Too Much of Steve Jobs??

Missing out is Pepsi to Apple.....

Mother Pious Lady- The book on Understanding India

Was reading Santosh Deasi's 'Mother Pious Lady Making Sense of Everyday India, and thought that I should share something about the book. This is not a formal review per se, but more of the first-cut thoughts on the book, which I am doing because I have liked the book immensely and want others to read it..

The name is a bit deceptive , Mother Pious Lady , will not play spoil sport and explain what it means, but spread across 14 chapters and 380 pages , the author shares more than 100 small articles which he had written over a time in various newspapers on India. Each of them not more than 3 pages in length.

The topics are varied, from writings on the street food in the country to Indian Traffic. The best thing in his writings is his ability to see meanings in ritual and practices which one has been following for a long time, he provides us with a different lens to understand ourselves.

To give an example from the book, the author writes about the meaning of thali in one of the write-ups, by drawing analogies between thali and the pluralism which exists in our society, and how it contrasts with the western society. How thali is able to accommodate all in one go. According to him thali tells the story about the Indian ability to create harmony out of discordance and find pleasure in chaos.

Though the number of topics which have been covered can be seen as a strength, it also lends some weakness, because at times one feels not all articles are equally good. And even the common binding thread feels weak in some cases, but then overall the compilation is a good read. And a final word, this book is not one of those which you would want to read cover to cover , in fact I think one can derive more pleasure if it were to be read slowly and randomly.

Books on India II

Over the last couple of months I have got a mixed collection of books on India, thought of sharing five of the books with my readers,

Would like to start with Narayan Murthy's ' A Better India A Better World' which is a collection of speeches given by him on various occasions when he was invited, from convocation addresses across the world, to memorial lectures. It is a collection of thoughts of one of the most respected business leader in the country, in which he shares his passion and conviction about India and youth. Infact he says in the book that he never misses out an opportunity to speak out to the youth to impress upon them some of the ideas which he feels are critical in today's world. In the book he acknowledges his son for pursuing him to put his work together in a book. Companion website for the book, link.

Second book in the list is 'India's Global Power Houses' by Nirmalya Kumar. An out and out India success story book, covering more than 10 companies which have managed the transformation from domestic to global players. Covering company case studies from Tata Group to Infosys, Arcelor Mittal and Bharat Forge. A good resource for people seeking info on Indian companies too. The companion website is www.indiasglobalpowerhouses.ning.com

Third book in the list does not form a part of the set as it is not about the positive and feel good side of India which has been written by the first two authors. The book 'The Caged Phoenix' by Dipankar Gupta looks at the limitations of the Indian success story. He raises the question of growth versus human development. In the book the author says he has made an attempt to sound the warning bell with the hope that at least intellectuals and members of the concerned public will take a second look at Indian growth story.

The last two books in my list include books which are not ones which talk about the current status of Indian market, not linked to the growth or success that the country has achieved in the recent past but are infact historical and sociological in nature. 'India after Gandhi' by Ramchandra Guha is a close-to 1000 page compendium on History of Democracy in India starting from the British onwards. There are many reviews which have been written on the book and a lot of recognition which has come its way, some the reviews, NY Times, Hindu, The Guardian.

The last book in the list is 'Oxford India, Srinivas' a collection of the best of M N Srinivas's writing, one of the most distinguished sociologist of the country.His writings give us insights into village life, caste and social structure, religion and cultural and social change in India. Ramchandra Guha in writing the foreword for the book says that the book should on the shelf of every thinking Indian.

Books on India I

Marketing Books Update

'Buyology' the new book based on Neurological studies by Martin lindstrom. Through the book Lindstrom shares the insights from the series of neuromarketing studies which he conducted. In the book he goes on to disprove many of the popular beliefs that one holds about things like the utility of product placements, and anti-smoking ads. Many of his ideas are also there in his video blog, on his website http://www.martinlindstrom.com/

Second on the list is Rohit Bhargava's 'Personality Not Included' where he talks about how companies are increasingly becoming faceless - without a personality. He elaborates the idea of how one could build an authentic personality for an organization, a combination of a theory and a how to are combined in the book. A very good read.

Next is David Scott's book 'The New Rules of Marketing & PR' a little dated book especially in the context of the issues covered in the book about various emerging forms of media, but still is quite relevant.

Guy Kawasaki's new book Reality Check is an compilation of many of blog posts, which is slowly becoming a trend- writing books out of the posts which one has written. The book is a collection of thoughts on various issues from presentation and public speaking tips to suggestions of how to make good sales pitch to VCs. The number of issues which the author has covered can be guessed by the number of chapters the 450 plus page book has - 95...

Two more books on social media and their influence on marketing, 'Always On' a book which elaborates the turmoil which traditional media is going through after the advent of Internet based consumer generated media. Paints a scary picture of the changes which are coming up.

Second is Groundswell which is also on similar lines which discusses the concept of how customers are taking over the conversation about your company and brand through blogs , wiki and youtube. The authors are also have a very strong presence in the blogsphere through there popular blog ground swell.Both these books are on the best books list of Strategy & Business.

Books on India

I have been planning a lot of books from office to home for the last couple of months, so the books have started piling up at home too. Just saw the pile and was trying to make some sense of it.

One set of books are the ones on India. The interest was triggered by Nadan Nilekani's - Imagining India, and so I have picked up Ramachandra Guha India After Gandhi(yet to read), India the emerging giant - Arvind Panagariya (again very densely written by the renowned economist, so will need quite an effort to read it), and trying to revisit Argumentative Indian by Amartya Sen.

Celebrity Endorsments Moving beyond the Obvious

I have been generally very critical of the approach taken by marketers in India towards using celebrities. Most of them end up using them as an easy-unimaginative option to promote their product, and so you would find Amitabh Batchan endorsing cement, emani creams,chocolates and what not.....

But I can see a subtle change happening in the arena of celebrity endorsements and product placements and thought it is worth writing about. The way samsung mobile is trying to align with Aamir Khan in many other activities is making me feel they are able to leverage Aamir Khan brand much better than anyone else has done in the past. The fact that they have launched a limited edition Ghjani Mobile to coincide with the launch of the movie is something worth noticing. And as far as Aamir and his marketing skills go it would need another full post.....

And the issue of product placement is also something which is coming to age in India. In the latest SRK movie, Rab Ne Bana Di Jodi... and found SRK using an i10 in the movie and he has been a brand ambassador for Hyundai almost since they came to India. And similarly I remember that KBC had to shift the computers that they 

were using in the programme from Lenovo to Compaq when SRK became the new host. So that way things are improving 

But then people like  Martin Lindstrom have used advanced brain scanning techniques to study the response of consumers towards product placement and branding and has brought out the fact that mere product placement does not help and it is how well it is integrated into the theme of the movie or programme is what makes it memorable. There are many more insights in his highly recommended book buy.ology.

But I see this as a positive trend, trying to leverage the presence of the celebrity across the movies and programs he is into..

A Book Recommendation!!!

Been quite some time since I have updated my book list, will do it across the week...but thought of sharing a book which am halfway thru and felt should be on the 'must read' list. Talks about the India and ideas for the new century, lot of insights for any one wanting to understand India better...

As with any good launch the book has a companion website and blog,

http://imaginingindia.com/

http://imaginingindia.com/blog/

New Books

Another addition to the series of books related to marketing which I have been posting

Some traveling, searching and ordering new books make this post on books a interesting collection of old and new ...

1. "Treasure Hunt- Inside the mind of the new consumer", A book which has been spoken and written about a lot. A last could get a copy ....

The book is about how middle-class consumers are trading down to low-priced products and services. trading up to premium ones, and avoiding the middle...

2. Stopwatch Marketing , while going thru the book at times one gets a feeling that nothing new is coming out but then....as one goes thru the book the value addition is there for the taking, For Ex - One of the models proposed in the book measures consumption on two axes: the disposition to spend time shopping and the net margin for a particular product or service. The output is a 2X2 matrix with four kinds classifications, impatient, painstaking, reluctant and recreational....

3. The Mind of the Market By Michael Shermer, A Book on the hidden psychology and biology that shape the way we think about money..

4 Design of Future things by Donald Norman , the new book from him where in he is looks into the future and the related design issues. The other two books of the author which i thought were related and useful were Emotional Design and Design of Everyday things - which is a classic and must read....

5 The Halo Effect By Phil Rosenzweig, I was attracted to this book as it talks about the errors of logic and flawed judgments that distort the understanding of the real reasons for a company's performance. The book is sort of against the genre of books like In search of Excellence, Built to last and Good to great............


6 Value Merchants By James Anderson, Nirmalya Kumar and James Narus. Book on customer value management........

7 Here Comes Everybody By Clay Shirky, is a book which looks at how consumers are coming together to create thins like wikipedia, he tries to document how internet, blogs are changing the world we know...

8 CKP along with M S Krishnan come out with their new book, The New Age of Innovation, a sort of sequel to the earlier books future of competition and Fortune at the bottom of the pyramid ....written by CKP.

9. A Whole New mind, Daniel Pink. This is a book which has been recommended by many people ...Tom Peters, Seth godin. In fact Tom Peters has hailed him as the modern economy Copernicus ....

10. Presentation Zen , again a book which i had been after for a long time..............Started following the blog written by the author and ultimately bought the book, though most of his ideas are on his blog the book still helps. Has many insights on making effective presentations. A typical book shop has many books on making presentations, but this one is class apart and can be of much use to people who make presentations day in and day out....

For for details visit the author's blog , www.presentationzen.com

Link to my earlier posts on books, Link

Some More Books

1. Wikinomics By Don Tapscott and Anthony D. Williams
2. The Long Tail by Chris Anderson

These two books in the list are more about the impact of internet on business, but felt that they give one very good insights into how the business will evolve and adapt ....
3. Culture Code by Clotaire Rapaille

Not something directly linked to marketing or business but essentially with the close link of marketing and culture a must read

4. The Toyota Way by Jeffrey Likert

Again and all time favorite, gives insights into the wroking of Toyota , though there are umpteen
books on Toyota this book has been appreciated by many...

5. Witch Doctors by Micklethwait and Wooldridge

Must be the oldest book in the list, written somewhere in the late 90's, the authors take a critical view of management theories. Management graduates and teachers should read the book as it helps us to rethink on various theories of management which we take as given and don't question them....


6. In Search of Excellence by Tom peters and Waterman

No i was wrong this is the oldest book in the list written in 80's a book which has had a lot of impact on management thinking and has been listed as number one book on management for many years. Though many companies which were studied as being excellent are no longer excellent, the book provides us many insights into the working of organizations which were greta at one point in time...

7. The Black Swan by Nicholas Taleb
8. Fooled by Randomness By Nicholsa Taleb

These are th two book written by Nicholas taleb, one can listen to many of his podcast's and watch him on TED. His book black swan was among the top sellers in 2007

9. Freakonomics by Steven D. Levitt and Stephen J. Dubner

Has spawned a series of books on economics credits should go to Steven Levitt...

10. The World Is Flat Thomas L. Friedman

Was in the best seller list for a long time , and readers have been captivated by his style of writing which sadly is missing in most of Indian authors...

The good thing about the authors and these books is the fact that most of them have a blog through which they keep updating the readers about their new ideas and how they are progressing on a day-on-day basis. Some of the authors like Chris Anderson wrote the whole book on the blog first and then published it!!!!!!

" We are like that only"

Book written by Rama Bijapurkar on understanding consumer India. With foreword written by C K Prahalad and afterword by Naryana Murthy, the book raises a lot of expectation of the reader. The book promises to help the reader understand the billion plus market, and also clear many myths about it. A good read but the authors ideas have been published in various newspaper articles and business publications. A die-hard believer in the future growth and potential of the Indian market.

Link to the author's website Link

Books on Business History

1. McDonalds Behind the Arches by John F Love
2. Google Story by David Vise and Mark Malseed
3. Nuts ( The South West Story)by Freiberg and Freiberg
4. iCon Steve Jobs by Jeffrey S. Young and William L. Simon
5. The Disney Way by Bill Capodagli and Lynn Jackson
6. The Rising Tide ( History of P & G) by Dyer, Dalzell and olegario
7. Sam Walton Made in America ( Wal-Mart Story) by Sam Walton
8. Iacocca An Autobiography by Lee Iacocca
9. Made in Japan (Sony) BY Akio Morita
10. Who Says Elepehants Cannot Dance ( IBM Turnaround Story) by Louis V. Gesrstner Jr.
11. Direct From Dell by Michael Dell
12. Only the Paranoid Will Survive (Intel) Andy Grove.
13. Richard Branson the Autobiography
14. Pour Your Heart into It: How Starbucks Build a Company One Cup at a Time (The Starbuks Story) by Howard Schultz
15. It Happened in India ( Pantaloon Story) by Kishore Biyani
16. Jack Straight from the Gut, (GE) by Jack Welch
17. POP : Truth and the Power at the Coca-Cola Company, by Constance L Hays.
18. Shift Inside Nissan's Historic Revival, by Carlos Ghosn and Philippe Ries
19. iWoz, (Apple), Steve Wozniak
20. The HP Way, David Packard

Marketing Books Old & New

I thought I will compile a list of Marketing books which every marketer should read

1. Tipping Point by Michael Gladwell





2. Blink by Michael Gladwell



3. Why We buy by Paco Underhill
4. Call of the Mall by Paco Underhill

5. Selling the Dream By Guy Kawasaki




6. The Wisdom of Crowds by James Surowiecki
7. Made to Stick by Chip Heath and Dan Heath
8. The Anatomy of buzz by Emanel Rosen
9. Origin of Brands by Al Ries and Laura Ries




10. Marketing as Strategy by Nirmalaya Kumar









This my list, readers can add their own favorites