May 19, 2002 06:17 PM
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(Updated May 19, 2002 06:23 PM)
“You know what you are …But Not what you can become…”
--- Arindam Chaudhuri
Though my title say’s it all, we have very good Indian authors and philosophers who have written really some great books. But the new generation authors like Arindam & Shiv are nothing but Anu Malik of the Indian books scenario.
Though, the book has very little to offer, I would give you in short, what actually the books is all about.
The book is divided into:
“The making of Count Your Chicken Before they Hatch”
First suggestion before going ahead and reading this section, I would advice you visualize yourself as if your are watching an Oscar Award show, where the Winners, thanks all their uncles, aunties, father, mother , relatives & friends. The chapter is about AC boasting on how he managed to catch hold of a publisher and what all marketing gimmicks he did before publishing the books. It seems, he had done lot of photo session to get the cover page picture (Do you want to know about it!!). Hence, wasting of valuable time of the reader in knowing about IIPM and AC. One way to promote IIPM.
”If you think you can, you are right…”
Then starts his pep talk about, on how passionate one should be about their work and how you can be effective when you are passionate about your work. Here he actually talks about the ASK principle of Success. The Attitude dimension, the Skill Dimension & the Knowledge Dimension. Most of you, who have done their Management, must have already gone through it and you already know what it is all about. He keeps on repeating the same thing like a Tape Recorder in front of you getting stuck some where and playing again and again. At many instances he gives example of how one should be passionate about whatever you are doing whether at work or in your life. He has given some creditable example of Honda, where people are very passionate and patriotic about where they work and they relate themselves to the company. According to AC “Success only comes when you are passionate about it…”
”Friend whom you will meet in hell…”
This is a very practical topic and it’s all about motivating people and building good relations. Though the topic is really good and does become a part and parcel you need to have in your daily life and in your organization. But AC has picked 80% of the stuff from, Dale Carnegie’s ”How to win friends & Influence People” and hence, I don’t really know what was his effort in that topic. His only effort was, of using the references what happens in IIPM (Which is again promoting IIPM).
“Talk Man & I can See Thee”
Don’t go by these amazing words, he is just talking about effective principles of communication. This is the only good topic in this book where he has done really justice. He has described the 4 principles of real effective communication with very good real life examples. He described 4 different behaviors of people, Poised, Friendly, and Stern-Face & Thespian. The examples given to explain these 4 behaviors are real life and you definitely make a resemblance to a similar person you might have met in your life. He has given reference of Bill Clinton as Thespian, Karan Thapar & T.N Seshan as Stern-Face, Amitabh Bachan as Poised and Prannoy Roy as Friendly.
Also emphasis is given on the LAW, i.e., Looks, Action & Words., with very funny & practical examples. This is the only one section where, I felt wherein AC has put in real efforts in giving us the right direction.
Pegging Cultural Holes…(i-theory Management)
This one section will be really help for managers in the senior level position, who really don’t know how to react on situation’s based on the cultural barriers. He has explained the 4 cultures in detail, the American (Contract Culture), wherein you have an Hire-Fire attitude, Totalitarian(China & Russia), wherein you have a forced culture, Japanese(Bonded) culture wherein in people work as a single family and they have absolute bond between them(Honda, E.g) and the Indian Culture(????) what culture we have , we still don’t know. But he does compare Japanese culture & Indian Culture were they work as a single family and are patriotic about it, but the only problem in India is that we are lazy, and the Chal ta hai attitude does get all the beating.
In short he explains the Theory X, Theory Y and Theory Z management style and creates a new theory ‘I’ for the Indian context.
Sleepy Cows to Galloping Horse…
Don’t get carried by these amazing names given to topic, this is the last topic and this were he cribs more about the Indian management system. Though he has taken references of Lord Krishna and his writings in the Bhagvadgita Gita. He is talking more about leadership skills and different types of leaders. Here, 4 different methods of leadership skill have been described, Leadership by Direction, Leadership by Seduction, Leadership by Association and Leadership by Delegation. He has compared how, China is growing with better reforms and better policies and also why it doesn’t work in India. Mahatma Gandhi & Lord Krishna’s various examples have been given as reference to explain the different leadership skills. No doubt he has not missed a chance once again to put him in limelight and explain the various leadership skills.
”My Point of View…”
But, during the course of this book, I did find lot of cons:
Cons:
This book, is one way of marketing IIPM to the people. He has given all the possible references of IIPM. But if you ask me personally, I have friends who were with IIPM and they definitely don’t have a very good opinion about their Dean (AC) or their Institute.
This book involves lot of self boasting and talking big things, which you won’t find from the other authors who write on the similar topic.
There is a lack of consistency and flow in this book, most of the time you would feel the information provided is not complete, then suddenly out of the blue some of the information which was not provided earlier would be completed their.
Pictures & Important quotes are used at the wrong place. Imagine you are reading a quote on the first page and the reference of this quote is done on the 10th page. You would be really wondering why this quote was used.
Cribbing about Indian policies and management. Agree that India doesn’t have leaders to really formulate these policies, what have you done for India that you are blaming India.
Picking up lines and sometime the entire page from other writers, who are really well known in those areas.
Some pros….
Though pros are really not many, except for the Effective Communication section, apart from this you can skip this book.
Some of the Interesting concepts are introduced, like the 4 principles of Leadership and Communication.
Final Note…
Avoid this book on a whole, because for effective communication you have better writers. But still, if you are really book reader and would like to gain some knowledge you can buy it, but at your own risk.
©Asyis …2002
