

‘Social' investment for team's success

There seem to be three kinds of managers at this point in the social adoption curve, observes Scott Klososky in Manager's Guide to Social Media. “The thought leaders, the dragged along, and the naysayers,” he adds.

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Human well-being and emotion

2011-08-29T13:55:00.003+05:30

Books 2 Byte
Built to Love
Peter Boatwright and Jonathan Cagan
(http://www.tatamcgrawhill.com/)

Click, with caring

Emotion is critical to the success of all companies, including those selling technology-based products, aver Peter Boatwright and Jonathan Cagan in Built to Love: Creating products that captivate customers.

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The current or the quick ratio

2011-08-29T13:44:00.003+05:30

BookValue
How to read a Profit and Loss Statement
N. Ramachandran and Ram Kumar Kakani
(http://www.tatamcgrawhill.com/)

Stepping stones in finance education

N. Ramachandran and Ram Kumar Kakani have come up with a series of ‘How to' books, on reading a cash flow statement and profit and loss statement, and analysing financial statements.

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Communicating with the market

2011-08-29T13:29:00.003+05:30

BookValue
‘Corporate Valuation and Value Creation'
Prasanna Chandra
(http://www.tatamcgrawhill.com/)

Guidelines on investor communication

An important section in ‘Corporate Valuation and Value Creation' by Prasanna Chandra is the one devoted to investor communication. It opens with the quote of Warren Buffett emphasising Berkshire's ‘it's-as-bad-to-be-overvalued-as-to-be-undervalued approach,' as a way to maintain a 1:1 relationship between the intrinsic value and the market price of the share.

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Gendered norms of behaviour and power structures

2011-08-29T13:18:00.004+05:30

Book Mark
Drama for Development
Andrew Skuse, Marie Gillespie, and Gerry Power
(http://www.sagepublications.com/)

Investigating Jasoos Vijay

Meet Jasoos Vijay in one of the chapters of Drama for Development: Cultural translation and social change, edited by Andrew Skuse, Marie Gillespie, and Gerry Power. The jasoos (detective) premiered on Doordarshan in 2002, was part of a media initiative created in partnership with the National AIDS Control Organisation (NACO), Prasar Bharati, the British Government's Department for International Development (DFID), and BBC World Service Trust (WST).

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Return on investment

2011-08-17T15:17:00.003+05:30

Books of Account
‘Adapt: Why success always starts with failure'
Tim Harford
(http://www.landmarkonthenet.com/)

Investing in new ideas and technologies

Return on investment or ROI is simply not a useful way of thinking about new ideas and new technologies, writes Tim Harford in ‘Adapt: Why success always starts with failure'. It is impossible to estimate a percentage return on blue-sky research, and it is delusional even to try, he argues.

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Balance Sheet analysis

2011-08-17T15:11:00.003+05:30

Books of Account
How to Read a Balance Sheet
N. Ramachandran and Ram Kumar Kakani(http://www.tatamcgrawhill.com/)

Balanced report of company's financial health

The most important equation in the world of finance can well be ‘Assets = Liabilities plus net worth (owners' equity),' note N. Ramachandran and Ram Kumar Kakani in How to Read a Balance Sheet.

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Credit appraisal

2011-08-12T15:31:00.003+05:30

Books of Account
Growth with Financial Stability
Rakesh Mohan
(http://www.oup.com/)

Blend monetary policy with prudential regulation

The campaign for financial inclusion must gather force, but care must be taken not to create a sub-prime culture, cautions Rakesh Mohan in ‘Growth with Financial Stability: Central banking in an emerging market'.

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The 'KM strategy'

2011-08-12T15:18:00.003+05:30

Books 2 Byte
The Knowledge Translation Toolkit
Gavin Bennett and Nasreen Jessani
(http://www.sagepublications.com/)

Knowledge is like fine wine

Knowledge is like fine wine, begins The Knowledge Translation Toolkit, edited by Gavin Bennett and Nasreen Jessani. “The researcher brews it, the scientific paper bottles it, the peer review tastes it, the journal sticks a label on it, and archive systems store it carefully in a cellar.”

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The 'choice'

2011-08-12T15:10:00.003+05:30

BookValue
Free Market Madness
Peter A. Ubel
(http://www.landmarkonthenet.com/)

When freedom and well-being collide

Often it can be extremely simple to make the choice whether to have goodies now or later. When the amount of gratification is equal across time periods, the choice is usually easy, writes Peter A. Ubel in Free Market Madness: Why human nature is at odds with economics – and why it matters.

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The connected economy

2011-08-03T15:19:00.003+05:30

Books 2 Byte
Economyths
David Orrell
(http://www.landmarkonthenet.com/)

Robust networks hold lessons for financial systems

One of the ‘ten ways that economics gets it wrong' is the idea of ‘the connected economy,' says David Orrell in Economyths. Techies may like to begin with the section on the science of networks, where the author cites the banking and electrical systems, and transportation and telecommunication networks, as examples of technological networks.

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To wannabe entrepreneurs

2011-08-03T15:13:00.003+05:30

Book Mark
Escape from Cubicle Nation
Pamela Slim
(http://www.landmarkonthenet.com/)

Find the business needle in your idea haystack

One of the disconcerting parts of working in a large company — where you may have a fancy title, steady pay cheque, and good benefits — is that you often get caught up in a frenzy of activity, doing things that do not have a direct bearing on the real world, observes Pamela Slim in Escape from Cubicle Nation: From corporate prisoner to thriving entrepreneur.

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Espresso Book Machine

2011-07-27T15:10:00.003+05:30

Books 2 Byte
Not for Free
Saul J. Berman
(http://www.landmarkonthenet.com/)

Survival in a sea of ‘free'

In the publishing industry, there is the long tail — of ‘rare, out-of-print, esoteric, or low-demand titles' — and this can find new life in ‘Espresso Book Machine,' writes Saul J. Berman in Not for Free: Revenue strategies for a New World.

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The two 'opposite' impacts

2011-07-27T15:05:00.003+05:30

BookValue
Romancing the Balance Sheet
Anil Lamba
(http://www.landmarkonthenet.com/)

If accounting is clerical, finance is intellectual

Debit and credit are two commonly used, yet greatly misunderstood, accounting words, laments Anil Lamba in Romancing the Balance Sheet. Stating that he has rarely come across anybody who can confidently attribute a meaning to each of these words, he informs that there is invariably a feeling that one is a gain, the other a loss; and that one is positive, and the other, negative.

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The digital reality

2011-07-26T14:24:00.003+05:30

Books 2 Byte
Moral Rights
Mira T. Sundara Rajan
(http://www.oup.com/)

Ownership in a digital world

Countries that are highly technological have promoted the extension of ‘moral rights' to new technologies, from computer programs to collaborative works such as film, writes Mira T. Sundara Rajan in Moral Rights: Principles, practice and new technology.

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Measuring the value of the workforce

2011-07-26T14:18:00.003+05:30

Books of Account
Lean Labor
Gregg Gordon
(http://bit.ly/F4TGreggG)

Sustainability of workforce-driven innovation

While labour may be the most controllable resource for a manufacturer, it is also the most difficult to manage, writes Gregg Gordon in ‘Lean Labor: A survival guide for companies facing global competition'.

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The 'loose' organisation

2011-07-26T14:05:00.003+05:30

Manage Mentor
Loose
Martin Thomas
(http://www.landmarkonthenet.com/)

Let ‘organised chaos' work for you

Most leaders, if willing to make an honest appraisal, would accept that the institutions they run have become too slow, too process-bound and too cautious, says Martin Thomas in Loose: The future of business is letting go.

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'Gamble your early winnings'

2011-07-22T16:16:00.003+05:30

BookValue
Red Joker Rules
Pat Holland
(http://www.landmarkonthenet.com/)

Lessons for investors from the gambling world

Foremost in the list of rules, in ‘Red Joker Rules: The 35 Rules of Gambling That All Investors Should Know' by Pat Holland, is ‘Start early.' The gambler who arrives at the racecourse in a flustered state just as the horses are cantering down for the fifth race on the card is not going to win much, advises the author.

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Better-is-better

2011-07-22T15:59:00.003+05:30

Book Mark
The New Capitalist Manifesto
Umair Haque
(http://www.landmarkonthenet.com/)

Shift ‘from goods to betters'

In the twentieth century, worse was often better, writes Umair Haque in The New Capitalist Manifesto: Building a disruptively better business. “What was better for the bottom line was — perhaps not immediately, absolutely, or deliberately, but often, ultimately, and sometimes unwittingly — worse for people, communities, and society,” he explains.

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Three key attributes of leaders

2011-07-20T14:33:00.003+05:30

Manage Mentor
Better Under Pressure
Justin Menkes
(http://www.hbr.org/)

How leaders find order in chaos

One of the three key attributes of leaders is finding order in chaos, writes Justin Menkes in Better Under Pressure: How great leaders bring out the best in themselves and others.

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Value the customers

2011-07-20T14:26:00.003+05:30

Books of Account

The Mirror Test

Jeffrey W. Hayzlett

(http://www.landmarkonthenet.com/)

Add value, get value

Customers are not numbers to small businesses; they are people and that is your innate advantage over the big boys, says Jeffrey W. Hayzlett in The Mirror Test: Is your business really breathing?

A social media journey

2011-07-13T15:27:00.003+05:30

Books 2 Byte
The Thank You Economy
Gary Vaynerchuk
(http://www.landmarkonthenet.com/)

How a dentist gave her biz more teeth

Can you ever love your dentist? The answer could be ‘yes,' as one learns from the social media case of Dr Irena Vaksman, narrated by Gary Vaynerchuk in The Thank You Economy.

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CSR, an investment

2011-07-13T15:21:00.003+05:30

BookValue
Corporates & Social Responsibility
K. N. Ajith
(Eeswaar Books)

Sustainable social responsibility

Corporate affluence can be sustained only when social development takes place along with economic development, reminds K. N. Ajith in Corporates & Social Responsibility (Eeswaar Books).

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Conditions of transparency

2011-07-13T14:24:00.003+05:30

Book Mark
How
Dov Seidman
Wiley India

Shift from managing reputation to earning it

Though reputation, like trust, is not a new concept in business, there has been an explosion of interest around the subject since the mid-1990s, observes Dov Seidman in How, recently out as a reprint from Wiley India.

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Aspire, Assess, Architect, Act, and Advance

2011-06-28T15:35:00.005+05:30

Manage Mentor
Beyond Performance
Scott Keller and Colin Price
(http://www.wiley.com/)

Five A's for leaders

Achieving organisational excellence hinges on finding answers to five questions, say Scott Keller and Colin Price in Beyond Performance: How great organizations build ultimate competitive advantage. These questions are presented as 5A's, thus: Aspire (‘where do we want to go?'), assess (‘how ready are we to go there?'), architect (‘what do we need to do to get there?'), act (‘how do we manage the journey?'), and advance (‘how do we keep moving forward?'). Each of these A's is elaborately discussed in separate chapters of the book.

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“People report to managers, but they follow leaders.”

2011-06-28T15:31:00.003+05:30

Books of Account
The Corner Office
Adam Bryant
(http://www.harpercollins.co.in/)

Harness extra energy through a sense of mission

Chapter 13 in ‘The Corner Office: How top CEOs made it and how you can too' by Adam Bryant begins by asking what the difference is between management and leadership. Management is about results, answers the author. “You're given certain assets – people, money, equipment – and you're expected to make the most of them to deliver an expected outcome. Management is quantifiable, measurable, almost a science. Companies can gain a significant edge by being adept practitioners of the discipline.”

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Taking control away

2011-06-28T15:22:00.003+05:30

Books 2 Byte
The Filter Bubble
Eli Pariser
(http://www.penguin.com/)

Who's pulling the Net strings?

The good news in The Filter Bubble: What the Internet is hiding from you by Eli Pariser is that as billions come online in India, Brazil and Africa, the Internet is transforming into a truly global place. But the worrying message in the book is that, ultimately, a small group of American companies may unilaterally dictate how billions of people work, play, communicate, and understand the world.

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As Apple grew ...

2011-06-28T15:12:00.003+05:30

Book Mark
The Steve Jobs Way
Jay Elliot
(http://www.jaicobooks.com/)

Marketing insights from Apple's Jobs

A section titled ‘Steve and the Art of Branding,' in The Steve Jobs Way: iLeadership for a new generation by Jay Elliot, narrates how it was the famed ad agency Chiat/Day that produced Apple's ‘1984' commercial.

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B2B pricing decisions

2011-06-21T14:26:00.003+05:30

Books of Account
Business-to-Business Marketing, second edition
Ms Ross Brennan, Mr Louise Canning, and Mr Raymond McDowell
(http://www.sagepublications.com/)

Key ethical issues in B2B pricing

Ethical issues often arise in pricing, observe Ms Ross Brennan, Mr Louise Canning, and Mr Raymond McDowell in ‘Business-to-Business Marketing,' second edition.

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A replacement for silicon

2011-06-21T14:16:00.003+05:30

Books 2 Byte
Physics of the Future
Michio Kaku
(http://www.penguin.com/)

Life after Moore's law

Moore's law, one of the foundations of the information revolution, cannot last forever, writes Michio Kaku in Physics of the Future: How science will shape human destiny and our daily lives by the year 2100.

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The four heart attitudes

2011-06-21T14:05:00.003+05:30

BookValue
The Coming Economic Armageddon
David Jeremiah
(http://www.landmarkonthenet.com/)

Four horsemen of Wall Street

A cartoon of Edward Sorel reproduced in ‘The Coming Economic Armageddon' by David Jeremiah is titled ‘The Four Horsemen of the Wall St. Apocalypse'. “The cartoon pictures skeletons riding four horses in a wild stampede over the ruins of the New York Stock Exchange. Each skeleton is labelled with one of the four heart attitudes that contributed to our current financial situation: mendacity, stupidity, arrogance, and greed,” describes Jeremiah, before delving into a discussion of each of these qualities.

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To wannabe entrepreneurs

2011-06-16T16:02:00.003+05:30

Manage Mentor
The Fresh Brew
Amit Haralalka and Amitabh Thakur
(http://www.landmarkonthenet.com/)

Stories of self-belief and perseverance

To wannabe entrepreneurs, The Fresh Brew: Chronicles of business and freedom by Amit Haralalka and Amitabh Thakur can be a veritable feast. The book is a collection of 25 stories of IIM Lucknow alumni who pursued an idea or a talent, or started their own enterprises.

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When the loans become bad ...

2011-06-16T15:53:00.003+05:30

Books of Account
Guaranteed to Fail
Viral V. Acharya, Matthew Richardson, Stijn Van Nieuwerburgh, and Lawrence J. White
(Harper)

When the clutch becomes a crutch

There are distinct parallels between the foray of Indian government into rural banking and the role of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac in the US, observe Viral V. Acharya, Matthew Richardson, Stijn Van Nieuwerburgh, and Lawrence J. White, in Guaranteed to Fail (Harper).

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a 'testing' time

2011-06-16T15:46:00.003+05:30

Books 2 Byte
Nurturing Institutional Excellence
Vijaya Sherry Chand and T. V. Rao
(http://www.macmillanpublishersindia.com/)

Tale of computerising CAT

The conducting of the computerised CAT (Common Admission Test) will go down in the annals of management education as a unique phenomenon, recounts Satish Y. Deodhar in one of the essays included in Nurturing Institutional Excellence: Indian Institute of Management Ahmedabad, edited by Vijaya Sherry Chand and T. V. Rao.

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Synthetic CDOs

2011-06-14T13:43:00.003+05:30

BookValue
All the Devils Are Here
Bethany McLean and Joe Nocera
(http://www.landmarkonthenet.com/)

A zero-sum game with mortgages as the dice

Synthetic CDOs (collateralised debt obligations) were Wall Street's version of a lab experiment gone mad, write Bethany McLean and Joe Nocera in All the Devils Are Here: The hidden history of the financial crisis.

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'Win on speed'

2011-06-14T13:35:00.003+05:30

Book Mark
Killing Giants
Stephen Denny
(www.landmarkonthenet.com)

Winning the ‘smart vs brawn' battle

Giants come in all shapes and sizes, as do the Davids that slay them, says Stephen Denny in Killing Giants: 10 strategies to topple the Goliath in your industry. Clarifying that the question is about smart versus brawn, the author notes it is not always about small companies fighting big ones, although this is most common.

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'Office humour, a source of sexual harassment'

2011-06-10T15:14:00.003+05:30

Books of Account
Money and Power
William D. Cohan
(http://www.penguin.com/)

Mistreatment in the money den

In the ‘Money' chapter of Money and Power: How Goldman Sachs came to rule the world by William D. Cohan, there are many instances of how women employees faced mistreatment in the firm. Sometimes the abuse was physical, sexual, and humiliating, and sometimes the abuse was subtler and psychological, but no less devastating, the author writes.

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Online gambling

2011-06-08T14:30:00.004+05:30

Books 2 Byte
Law & Sports in India
Justice Mukul Mudgal
(http://www.lexisnexis.com/)

Policing g@mblers

There is no specific law governing online gambling in India, writes Justice Mukul Mudgal in Law & Sports in India. He speaks of two types of online gambling – casino-style gaming and lotteries, which are typically based on chance; and the second, betting, particularly in sports, where events take place in real time and can be verified independently.

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Trade only in the direction of the trend

2011-06-08T14:22:00.004+05:30

BookValue
How to Make Money Trading with Candlestick Charts
Balkrishna M. Sadekar
(http://www.visionbooksindia.com/)

Cut the clutter in stock charts

Do not become a victim of ‘analysis paralysis,' cautions Balkrishna M. Sadekar in How to Make Money Trading with Candlestick Charts. There are over a hundred technical indicators which traders use for deciphering the way a stock is heading, and traders can also program their own indicators and back-test the same on different stocks, the author explains.

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Globalisation of English

2011-06-01T15:21:00.003+05:30

Books 2 Byte
Chutnefying English
Rita Kothari and Rupert Snell
(http://www.landmarkonthenet.com/)

English and call centres

English, especially in the call centre, is now only one among many skills that need to be mastered in order to be a productive subject of the corporation and the nation, writes Mathangi Krishnamurthy in one of the essays included in Chutnefying English: The phenomenon of Hinglish, edited by Rita Kothari and Rupert Snell.

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‘Brand advocacy'

2011-06-01T15:15:00.003+05:30

Book Mark
Wiki Brands
Sean Moffitt and Mike Dover
(http://www.tatamcgrawhill.com/)

Marketers as dialogue facilitators

We have entered a new generation of brand building, where the litmus test for a thriving business is ‘Does your brand deliver genuine participation?' write Sean Moffitt and Mike Dover in Wiki Brands: Reinventing your company in a customer-driven marketplace.

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