Sambit's book reviews

The Mind of the Maker - Dorothy L. Sayers (1941)

2012-02-07T13:10:00.000-08:00

One of the hardest books I have read to make meaning out of. The concepts and thoughts presented around trinity and comparison of that to a creative professional's mind is definitely interesting and thought provoking. But at places I find the book is way to complex to follow. I would read ten to fifteen pages at a time and rumage over it for sometime and then read the next couple of pages. When it comes to last two chapters I just could not keep my flow with the author and had to resort to my own interpretation. Definitely a great thought provoking book but needs real focus to make maximum out of this book. Unless you have a serious interest in Christianity and Theology, you will not make mcuh gains from this book.

inside the tornado: marketing strategies from silicon valley's cutting edge: Geoffrey A Moore (1995)

2011-12-21T23:18:00.000-08:00

The biggest problem with management books are there are very small number of books that stand the test of time. I feel "Inside the Tornado" proves it all wrong. The examples are dated. At least from the time when I had stepped into the tech industry. Some companies who ruled when the books were written have ceased to exist in today's times but you can always make a good mapping which companies exist in the race and where in the technology adoption cycle. I personally liked the description of the Main Street. A phase most technology companies miss out while planning and always prefer to be on the staircase S-curves. Some succeed and most fail. But I think it will be of significant value if someone clearly carves out a main street strategy. I think that's where the maturity of management comes to play than technology value. The real customer focus. In some sense the book has done such a great job of that part of adoption cycle I will probably like the in the Main Street as the name of the book.

The Maruti Story - RC Bhargava and Seetha (2010)

2011-11-13T09:56:00.000-08:00

Written as a simple story on how Maruti came into being as company and went to be a leader in the car business in India. There is definitely a lot to be learnt on Maruti in the book. How the car came into being as a public sector initiative and ended up being the largest car manufacturer in India as described in very simple and lucid manner in the book. The challenges are described nicely and how the team Maruti addressed the issues are nicely portrayed.

As with every person writing an autobiography the focus is around how great things have happened around Maruti. The negative points have been toned down a lot. Just like the Nano story it seems to feel more like reading a success story but too silent on the challenges.

I am sure no company has everything that hunky dory there definitely a shade of grey to everything.

Field Marshal Sam Manekshaw: Soldiering with Dignity - Lt. Gen. Depinder Singh (2002)

2011-09-25T11:44:00.000-07:00

Very few books have been written on war heroes of India. In that sense, this book is a good addition to let Indians know about one of the greatest soldiers of India who was instrumental in the win of a war with authority.The 1971 India-Pakistan war brought India to a military super power in the south Asian region and in the long run has changed the way the world has been looking at the country.

However, the book looks like a representation of street smartness of the Field Marshal than a serious account of life of the Field Marshal. Personally, I will not recommend this book unless someone wants to read about the Field Marshal as Indian history texts seldom talk about this celebrated soldier and his life.

Overall an average book.

First, Break All the Rules: What the World's Greatest Managers Do Differently - M. Buckingham and C. Cuffman (1999)

2011-09-19T11:05:00.000-07:00

This book needs no introduction. This has been cited as one of the top 10 books in the management literature.

http://management.about.com/od/careerdevelopment/tp/TopMgtBooks.htm

Rather than writing a commentary on this book, I will suggest people to go through the reviews on Amazon. If you have not read this book, I will suggest you read it as soon as possible.

How the Mighty Fall - Jim Collins (2009)

2011-08-28T00:28:00.000-07:00

One of my favorite authors of management literature. But this book seemed more like a forced attempt than concrete outcome of a thorough research. Writing on fallen heroes by own claims are always hard. The facts that made them heroes in wrong proportions bring to their fall as well. There is certainly good deal of research but the outcome looks more like philosophic. But the five stages of falling companies is well identified and examples of companies who have gone through the phases nicely identified.

Hubris born of success
Undisciplined pursuit of more
Denial of risk and peril
Grasping for salvation
Capitulation to irrelevance or death

You can identify them very easily when you have faced them in anywhere you have been exposed to. I think over all a good coffee table read.

What the Dog Saw: And Other Adventures - Malcolm Gladwell (2009)

2011-08-01T13:40:00.000-07:00

The Wikipedia link summarizes the theme of the book very well. However, I could not really correlate one story with another. I think each of the articles in the book are great but together as a book they do not provide enough interest. Each article is nicely written. Characterstic of the master story teller in Malcolm Gladwell.

I will advice anyone trying to read the book to read it as 19 pieces of essays loosely interconnected without trying to make sense out of it as a compilation.

Overall a good book to read if serious reading is what you like.

The World is Flat - Thomas Friedman (2005)

2011-08-01T13:33:00.000-07:00

Some books are great when it's read in the times if is supposed to be read. I think the book has reached the expiry date. For the book to be talking about technology innovations in 2005 this is a great book. But when you read it in mid-2011 it has reached to its expiry. The settings and arguments are good but I must say not worth the time or effort to read it now.

The Bachelor of Arts - R. K. Narayan (1937)

2011-08-01T13:23:00.000-07:00

The book does not need a review. But it's interesting still for me to write a couple of lines on it. A simple story written in 1937 but quite modern in its approach. The outline of the story is already stated in the Wikipedia link. What made this book unputdownable was the classic R.K.Narayan story telling. This is a book with a balanced dose of humour, emotions of an adoloscent, parental concerns and a man's confusion on choosing the right approach to his career and life.

Overall an interesting read.

Zero Percentile - Missed IIT Kissed Russia - Neeraj Chhibba (2009)

2011-06-02T14:26:00.000-07:00

The book is about a student whose ambition was to get into IIT but could not make it due to circumstances which were beyond his control. Beyond that there is nothing much around IIT. The book has some typical situations of a transitional Russia and how harsh it had been for people in general. The book has very limited depth and towards end author tends to give a long discourse on love, sacrifice and has tons of rhetorics which only dilutes the theme of the story. The protagonist has been shown to have a champion business sense who could strike a deal with any situation.

Overall a very average book. Recommended if you have nothing better to read.

The Immortals of Meluha - Amish (2010)

2011-05-10T23:49:00.000-07:00

010A definite page turner as there is not much of substance in it. A book of fantasy using some of India's mythological characters and tries to portray a bunch of standard philosphical concepts into a Mahenjadaro, Harappa structure. The level of conceptual research is lacking nor any originality. Someone actually conceived a "Lord of the Rings" trilogy without the depth but definitely for the Indian audience there will be an interesting movie around this trilogy.

If you have not read the book, I will suggest to hold on. You may watch the movie and need not read the book.

Recommended if you have no other interesting book in your bookshelf to read.

Heartbreaks and Dreams! - The Girls@IIT - Parul Mittal (2010)

2011-03-10T04:44:00.000-08:00

Story looked quite predictable from the title but more close to reality than the earlier two instances of IIT story telling of Five Point Someone and Above Average. But writing style and quality was not as appealing as the other two books are. There are definitely some high points and low points in the book but not a book which will make you keep glued to it. In the days with limited communication opportunities and a closed social circle there is bound to be a lot of inner desire to socialize with the opposite sex. I guess the book focused too much into that aspect than getting to a complete view of the IIT life.

Overall a good read but not a great one.

The Macintosh Way - Guy Kawasaki (1990)

2011-02-27T07:20:00.000-08:00

Is it worth reading or writing a review of a book which has been well accepted in market and is kind of a real life case of Guerilla marketing at its best? Personally, I felt the text is a worthwhile read but as you read to later chapters they seemed like a drag. But overall a great book to read. The Macintosh Way is doing the right thing in the right way. Morever there are lots of instances shown where you can directly relate why some operating platforms succeed while some do not. The first part focuses on doing the right things like setting up a right work environment, rewards, customer support and markting communications. Second part focuses on doing the right things like evangelism, providing right level of communication through user groups and demos that appeal to customers and users beyond the regular sales presentations.

One thing that stands out clearly in this book, is the difference the product mindset in the executives and particularly the CEO bring into the company: Steve Jobs, Bill Gates and John Warnock all had one thing in common they all loved the best in the products and brought out that class in any products they built or tried to ingrain that culture in the organizations they built. Otherwise the management literature has questioned several of their management styles but seldom they had questioned the DICE framework (depth, indulgence, completeness and elegance) of the great products they built.

I guess there are lots of personal biases in the book but overall still relevant book for someone who is looking at building insanely great products. You can read the initial chapters in details and skim through the later chapters as they looked more like adding best seller value to the book than substance.

Small Wonder - The Making of the Nano

2011-01-24T02:08:00.000-08:00

Nano was the greatest engineering vision of the century. I am sure it has the potential to be the next serious innovation after Model-T. I think there is a limit to appreciating yourself or patting on one's own back. This book definitely chronicles a successful launch of a great milestone. Does that mean there is nothing negative about the vehicle? I am surprised to see there is no mention of the multiple fire accidents that has been reported. The car sold the minimum numbers in Nov. 2010, nowhere near the numbers Tata motors predicted. The car which only can speak for itself now needs serious advertisement and PR to survive. One of the efforts is probably to provide these kind of books.

The book is all about an advertisement for Tata motors and greatness of Ratan Tata and team in making Tata Nano happen. Anything that is not aligned has not been treated in any positive manner. I do not recommend a book that is so baised in its content.

Old Man And His God - Sudha Murthy (2006)

2010-08-03T10:44:00.000-07:00

Once again a real life experience from a master story teller. The book is fairly for a more mature audience. Definitely shows the variety of experience the author has gone through with her involvement in social service activities.

Again a book full of stories with great morals.

How I taught my Grand Mother to Read and Other Stories - Sudha Murthy (2004)

2010-08-02T22:20:00.000-07:00

A very nice book which depicts the author's interaction in life and portrays small snippets in a book form. The book has stories with great moral. However, age comes in as an important factor in appreciating these kind of writings. I will think the ideal age for this book will be the teenage. Reading these books in adulthood brings in adulthood scepticism into the thinking.

I will still recommend this book as a good read particularly if you are looking for a story book with loads of morals.

The Magic Drum and Other Favourite Stories - Sudha Murthy (2006)

2010-07-12T11:02:00.000-07:00

A collection of short stories for children, presented in a very simple language by one of the master story tellers of our times. Most of the stories depict human intelligence and wit and power of good over evil.

A good book to be given to a child over 8 years to tell her stories with a moral.

Married but Avaiable - Abhijit Bhaduri (2008)

2010-07-09T13:01:00.000-07:00

Married but Available is the second novel in the MBA line. Protagonist Abbey who is a Jampot is testing waters in the real world and for next ten years struggling in the corporate structures of Balwanpur factory. A broken marriage, uncommitted relationships and a girlfriend who has no materialistic interest to success are some of the additional events of the novel.

I think in some sense the novel brings out a contrasting management styles of a political leadership of old generation to a participative leadership of the new generation. The kind of changes we have seen in some of the modern companies like TISCO and TELCO.

Overall a nice book to spend some time.

Peopleware: Productive Projects and Team (Second Edition) - Tom DeMarco and Timothy Lister

2010-06-21T00:29:00.000-07:00

Undoubtedly, a masterpiece in software engineering management literature. However, something makes you wonder if these aspects are so well known why is software industry yet to learn from it if the book is available for almost two decades. I feel the acceptance of management to the concepts are so radically different that the management finds it hard to accept in the long run.

Overall it's a book that must be read by all the people working in any form of high technology development process.

2 States - The story of my marriage - Chetan Bhagat (2009)

2010-01-18T10:23:00.000-08:00

Again for me this was a literary disappointment. The story started so nicely, I was almost getting to like it as much as FPS and the style and approach was impeccable. Particularly, the punjabi and tamil culture and their differences looked very nice. With two bollywood movies released the writer is way too much in glamorizing the situations and in the end the story moved very fast to a very lackluster finish.

Yet another time pass book like the 3 mistakes of my life but I guess this is what new generation is looking from the author in any case.

Outliers - Malcolm Gladwell (2008)

2009-12-14T21:53:00.000-08:00

The topic is very dear to everybody's heart. But, in short it's just a single sentence hardworking people who have exploited their environment properly made it to the successful list. Having a high IQ or having great schooling and all can definitely add to that but does not guarantee success. The difference in every successful person against others of his time are pretty small but as they exploit their environment to their advantage well the difference keeps mounting and they stand out as outliers.

A great book but in the end it will make you feel smart people who understood and exploited their environment well could be successful. Their upbringing added a lot to that.

Mahashweta - Sudha Murthy (2005)

2009-10-11T21:36:00.000-07:00

An excellent story on how leukoderma can kill hopes of a beautiful girl and shatter her life. Leukoderma, though a non-communicable disease nor hereditary is still social taboo in India. Particularly, for girls it can ruin prospects of their getting married. Overall theme is nice and it really brings out an important social issue less talked about in the Indian context. May be we do not see as many leukoderma cases as much as we see more communicable skin diseases like leprosy which though curable is still a bigger stigma in the Indian context.

Like every Sudha Murthy story, the book moves fast. Good wins over evil and there is a sense of poetic justice delivered with the girl getting a moral victory of sorts when her husband who had abandoned her earlier comes back to her but she decides to turn him down.

Overall the plot is good. The message is delivered and if someone gets a reason to live by reading this book as described in the postscript why not. But do not expect too much of an intellectual food in the book. Still a good read for a couple of hours or for a flight.

The High Performance Entrepreneur - Subroto Bagchi

2009-09-01T00:39:00.000-07:00

An excellent book that provides the insights into Dos and Donts of an Indian IT start up experience. At places I find it looks mostly like a course material on entrepreneurship and not much like maverick side of IT venture. It talks of Mindtree which is started by a set of strong managers of Indian IT industry and not by a group of technology experts who came up with a half baked but solid technology and wanted to make a big impact out of it. I think the definite maturity shown by the founders of Mindtree is commendable but madness of making mess of decisions as part of the start up development culture cannot be entirely ruled out.

Overall an interesting book. A bit like an elder brother giving advice to young entrepreneurs on dos and donts of entrepreneurship. But worthwhile reading.

The Three Mistakes of My Life - Chetan Bhagat (2008)

2009-02-07T13:41:00.000-08:00

Reading this book on business, cricket and religion, made me feel the author is truly running out of steam. With the same kind of plots like Five Point Someone or one night at call center, taking some current affairs around Ahmedabad a story was stringed. But you will find little or no true need to drag cricket to it. Somewhere it may make you feel that the author has tried to write a pre-defined plot. Or may be having a bollywood movie under the belt has made him write the next movie plot.

With all the great writing style the author has, as a book it's not worth the time. Avoid if you are not reading it just because you have nothing better to read.

Go Kiss the World - Subroto Bagchi (2008)

2009-02-07T11:42:00.000-08:00

Starting from very humble beginning making to founding president of one of the most respected companies of India is definitely an interesting story to read. I felt honored as particularly being from a state which has so less number of icons to read about someone who has achieved so much definitely was quite heartening. As much as I liked it as a story, I also felt there are pages of unsaid realities which the book has probably missed.

I see some big flaws in most autobiographies. They are always read only after someone achieves a level where it's difficult to question his judgment. For example, I got a feeling the management style of the set of individuals were so relationship oriented that for them to work in another management system or a transaction based MNC set up was hard to achieve.

Secondly, in the book Subroto has described at several places the fact that no one should consider the book as a person from very limited resources or person poor living conditions making it big. Rather it's from a person making big from simple beginnings. In fact, knowing and living in Orissa for all my childhood, I will say Subroto was probably one of the well to do families of Orissa in some sense. One of the brothers in the civil services, parents in judicial services has significant status in Orissa. A state where private sector was unheard of 15 years back and still countable job opportunity in private sector; public sector and govt are the largest employers in the state. Managing a family of 6 members with one income is never easy and most importantly a state like Orissa never even had the avenues to spend as much. I remember there used to be no more than five restaurants in whole of Bhubaneswar 20 year's back for a family outing unless you had enough to splurge in a star hotel. This is all about simple living as Subroto has rightly described in his book.

Like all the autobiographies I would say take as much as you can take from it. If somethings do not align to your viewpoint ignore. For example, I found the last parts of the book quite rhetoric where author tried to describe his management style and life philosophy. But it's understandable considering as an active professional and business icon people look upto him for some such tips. More over the negative emotions will typically be ignored in an autobiography due to obvious reasons. No one will ever know the relationship of the founders of Mindtree with the Wipro management nor what did Subroto achieved or could not at Lucent Bell labs.

But as a writer Subroto is a remarkable story teller. An unputdownable book and written in absolutely simple language yet very appealing.