From Cubicles 2 Cabins: A survival guide to your first job by Sanket J Danatra

Hi Friends

This book, is as it name suggests, Lots of Good Gyan to survive during first year of Job, by this IIM A passout. And, I think the contents are relevant not all to rookie but to all the professionals.

The book has been written in a very informal manner, covering most of the broad pointers that a rookie should know about. But I think, its too brief to grab a permanent RAM share of Reader’s Hard Drive J. So, I anticipate this won’t be the first book, but first of the series that will follow.

On the flip side, the book needs more structure, and should make better use of Bold, Italics and Frameworks, which definitely involves reader more.

So, in nutshell, I will recommend this book to all the rookies, irrespective of the field they are in. And, hope Sanket after his debut book, will share more Gyan in coming series.

Sons of Fortune by Jeffery Arcxher

Hi Friends

I read this book by Jeffery Archer recently.

Throughout the book, I got the feeling of Deja Vu, reminding the story style of ‘Kane & Abel’, ‘First Among Equals’, ‘Only Time Will Tell’.......

I think, Jeffery has written the blocks of instances in his notebook, which when required will be injected in new book, with minor tweaking of names and locations. And I am sure, had he been an MBA, he would have used Microsoft Excel for the same J

Coming to the main story, as always, the master story teller keeps you on edge of the seat. But, the climax couldn’t keep the pace with the built up crescendo. In fact, the most awaited moment of the two main characters meeting with the facts revealed, is treated in very shabby manner.

So, if you haven’t read Jeffery Archer’s other books, I will recommend this book, but if you have, then don’t pick it with many expectations.

Only Time Will Tell by Jeffrey Archer

Hello Friends

I have read Jeffrey Archer after long time.

This book is the first one of the five novel series known as 'Clifton Chronicles'.

Though, as advertised its the most ambitious and the best work of the author till now. But, I don't feel the same.

Its no comparison to the legendary 'Kane & Abel' and 'First Among Equals'. Also, to leave the novel with the ending 'to be continued....' type, is not accepted in the present trend of novels.

Apart from it, the style of Jeffrey Archer is quite the same, and he is still the master story teller, but who might have told his best story before this series

The Secrets of the Nagas by Amish Tripathi

Hello Friends

This is the second book, I read by Amish Tripathi, as he hasn't written third book yet :)

The book, is second in the 'Shiva Trilogy' and continues from the 'The Immortals of The Meluhas'.

I will say, the author has done a great job in spinning the story and creating a treasure hunt type of thrill. But, at the same time, its not as interesting as the first one. Also, it again gives all the more feeling of reading comic book.

Book Promotion - From Cubicles 2 Cabins: A survival guide to your first job

Hello Friends

This is not a review, but a promotion excerpts by the Author, my friend Sanket Danatra

It is 3 am, the year 2008. Exams done, graduation in a month, convocation a week after that. Me and dorm mates were sitting and thinking about the two years that went by. A couple of years back, we were skeptical about how easy or difficult it will be to go back to college after having worked for a few years. No salary no more, the rigor of academics. Were we up to it? Two years and a MBA degree later, we are discussing life after IIMA. Looking back at how we ended up at this juncture, how different would the work life be with the new degree.

We concluded that, ‘Life is tough’ and ‘People are stupid’. And this applies to each and every one of us, no matter how smart. In retrospect, we were absolutely naive during our first few work years. And yet luckily things worked out for us.

There are thousands of graduates from various universities all over the country, who join the workplace with all the relevant technical skills. But is that enough? What else does it take to thrive in a competitive business environment? And to find answers to this was born the first book of the Elf series – ‘From Cubicles 2 Cabins: a survival guide to your first job’

Want to know more ??? Visit http://elfseries.wordpress.com/ and get excerpts and download other freebies !!!

Book out! Order now at flipkart and avail a 35% discount on the list price.

Visit http://www.flipkart.com/books/9380349435

So enjoy reading it and gift it to your sons and daughters and nieces and nephews ! Forward this mail to all you think would benefit !

Warm Regards,

Sanket J Dantara [ http://elfseries.wordpress.com/ ]

Drive by Dan Pink

Drive
A review of Daniel H. Pink’s Book
By Peter A Hunter

Managers, recognising that Command and Control Management is no longer working, have been looking for the “something” to give to their workforces that will allow them to perform.

Their greatest mistake is assuming they know what it is that their workforces need.

All that managers really have to know is how to give their workforces what they already want.
All they really have to figure out is what that is.

Daniel Pink in his book “Drive” tells us what the workforce already want, and he also shows us how to give it to them.

There is a growing awareness today of the destructive nature of traditional management practices, usually called “Command and Control Management.”

Our workforces have long been aware of these problems but nobody ever listened to them.
What we are seeing today is an increasing volume of academic endeavour focussed on making management aware of those same problems because, as Dan Pink says;

“Management is not the solution, Management is the problem.”

Unfortunately management are not aware of the problems they create so they have no reason to look for solutions.

Daniel Pink, in this book “Drive,” not only very clearly and elegantly brings the problems to the attention of the reader but has also gone into some detail laying out many solutions that can be mixed and matched to suit individual circumstances/organisations.

All that we need to happen now is that the right people read this book, understand from Daniel Pinks analysis that they are the problem, and that they continue to read it as far as the solutions.

The book is divided into three separate parts;

The first takes the reader from a current position, perhaps of vague discomfort, or a mild annoyance that not everything seems to fit.
From this position Dan Pink takes us on a journey that starts, in time, in the late forties through an accumulation of seventy years of academic endeavour, largely disregarded because it did not fit with accepted notions of management and behaviour.

Dan summarises this section neatly with his “Seven Deadly Flaws of Carrot and Sticks.” Which he says can:
· extinguish Intrinsic motivation
· diminish performance
· crush creativity
· Crowd out good behaviour
· encourage cheating, shortcuts and unethical behaviour
· become addictive
· foster short term thinking

Together these flaws sum up the conditions that a conventional “Command and Control Management,” approach will create.

Dan quotes Richard Ryan who said that we all have the “Drive,” that is the title of the book, and that it is a part of our humanity, but whether it emerges, or not, in our lives depends on whether the conditions that surround us will support it.

In our working lives “Drive” tells us that these conditions are created by those who manage us.

What the first section of the book does is expose the management behaviour that crushes our “Drive” and leaves a potentially able and imaginative workforce unable to do original work, be creative or think for themselves.

Many managers will read this first section and genuinely believe that it does not apply to them.
These are the people who believe that the world begins and ends with them, who believe that without them nothing will happen and that other people exist to be used.

These are the people whose behaviour Dan Pink likens to coal.
“Cheap, easy, and efficient to resource but polluting and ultimately finite.”

The type of behaviour that must replace this antediluvian management model, Daniel compares to the Sun; “Clean energy that is inexpensive, safe to use and endlessly renewable.”

The book, having brought us to an understanding of the historical support for “Drive,” examines in more depth what this Drive actually consists of, how we can tap its potential and finally a whole host of tools that we can use on Monday morning to start to release the “Drive” that exists inside every single member of our workforce.

Daniel H. Pink with his book “Drive” has captured what generations of managers have never felt the need to acknowledge, that every single member of the workforce has experience, imagination and “Drive.”

The time will shortly be upon us when an organisation that has not released the “Drive” of it own workforce will not be able to compete in the same marketplace as those who have.

Those who have, will likely have read this book.

Peter A Hunter
www.breakingthemould.co.uk

The Immortals of Meluha by Amish Tripathi

Hello Friends

I came across this book couple of months back, and was surprised how it has started dominating shelves of most of the Indian book stores and kiosks. And was not able to resist it anymore.

The book is about Indian Mythology of Lord Shiva, inbuilt in fiction of author's imagination.

Throughout the book, I kept on feeling as if the style is same as of Terry Pratchett's Disc World Series and of George Orwell's Animal Farm.

The book, though via mythology raised many current issues of Terrorism, and Communism Vs Democracy. And, it raised it well.

But, during the mid of the book, I suddenly started getting feeling its not a book for adults, but comic book for children. And this thought was further reinforced by the abrupt ending with 'to be continued....'.

Can't say more till I read the second book of Shiva Trilogy 'The Secret of Nagas'.

Overall, its a very good attempt for first time author. And, I think he is the only Indian Author, till now, who is commanding the following of Indian Readers in fiction like no other than Chetan Bhagat.

The Art of Deception by Kevin D Mitnick

Reading this book reminded me of movies like 'Catch me if you can!'

Well, this book is written by one of the most notorious hackers Kevin D Mitnick, who is now acting as Cyber Security Consultant to many companies.

While reading this book, I came to understand, doesn't matter how hard we make Cyber Security, but in vain. For Cyber Security, has at its heart humans to operate it. And human is the weakest link in the security.

The book is written in very unconventional method, giving the insight to the mind of a hacker. And points out, how corporate professionals, unintentionally invites hackers and viruses to their company, opening the whole maze in front of them.

Though its related to Cyber Security, but this book is not technical. So any common man with the normal knowledge about internet and computers, can gain a lot from it.

And, I think, this book should be made mandatory in every organisation where heavy dependence on IT is there

The Rise and Fal of Third Reich by William L Shirer

I have read any book based out of history after long time.

I tried to read many books on Nazis and most hyped Mein Keimph too, but didn't get much out of them. As most of them were biased, and none was able to answer, what made the whole nation go crazy for the bloodiest Genocide in the history.

But, while reading this book, I got answers to most of the questions, I have been seeking, since I came across the History chapters on WW I and II, during my high school.

Though the book is quite bulky, with the not so friendly font size, but then the history so profound, can't be written in precis writing.

I will recommend this book, to everyone who is seeking answer to the questions I have mentioned.

Maverick, Ricardo Semler.

The book “Maverick” by Ricardo Semler is a narrative about a company identifying the need for a transformational change then telling the story of how that change was brought about.

The example however falls short of being a paradigm on a number of fronts.

Ricardo Semler had the right idea and the right goal but went about it the wrong way.

The book is an eight year litany of confrontation, bloody noses and sackings as Ricardo tried to force his employees to change.

He did not have the best people at the start, he had normal people.
His workforce were exactly the same as any other workforce on the planet, they were average people, but they were all individuals.

He inherited the company from his father; who was a traditional authoritarian boss. He demanded that it was done his way or the highway, and had no idea how destructive his uncompromising Command and Control style of management was.

His workforce was average and produced an average performance.

Ricardo's vision was that each employee was potentially exceptional but that it was the working environment they were kept in that prevented them from being exceptional.

Ricardo's' vision was to create the working environment that would allow his employees to be as good as they could be.

This involved getting the managers out of the way to stop them interfering with the ability of the workforce to perform and to give control of their lives back to the workforce.

The company in those eight years grew over ten times but the cost was the replacement of almost every single member of the management team.

The reason for this was that although the change was the right change, it was being driven by Ricardo, from the top down.

This made the workers and the middle management resist what was happening because they were being told what they had to do.

When you tell a human being what to do, whatever it is, the act of telling automatically generates resistance to whatever it was they were told to do.

It is not “What” they were being told that caused the resistance it was just “Being Told.”

At the end of eight years the employees were the same individuals but the environment that had been created for them to work in had allowed them to engage. That in turn allowed them to be exceptional and to produce exceptional performance.

Today we recognise the problem of top down driven change that Ricardo could not avoid.

It lost Ricardo his whole management team and eight years of superhuman effort to drive through his changes.

Today we can see how, by allowing change to come from the bottom up, we not only get the right change but we also avoid the resistance that the “Top Down” driven solution creates.

Ricardo Semler did his best with what he had.

Now we know better.

No matter how right the change being proposed, if it is driven from the top down it will create the resistance that will cause it to fail.

Peter A Hunter
www.breakingthemould.co.uk