January 17, 2013 1 Book Peek

Quick look at a few books

BOOK PEEK

January 17, 2013 2 Book Peek

Contents of the issue dated January 17, 2013

Reviews

‘From Financial Crisis to Global Recovery’ by Padma Desai -

Landmark

‘Spy the Lie: Former CIA officers teach you how to detect deception’ by

Philip Houston, Michael Floyd, Susan Carnicero

‘Nudge: Improving decisions about health, wealth and happiness’ by

Richard H. Thaler, Cass R. Sunstein

‘World Changers: 25 entrepreneurs who changed business as we

knew it’ by John A. Byrne

‘Likeonomics: The unexpected truth behind earning trust, influencing

behaviour, and inspiring action’ by Rohit Bhargava

‘Leadership by Example: The ten key principles of all great leaders’ by

Dr Sanjiv Chopra

Information – From Konark, Penguin, 36th Chennai Book Fair 2013

Author interaction - Shankar Jaganathan

New arrivals - From Karadi Tales, Tranquebar, Vision, Harper

Short snatches

‘The SME Whitebook 2012-13: The new world order’ from

Businessworld

‘Bal Thackeray & the rise of the Shiv Sena’ by Vaibhav Purandare

‘Indianomix: Making sense of modern India’ by Vivek Dehejia, Rupa

Subramanya

‘Ending Corruption? How to clean up India’ by N. Vittal

‘The Impact Equation: Are you making things happen or just making

noise?’ by Chris Brogan, Julien Smith

‘Tatalog: 8 modern stories from a timeless institution’ by Harish Bhat

(Subscriptions: http://bit.ly/ShriMagz)

Disclaimer: "Management and editors do not necessarily agree with the views of

the authors in their articles, the guests in their videos, the readers in their letters,

and the query editors in their replies. The editors, authors and / or publishers

shall not be responsible for any kind of result generated out of any action taken on

the basis of suggestions, etc., made in any of the write ups, interviews contained in

any part of the magazine or for any error, omission, commission to any person,

whether subscriber or otherwise. The copyright of all the materials printed herein

including articles, queries and replies etc., rests with the publishers".

January 17, 2013 3 Book Peek

Entrepreneurial advice

Raising chickens, pushing an ice cream cart, bagging

walnuts, driving a tractor on a beet farm, working on the

railroad. This is the eclectic career that Charles Schwab

talks about to John A. Byrne. “You’ve got to start with your

gut, with something you are really passionate about, for a

good reason,” says Schwab as his message to young

entrepreneurs. “You won’t get there by sitting in a closet

and thinking, ‘Boy, I know the world must want this.’ You

have to get some real-world experience that tells you what

people want. Luck helps every successful entrepreneur. But it doesn’t come

[without] a lot of preparation and hard work.”

Byrne’s book ‘World Changers: 25 entrepreneurs who changed business as

we knew it’ showcases people like Jeff Bezos of Amazon, Steve Jobs of

Apple, Michael Dell of Dell Inc., Muhammad Yunus of Grameen Bank, Bill

Gates of Microsoft, Reid Hoffman of LinkedIn and Mark Zuckerberg of

Facebook.

A chapter devoted to Ratan Tata captures his advice to aspiring, young

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entrepreneurs, thus: “Don’t give up your

value system for the business. Stay with

it and work within the law rather than

cutting corners where there is a

tendency to do that because of high

taxes.”

What do you hope your legacy is, asks

Byrne? Tata answers, “I do not know

how history will judge me, but let me say

that I’ve spent a lot of time and energy

trying to transform the Tatas from a

patriarchal concern to an institutional

enterprise. It would, therefore, be a

mark of failure on my part if it was

perceived that Ratan Tata epitomises the

group’s success.” Establishing growth

mechanisms, playing down individuals, and playing up the team – these are

what Tata feels he has done.

“I was a leftist when I was a student because it was so easy to be a leftist in

India. We all came under the influence of Jawaharlal Nehru, who had

embraced socialism,” confesses Narayana Murthy. But his incarceration in

1974 for 76 hours in Bulgaria, a

communist country, removed all his

sympathy for the Left. “I concluded that

entrepreneurship, resulting in large-

scale job creation, was the only viable

mechanism for eradicating poverty in

societies.”

A compassionate capitalist, says

Murthy, is one who is a capitalist in his

mind and a socialist at heart. “Play an

ethical and fair game. You cannot do

illegal stuff. You have to give back to

society. You have to realise that society

contributes customers, employees, and

investors. Creating goodwill with a

society is very important.”

Inspiring read.

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How to reap the advantages of technology?

Economics consists of very simple concepts

Author interaction: Shankar Jaganathan

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Understanding macroeconomics

Presentation at MMA on 'The Wisdom of Ants'

Author interaction: Shankar Jaganathan

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Sparks: Stories, Passion and Sparks, the perfect ignition for young India. Sparks from Konark, is

an imprint for the youth, by the youth with books that cover the fun, the eclectic, the absurd, the

whimsical and the igniting, and of course, the new - if you’ve got an idea, let us Spark it for you.

There has been a dearth of quality indigenous fiction and non-fiction books meant for the youth. We, at Konark, felt that the future of the country

did not have access to real, honest Indian stories. The ones around revolve mostly around a certain section of the society or

were ‘special’ stories about the unprivileged that a majority could not identify with. Sparks was founded to bridge this gap and give Young India its own stories written and conceptualised by its own people. We aim to get

books written by the young Indian on topics that interest them like music, arts, lifestyle, and travel, among others. We are planning books on rock music in India, graffiti, Pub quiz books, dances, food, culture, stories of the

average Indian man and woman. (KPR Nair, Managing Director, Konark Publishers Pvt. Ltd, New Delhi)

Information: Konark, Penguin

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36th Chennai Book Fair 2013

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‘14 Wealth-building Secrets of Value Investing’ by Ashu Dutt – Vision Books

‘The Bookworm’ by Lavanya R. N., Shilo Shiv Suleman – Karadi Tales

‘The Wisdom of Ants: A short history of economics’ by Shankar Jaganathan –

Tranquebar

Address for sending review copies of new books

New arrivals

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‘Massage No Boom Boom’ by Anand Prabhu – Harper

New arrival: Anand Prabhu

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Published by: Shrinikethan, Chennai http://bit.ly/ShriMap

Edited by: D. Murali http://bit.ly/dMurali http://bit.ly/TopTalk

January 17, 2013