Samsung E250

http://tinyurl.com/reviewSamsungE250
Slider Phone E-250
One of the best slider phone

The Product is : Samsung E-250

My decision of taking this phone was shear impulse. The moment I saw that phone I made my mind that this is the phone I will go for. My Budget was around Rs.5000. But I wanted a phone with 2 things in my mind. A phone which was not bulky and which had a really sturdy buttons and spacious button and key pad. And bingo my impulse now had a reason.

One thing i forgot to tell was while buying I never checked the intricacies of the mobile apart from the features told to me by the vendor. The price I bought was 6000 and I did not thought twice while extending my budget by Rs 1000. But then I still do not regret my decision. Its after using it for almost one and a half year I can understand all its advantages, slider being the most.

I must say the phone is a master piece. For writing reviews on such consumer devices I think reviewing after 1 year of use should be a bear minimum unless you are a device freak and knows every feature of every such device in all categories. Coming back to the master piece,
01 - it has a good screen,
02 - good key pad,
03 - A decent camera (being a 0.3 MP), terrific clarity of screen and the snaps both.
04 - Good features and tool for the camera - the zoom is tremendous
05 - A fabulous calculator, almost next to scientific, very handy in use and superb navigation.
06 - A fabulous planner.
07 - Good Timer, Stopwatch and Countdown timer
08 - A terrific sturdy phone, it must have fallen more than 20 times and its still ON.
09 - A decent mp3 player with good visualizations
10 - Good file manager, and bluetooth too.
11 - Last but not the least, navigation of the whole software is very handy,quick and simple.

The more and more people see it, the more it is appreciated. The Design is fantabulous. I wish if it had at least a 1.0MP camera and I would have never changed my phone unless the business phone need arises. The configuration ability of the software is just awesome. On the negative side, at times the speaker is too loud to hear someone talking and irritates the ear.

Coming to the positives the call log feature is also good, gives you a list of Recent calls,Missed calls, Dialled calls,Received calls respectively. Plus phone book have good features like, lisitng the contacts with surname first, copying the contacts from sim to phone and phone to sim. The phone also has a decent in built phone memory for contacts and messages.

And by the end comes the bomb. The Samsung PC Studio software. Its a blessing for the user of this phone and its free. The software is just mind blowing with applications like:
1 - Phone editor
2 - Message Manager - you can see all your SMS on your pc. Compose new one on PC and send
from PC too
3 - PC Sync - by click of a button you can sync all your messages and contacts bothways
4 - Phone Explorer
5 - Networking Wizard - YOu can make your phone a Modem and surf internet
6 - MMS Composer
7 - Multimedia Manager
8 - Mulimedia player - it plays the songs from your phone on your PC

I think i can write a separate review on the software too. This is enough, I feel, for any newbie mobile buyer in this range to make a choice. But no idea what all new competitors have entered in this range.

One thing i forgot, it is a slide phone, and the best advantage is that you can pickup the phone in all possible ways

bbye then
happy reviewing.
http://tinyurl.com/SamsungE250
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DABBAWALAS

http://tinyurl.com/reviewDabbawlas
DABAWALAS
Lessons for building lasting succes on Values

The Book is : Dabawalas

Review Dabbawalas :

Lessons for building lasting success based on value. - Srinivas Pandit
- Story of Mumbai's ubiquitous homemade food delivery men
- 115 year old
- Book of a dialogue between 4 characters
- Values : Decentralized Decision & Making continuous value addition
- Nutan Mumbai Tiffin Box Suppliers Charity Trust

Review:

Dabawalas for Mumbai people need no introduction. Even before they got all fame and glory and appreciation globally, they were still the most unique kind of service and logistics in India. It was a food line for many of the Mumbai citizens. The formal name of this entity is "Nutan Mumbai Tiffin Box Suppliers Charity Trust".

For those who are still scratching their heads, it is Mumbai based Tiffin box service. It supplies Tiffin boxes from an individual’s residence to his/her office. This is noting but home made food. So basically it is just a logistics service. The Tiffin reaches every afternoon sharp at 12:30 without fail. The delivery default rate is one in a million deliveries. During evening the empty Tiffin box are returned back to the respective homes sharp at 17:30. The pick up is done sharp at 08:30. The delivery is done anywhere to anywhere in Mumbai. Hence they recently received a SIX SIGMA certification.

Now coming to core issue Re-viewing the book. I always feel that re-viewing should be a subjective issue, which will definitely bring the understanding of the book. Hence I will define it in one word FANTASTIC. Though I feel more information in the book must have helped us understand deeper. Apart from that it is a crisp book.

As always in my reviews, let us check the typographical issues. Also let me review the physical aspects of the book. It is just 100 pages thick, actually it isn’t thick. It took me around 3 hours to read the book. The book and page quality is nice. Fonts are perfect, no eye popping issues. Spacing and organization of paragraphs are well done.

The book is organized or rather written in an interview format. The conversation is between 4 characters Raghu(R), Gaga (G), Anita (A), and Srinivas(S). Raghu and Ganga belongs to the association and the rest are the reporter and the author respectively. Hence the book gives us the live feeling. It’s like they are interviewed live in front of us.

Here comes the management learning. The book gives just a glimpse of the overall management of the trust. Yeah it can be termed as a glimpse because they provided us with limited examples. But no issues they validate enough to have an understanding of their strategies. Still I feel personally more examples would have cleared some doubts.

It gives mainly the intentions and mentality of these guys, which is the most important thing as far as they are concerned. It is these attributes that have made them famous and which have kept them together in spite of low earnings and wages.

Total there are 12 chapters. Each chapter gives some practical situation/problems they faced and how they dealt with it. Also at the end of each chapters there are these TAKE AWAYS (learning) from the chapter decrypted by the author. The author have done one more boatful thing, he has summarized the whole chapter in one line. The learning is explained in a comparative fashion. The comparison done is between the Current Practice and Current Opportunity related to the concept being taken in that particular chapter. The author reveals many interesting facts regarding Prince Charles’ wedding, BBC documentary etc.

So without revealing much and to maintain your curiosity to buy and read the book, I will stop the review here with the some chapter headings which are also the one line summaries I talked about.

Chap 6: .....Savor the old but enjoy the changing

Chap11: the success secret of any business is to make its service segment humane

http://tinyurl.com/Dabbawlas

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Warren Buffett

http://tinyurl.com/reviewHowBuffettDoesIt
Warren Buffett - How Buffett Does It
Simple yet powerful strategies of Buffett

The Book is : How Buffett Does It - James Pardoe

How many animals on this earth know about Warren Buffett. This question was intentional because, i think most of the two legged animals know him. Its only those uneducated :) four legged ones who have missed this opportunity.

So let me start with, telling something about Warren Buffett. Warren Buffett is one of the most successful investor till date. Warren Buffett is the third richest person on this planet. Warren Buffett is the largest shareholder and CEO of Berkshire Hathaway. Berkshire Hathaway is a holding company headquartered in Omaha, Nebraska, U.S..

Regarding the book, its just perfect. The size of the book is quite attractive considering the amount of experience of Warren Buffett. Still not able to believe how the author has compressed this text. Full credits to the author. The English is pretty nice, easily understandable. The font size is legible. The book is divided into 24 small chapters. Each chapter consisting of around 10-15 pages. No hard work is required in reading this book. Also the concepts given can be grasped by anyone. Its not at all technical, still it gives the essence of Warren Buffett's investment strategies.

The author’s hard work is really creditable. It must have taken him a lot of time to compile this stuff in such a spic and spine fashion. The 24 chapters are nothing but 24 mantras on investing. I think its not from Warren Buffett's mouth, but the authors analysis on Warren Buffett's thoughts.

James (the author) speaks about what all factors you have to consider before investing in a company. Whether you should be paranoid or complacent. What all types of analysis is required to be done at the time of investing? How to decide which company to invest in. Also the sector or the vertical you invest in, is important. So if we as share holders take so much pain to invest in a company, it is the duty of the company to take care of us. Before making any decisions they must first consider the share holders.

Warren Buffett normally do not invest in more than 10 companies or so. But the value of shares he purchases, over a period of time or at a time, goes into billions. Before taking this decision Warren Buffett do a thorough study of that company. Warren Buffett reads every article, report and for that matter any thing available on a particular company before he decides to invest in that company. If Warren Buffett have faith in that business and its board, only then Warren Buffett purchase the stocks. Warren Buffett believes that you should not blindly follow the herd. It should be calculative. Also most of these quantitative calculations should be yours. It should not be influenced by any analyst. It should not be a guess but a informed judgment.

The best part is every chapter ends with 4-5 key points, which are summarized from that chapter. The naming of each chapter tells us the story. Many practical examples are also given to prove the points.

I think I should stop here, insist you guys to go ahead and read this simple yet powerful book. Because then I may probably rewrite the whole book here itself.

Ciao

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50 Companies That Changed The World

http://tinyurl.com/review50OddCompanies
50 Odd Companies
Which 50 Companies Changed the World

The Book is : 50 Companies That Changed the World - Howard Rothman

Let me make it clear, it is not at all a business book. In the sense neither it is a book that gives some Business and Management Dos and Don's. Nor it is a book of any business turnaround story.

Then what exactly is the book about might be the question of the hour. To be frank it can be looked as a general knowledge book. As far as i am concerned it gave me information of many companies which I never knew being an Indian. By categorizing it a GK book i am not undervaluing it. I said so, to just zero in on the target audience. For all Quiz Buffs it is a must read. Basically every one can read it.

Coming to the book, it contains some brief contents on 50 companies that shaped the course of modern business. The author HOWARD ROTHMAN has done some basic research over this. Though, i think that it may have some pinch of subjectivity. But no issues he has compiled it pretty well

About the writing style, I don not think anyone can face a problem in reading. The language is quite understandable. The vocabulary used is not that high. You will not spend half of the time finding meanings in the dictionary. The font size is legible, not a problem even during night reading. Contents are written in short paragraphs. So it does not become too lenghty and boring. Organization of the book is fantastic. Every chapter starts with a fact file for the company. It consist the Founder, Distinctions, Sales, Primary Products to name a few. Each chapter will not go more than 4 pages. The index at the end of the book is precise enough.

The Companies covered in the books range from Microsoft to AT&T, Ford to Toyota, Walmart to Toys R Us, Sony to Singer, Kellogg to Boeing and many more. The companies covered are across domains. Giving an example about Toyota, for what the contents covers, it states how Toyota started. How it moved to US? How it started from a textile mill in west of Japan. How it faced the crisis and came out of that, and the list goes on.

Coming to an end it is a book for everyone fascinated with the history of business.
http://tinyurl.com/50oddCompanies

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Who Says Elephants Can't Dance

http://tinyurl.com/reviewIBMRevived
IBM Revived
How did Louis managed make IBM dance

The Book is : Who Says Elephants Can't Dance? - Louis V. Gerstner

Summary:

A book on IBM's historic turnaround. How Louis led this historic revival is what this book is all about. For ages IBM has been evolved into an IT behemoth, which the author Louis has pen named it as an ELEPHANT. It tells each ad everything what should be done with some don’ts too. Also he gives some management mantras which may be learned, understood and followed.

Detailed:

Say you have a habit of watching morning news. Imagine, one fine day, you wake up and switch ON the Television, to your surprise you get to see a BREAKING NEWS. The news is about TATA declaring bankruptcy. Not only for you but for the whole population of India, it will be shocking news. You will wonder, what unavoidable/uncontrollable circumstances might have occurred which led the company to these decision. Here comes the role of turning around a company from it entering to the so called "Grave". Also imagine what it would take to revive a company like TATA.

One of the biggest disadvantages in turnaround "The Making" is lots and lots of people have to give sacrifice. The direct effect of this sacrifice is reducing the number of employee. This is because to cut costs, which is the best way to start reviving a company, first step is always reduce the employee strength. Cost cutting is needed, because it’s impossible to make profits. Now this is not only because of these low - level employees. Always organization is a group effort. But to be precise it is the management failure that consumes the major chunk for the company failure. Still the employee cut outs are faced by lower level employees. This is just to reduce the number, not on the basis of talent. We can say this is a sacrifice by the people. This is what hurts me more, isn't there any way to avoid such kind of lay offs.'

See a book, is a book. It is men’s best friend. Reading a book always add to our knowledge. If not it at least improves our Language competency. So according to me the intended audience for the book is anybody. But if you really ask me, there are two category of audience

1 - People who had spent some amount of time in the industry, and have reached the top management positions

2 - People who are IT freaks, wannabe MBAs, for them it is quite an inspirational and motivational book.

For every organization, there comes a time for struggle. But what differentiates IBM is the level and the size of the company. People often think how such companies with great people are unable to survive. But when the company is this large, you sitting at the top do not even see the half of its structure. Here comes the role of good people. The main job of a CEO, which is very much analogous to a LEADER, is to hold all the people tightly.

Once we set a goal for the company, always we should set our vision/ vision statement first. Once the vision is decided, this ideology should be percolated in the entire company. People should work as if they are the only one, OR, say that they are running their own business. One should not forget, "SEA is made up of DROPS". But for all these the leader should him/herself implement the ideology. Management is all about managing people, as it is rightly said by APJ Abdul Kalam (current president of INDIA).

This book is nothing but a story of IBM redux. But the way it is written down is excellent. It is not written as a story. But it is written as it would be a case study or a text book for a subject. Lou being having a great corporate experience was the best candidate for the job, and he uncertainly fulfilled everybody's expectation.

The chapters are very well categorized and named under PARTS. Here he after summing up, precisely, the revival of IBM, without much detail, tells what lessons he himself have learned. Also described is what observations he have concluded from his journey, which is the best part of the book. Because we need not have to derive anything from the book, the author himself has given the points. This book proves that it’s the industry experience that matters more, than the technical know how. Also management is the life of a company. Lou was not at all from IT background, yet he succeeded.

The book is being carved up into 5 Parts:

First part GRABBING HOLD contains 11 chapters. It basically tells his initial time at IBM. How did he manage himself in a technology company? How did he understood the basic of business for this vertical? How did he make all those decisions?

Second is STRATEGY. It has 8 chapters. He starts with giving a brief introduction for IBM. He tells how he changed the focus of IBM to services. Who all helped him to take this drastic change? Since software industry has already become huge in size, and IBM being the major contributor, its tough at times to change people's state of mind.

Third is CULTURE. It has total of 3 chapters. I think this is the most important part of all. It is the culture that plays a stellar role. We always distinguish among people on their culture. We like to be with people of better and rich cultural background. Same thing goes for an organization. It is the culture, the vision that makes up a company. Also Lou suggests that the cultural development should be Inside-Out. Here inside-out means the nourishment of culture should not only be influenced from past internal experience, but also from past external change.

Fourth part deals with LESSONS that Gurstner learned during his term of office. It has 4 chapters. Here I can bet that the lessons learned can be applied in a broader perspective for any industry. It is just the personal touch and experience that differs. If only you can decipher that, all people learn the same lessons again and again, even if they try to utilize someone else's experience. The main core reflects only one thing; we should not stick to same policies to run a business. The policies decided should be highly adaptive according to the marketable changes.

Last but not the least, it discusses about OBSERVATIONS about the industry. The industry, the system, the watchers etc...


Lou's work experience before IBM in that order:
McKinsey and Company: 9 years
American Express: 11 years
RJR Nabisco: 4 years
IBM

Some Excerpts:

01. People do what you inspect, not what you expect.
02. Getting it done, getting it done right, getting it done better than the next person is far more important than dreaming up new visions of the future.
03. If you don't know where you are going, any road will get you there.
04. In short, business with high-performance cultures are winners and no person of substance would work an.

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Casino Royale

http://tinyurl.com/review007orMI
007 or MI
A review for Casino Royale

The Movie is : Casino Royale

007 or MI (Mission Impossible)!!! Really, this was the first thought after watching the movie. At times, I felt that I just saw some part of the MI series without Tom cruise but of course Daniel Craig.

Well 007 have always been and it certainly is associated with intelligence, class and gadgets. But here, we hardly saw any of those prominently.

Moving deeper in, it was more of a stunt film. Probably even on the lines of Charlie’s Angels. Normally the personality of 007 does not allow him to fight and perform stunt, as specifically as much as in this part. The film though started with a SUPERB stunt sequence, but it was quit exaggerated for a character like bond.

We have seen, James Bond as a Spy or detective or a secret agent. But here it just became a rescue agent, as clichéd the "THE EARTH SAVER". 007 is always personified as a sleek, full of smartness and intelligence and smooth. Probably this is how IAN FLEMMING has created it. These qualities should be in physical and mental front.

The next point is there were no gadgets in the film. It was really shocking; I was languishing for it in the whole movie. How is it possible that we have 007 without those fantastic, may be abstract, gadgets? Even the Beast Machine, our very own, ASTON Martin’s utilization was not up to mark. Instead of showing its multi gizmotic presence, it was used again only for a rollover stunt. I was pretty much disappointed. Even the Omega was not spared. The life saver of Bond, his watch, had no presence. Being high tech, these gadgets are also his Style Statement. 007 is incomplete without their use.

But I should appreciate the stunts. They were fantabulous. The first chasing sequence was awesome. Moving to the Daniel, he has an excellent voice. His dialogue delivery is superb. His personality i.e. MACHO ness over Pierce's Sleekness was apprized. The Cinematography was first class. The dialogues were nice too.

Seeing as a complete package, I would rate two and a half. Also the movie proceeds a bit slower towards the end. But it is surely a ONE TIME WATCH. Thats it guys.

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On The Firing Line : My 500 Days At APPLE

http://tinyurl.com/reviewMy500DaysAtApple
My 500 days at Apple
An insider look at Gil Amelio's(the than CEO) stay at Apple

The Book is : On the Firing Line: My 500 Days at Apple - Gil Amelio and Willian L. Simon

A book directly from the mouth of Apple's 5th CEO, Gil Amelio.

We always believe that a book is nothing but a written proof of a success story. Especially these kind of books always tell how people have climbed up the ladder to FAME and PROSPERITY. But this book is totally opposite. It tells how unsuccessful Gil Amelio was.

Shocked !!! aren't you? Don't worry nobody is foolish enough to write his/her so called death story. On the contrary, we can say that, this book covers Gil's unfortunate efforts to turnaround Apple. Not only because of his incompetency, but also for reasons which can be well justified from the book. Some reasons are not directly presented, but are needed to be extracted from the text ; may be as a conclusion.

The book commences with some background story on Gil, during his tenure at National Semiconductor. National Semiconductor is one of the largest semiconductor manufacturers. Then it moves to how he was called upon at Apple. What all consideration and decision making went from Gil's side? The journey continues to the final day, the day on which he was FIRED from Apple. Hence the name of the book is given, "ON THE FIRING LINE" .

If you think from a typical point of view, it is just a story telling book. But lot of things can be extracted from the book. It concludes in a totally different way. Fundamentally, what secernate this genre of books is, the author directly share their experiences. Whether Good or Bad, Successful or Unsuccessful- it helps a lot. At least they do not confuse us unlikely the Management Gyan books.

These author are bold enough, to share with us their feelings, which helps the world in not making the same mistake at least, if not more than that.

The book brings out that Apple in spite of being one of the most innovative companies, at management level was a mess. All hindrances that Gil had to face, tells nothing but how disorganized Apple was. Though innovation matters, its not the only thing that run a company. Management needs to be strong enough. As we all know, it is the Top level which has to have a neutral mindset, irrespective of any type of low and mid level. Any business needs to make profit, need sales, marketing, operations, etc.., in short a management perspective. Any domain expert needs a proper management guidance, otherwise iPod must not have been so successful.

Gil gives examples of various product that didn't do well, though the research put behind them was unmeasured. He gives a particular example of Power Book 5300 (series of Laptop from apple), which was one of he biggest disaster in apple's history. Only having a good design/concept does not sell. Either there should be a demand, or the product should create its niche in the market. To sell even a path breaking product we need a good strategy or a Rational.

So it goes like this, either it should be BOTTOM UP(on Demand/Pull) or it should be TOP DOWN(push/create demand). For such product based companies, according to me, it must be top down. The flow goes as follows :

1 - First it begins by innovation/discovering/inventing a concept.

2 - Develops it into a wonderful product, probably a breakthrough. Of course for this they have to do some home work, like market research(which was supposed to materialized by Lee Iaccoca at FORD).

3 - Then it develops a sales strategy and marketing concept.

4 - For these you need Finance for funding things and Operations to put things into action.

5 - Finally on the top of everything, we have to have a central control named CEO. It is said that CEO is synonymous to risk taking.

Here Gil gives reasons for each and every designation we have came across till date. Say , why do we need a CFO, or why we have to create a post like Sales manager etc... Apple becomes a great example, for proving that only having one of the finest engineers of the market, cannot earn you profits.

One thing that should appreciated here is, Gil had the courage to join Apple, at a stage where he was at the peak of his career at National Semiconductor. This exhibits that, money is not the only thing you should look for in your career, especially when you change a job. Sometimes even to gain experience, you need to take the risk.

Then there is some technical issues, discussed, while developing apple's range of Personal Computers. What were the issues regarding selecting Operating System(OS is the main software that runs your PC)for e.g. Windows, MAC? At that period of time they were not having any fault tolerant system. They were loosing on customers. How did he made a deal for OS with Bill Gates? In the book you will also see the other side of Steve Jobs(the founder member of Apple computers, besides Steve Wozniak). You will be shocked with the reality about Steve.

Overall, it is a complete package. It presents various aspects of business. At the end it says the same thing, to run an organization we need TEAM WORK. We should have a single Vision and Goal.

Vision comes out of clear GOAL. This vision should be percolated to the lowest level of the hierarchy. People should feel and live in the vision of the company. We should not forget the core values. And all this can be achieved by a good leader. Hence "LEADERSHIP SHOULD PREVAIL".

Excerpts :

01 - Underlying process for carrying out transformation :
The process revolves around financial issues, business practices, and people issues and includes elements such as achieving financial stability first, creating a vision that defines success, learning what the end customer values and delivering that, and establishing metrics in order to "measure your way to excellence."

02 - Strategy is all about : Its figuring out the location, direction and priorities.

03 - Perseverance is often the essential ingredient in success.

04 - Insanity = doing the same thing in the same way and expecting a different outcome.

05 - Comment for Gil by Steve : I certainly couldn't have done that and i don't know of anyone who could have, other than you. It was one of the brilliant business maneuvers I've ever seen.

06 - Smile is the second best thing to do with your lips.

07 - Regardless of the consequences, we should always try to do the right thing.

08 - If you start with what is honorable rather than what is profitable, you can hope to achieve both honor and profit.

09 - Experience is the comb that nature gives us after we are bald.

10 - Miss once and you look bad, miss twice and you look incompetent

A slogan given by Rob Reiner : A computer so easy, as adult can use it."


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The Dilbert Principle

The Dilbert Way
Yet another book on Management Fads by Scott Adams

The Book is : The Dibert Principle - Scott Adams

Here starts the Dilbert story the Dilbert way. I will try to write how i have understood the book, and if possible any practical advantage.

Hence here comes the basic question, WHY THIS BOOK? Well, it was recommended to me by one of my friend who is an avid reader. Also since most of the book is in a comic strip form, i dared(pun intended) to read this book. I have read dilbert strips earlier.

So let me put it this way, this book is not a piece of cake for anyone. It gets quite a bouncer at times. This is because, it totally revolves around the corporate culture. So being a student i did not get the jokes proper, anyways it does not matter much. It is basically a comic way of representing a typical life cycle in an office. Or we can say, it tells all of the cartoonist behavior of humans in an organization through a cartoon. Scott Adams(the Author) calls everyone in such a system as IDIOTS. The author has, around 20 years of experience at Pacific Bell.

As all of us(here i am expecting those people who have at least completed their graduation) are some how aware of the corporate culture, this book can be read as a part of a habit. The best part is even reading the strips will give us the feel of the book. It has some of very good situational jokes. Some of us may even fit in to these characters.

The book is divided into 26 chapters. Each chapter covering topics like Leaders, ISO 9000 etc... Under each chapter, the author have explained how sometimes problem are created out of simple things. How to favor people with authority? How boss kills humanity for the heck of it? How they make things worse or rather complicated, although the problems can be sorted out easily. Reading this book we can really make out how simple management is and how cumbersome we have made it.

In the book, against each topic, the author have tried to explain it, with a direct situation. This situation is drawn in the form of cartoons This thing, about the book, i liked the most. As in no theoretical explanation are given, which sometimes get too lengthy and boring.

In the book, all sorts of typical character in an office, are covered. Be it a Consultant, the Boss, a geek(a hard core techy employee), people from finance etc... The character in focus is DILBERT. Dilbert here is a person with a technical background, and belongs to the technical department. As the name of the book suggests, it totally revolves around all types of interactions with Dilbert. Being a techy what all problems he face. What designation changes are made irrespective of his background. All this and more, the author have humorously produced some fantastic points through his cartoon.

One more thing about the book, which is nice, is the way the topic and the chapters are selected. No chapter is linked with other directly. We can select any chapter at random to read. There are two chapter which are favorites of mine, I recommend that no one should miss it. First is on Consultancy. This chapter describes at what point in business do we need/or rather do we call for a consultant. What does they do and what must they do ideally. In the first paragraph it gives a fantastic definition of a consultant. I have written it in the last section of Excerpts. Second, is the last chapter OA5 (which means Out At 5). Of all his criticism in the 25 chapters the author have described an ideal organization in this chapter. How things should be done ideally. How easy it is to follow simple basic rules and use our common sense to run the business as smooth as possible.

On a concluding note, it is worth buying or at least have a scan.

I would like to add this paragraph from the book before saying 'adios'
"First, there were some amoebas. Deviant amoebas adopted better to the environment, thus becoming monkeys. Then came Total Quality Management."

your comments are welcomed.

Excerpts :

01 - The office is designed for "work", not productivity. Work can be defined as " anything you had
rather not doing".

02 - The most important market segment is known as the "Stupid Rich".

03 - Then you can lower your prices and sell it the Stupid Poor --- that's where the real volume is.

04 - Engineers are the natural enemies of marketing people.

05 - A consultant is a person who takes your money and annoys your employees while tirelessly
searching for the best way to extend the consulting contract.

06 - Engineers : Its not "who you know" that matters, its "who knows less than you do" that matters.

07 - Consultants will ultimately recommend that you do whatever you are not doing now. Centralize whatever is decentralized. Flatten whatever is vertical. Diversity whatever is concentrated and divest everything that is not "core" to the business. You'll hardly ever find a consultant who recommend that keep everything the same and stop wasting money on consultants.

08 - You can test a persons importance in the organization by asking how much RAM his computer has. Anybody who knows the answer to that question is not a decision-maker.

09 - A dollar spent on brainwashing is more cost-effective than a dollar spent on product
improvement.

10 - Obviously there's minimum quality that every product has to achieve. It should be able to
withstand the shipping process without becoming unrecognizable. But after the minimums are achieved, its advertising that makes big difference.

11 - The real art of selling comes in when your product sucks compared to the competition.


Talking like a Manager:
A manager would never say, ’’I used my fork to eat a potato’’. A manager would say, ’’I utilized a multitined tool to process a starch resource’’. The two sentences mean almost the same thing but the second one is obviously from a smarter person.

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Only The Paranoid Survives

What are Strategic Inflection Points.
How change was managed in Intel by Andy Groove

The Book is : Only the Paranoid Survive - Andy Groove

Let me start with giving some background information for the author. Andrew(Andy) S. Groove emigrated to the U.S from Hungary in 1956. He is one of the co-founder member of INTEL(Integrated Electronics).In 1979 he became the president of INTEL and eventually in 1987, the Chief Executive.

Well INTEL certainly does not need any introduction or background. Being one of the worlds largest Computer Chip producer and Semiconductor company, more than 50 percent of world’s Computer are powered by their Microprocessors. Microprocessors are said to be the brain of the computer(Personal Computer)or PC.

So coming back to the book, "Only the paranoid survives" as the name suggests, is a book on the changes which happens in any type of business. No business goes smooth enough as always there are some ups and downs. But sometimes these ups and downs cross their limits. The conditions or the change, that occur is so drastic that it makes difficult to even survive in the market. It is this time, that an organization is tested for its quality and process. Basically this book tells us how to cope up with this crisis. Such crisis are termed by the author as "Strategic Inflection Points" (SIP).

The book’s description perfectly fits with the cliché "Short and Sweet". Really the book has very less number of pages, as compared to the topic, also it is neatly organized. Even the font and font size used helps us to read the book more easily. The best part of the book is, it has only 9 chapters. In those 9 chapters Andy, has very effectively put down his point. One more thing that is nice about the book is, each chapter is divided into small(1 or 2 page) topics. Hence, the author has made a point to explain things under categorized headings, also seeing to it that the topic is not long enough to make it boring and heavy.

Now coming to the need or the concept of the book. The concept is not so different from the past. If you people read any of the books from such business barons the conclusion you can make is "change is the only constant in business". Any book that you read indirectly comes to one point, how to survive the crisis. Changes do come while you run a business and it prevails. You cannot avoid it, but you should intelligently accept and blend with it. Change can be anything, technological break through, business policy change or change in customer orientation.

The thing that make this book a different case is, it is neither an Autobiography like "Lee Iacocca", nor a single case study on the author’s company like "Odyssey". Andy has given example of SIP occurring across different verticals of business. From the silent movie era to this point of time he covers it all. He has explained with live example that companies which survive over a period of time, are those who bow down to and accept the change. But such dramatic are these changes that it influences the whole world market. The force that make such a change is termed as 10x force from Andy’s point of view. This is because, everything it changes is 10 times or 10 fold.

Hence throughout the book Andy has explained how 10x change effects a business. He gives example of his own company, plus some other examples. He explains what are the reasons that leads to such a change. How should we recognize such a change and react accordingly? What happens if an organization over looks such SIPs? Can we cope up, if we are late? What if we are paranoid and start early by anticipating such SIP?

For an organization to survive, as we all know theoretically, it is a group effort that withstands such problems. Author explains how should we keep ourself as a group. What things should be done so that we stay close? How should people at senior management should keep those ears alert? What are the duties of middle management. Middle management are the glue between lower level and upper level says the author? Also what should be the duties of lower level employees?

The best comes now. During crisis to hold the company as a single organization, we need a leader. Which will at least take the organization to a particular direction at times, even its wrong from the current scenario. This will boost confidence throughout the organization, which is the need for the moment. He/She should be the "TORCH BEARER" in the darkness of CRISIS.

Concluding on the book, initially as a small start up the company grows, during this the organization molds it self in a particular direction and method. As company succeeds futhur, its processes get older and older. Therefore, their develops a certain way of business, some unwritten rules. But after every, say 10 years approx, a major change occurs. For example it could a mini computer revolution for mainframes, or PC revolution for mini computers. Now since this organization has followed on particular direction over past and succeed, there are 3 possibilities:

1: Either it is adamant to change and feels that their current way of business is correct, hence they continue in same old fashion and "DIE"

2: Or the company foresees the change as an opportunity or new line of business. It will then
adapt to change and hence, it survives and become successful or even a market leader like "INTEL".

3: Or the company can not make out what to do, but understands that change is the only option to survive. Still their are 2 possibilities :-

• 3.1: It is too late, it cannot handle the change and "DIES"

• 3.2: Or It some how manages the change on the border line and "SURVIVES".

Thats it guys. Please feel free to comment on my reviews.


Some Excerpts:

01 - I believe that against other people’s attacks and to inculcate this guardian attitude in the 01
people under his or her management

02 - Inflection point is a time in the life of a business when its fundamentals are about to change.

03 - Business fail either because they leave their customers, i.e., they arbitrarily change a strategy that worked for them in the past( obvious change), or because their customers leave them (subtle one).

04 - Whether a company became a winner or a loser was related to its degree of adaptability.

05 - I also learned that strategic inflection points, painful as they are for all participants, provide an opportunity to break out of a plateau and catapult to a higher level of achievement.

06 - Sometimes a Cassandra brings out tidings of a disaster but a new way of looking at things.

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Making Of Microsoft

Child Prodigy Turns Programmer
How did Bill Gates made his Empire

The Book is :Making of Microsoft, The - Danniel Ichiban and Susan L. Knepper

Ok just to start with, i found this book while checking through the books in a reading library near my house. I always wondered how the ’’MICROSOFT’’ thing happened :). Actually tried a lot to search on the internet, but was not satisfied with he content. Ofcourse with such a long history, computer is not a medium on which we can read this. But thanks to the Government (the library i mentioned is Municipality owned), due to which i got this blessed(exaggerated) chance to read the book.

Let me tell you this is a very old publications and I am not able to find this book anywhere. This book is translated from french language by the authors. France and Japan were a very big market for Microsoft in its early years.


Now about the book. It is very very well written book. Neatly organised into 16 chapters. It takes of from the birth of the genius, to how he wrote his first software, and finally ends at the launch of Excel for Windows. This book covers only upto 1980s. And yes, thats what is needed, after 1980s as the cliche goes ’’is History’’ and everybody knows it.

There is only one outcome after reading this book, you will become a fan of Bill Gates. If you already are, then you will worship him(again exaggerated). It covers all the early event from the personal front to the corporate front. It also covers Microsoft working culture. How the Name was derived. Reading this book, anyone can make a short documentary, by just following the script.

So if you are a normal human being, even non techy, you will like this book from each and every perspective. Rather you will like this normal(exaggerated) human being named WILLIAM HENRY(bill) GATES III.

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How To Think Like The World's Greatest High Tech Titans

Do Tech Titanic Sink?
How the did the CEO(Titans) of big companies saved their Titanic(Companies)

The Book Name is : How to Think Like the World's Greatest High-Tech Titans - Erika Brown

Hello everyone. Well i was fortunate enough to get this book. So, i thought completing this would make me a tech titan, or similar to that. But to be a titan, i first need to complete my degree. hahaha!!!

Doesn't matter, what your degree is, this book will create a titan in you. See the thing is, it goes same for each and every vertical of business. To be successful we need a mantra. And it is not necessary that it should be derived from one of our role models. Role models only provide us with brightness, on our way to success. No one is born with a high class business acumen, excluding some people if we think so. Each and everyone of us learn through experience. Now it is upto us, from whose experience we want to learn. I think basically it is better, at least to have some gain from others struggle. So that we never make big mistakes.

Ok let me cut it out, am i going offtrack? This book basically give us a brief idea how do these Titans run their business. And if you read this book you will find majority of them are not from tech background, not even in education. So see, as i mentioned, running a business is totally a different ball game. Reading this book, is nothing but a case study, of how do they won the Formula 1 Grand Prix. Yes, I compare the current competition as a F1 match. There is not time for errors.

Each chapter explains how do these people have rose to the top, with their respective organizations. It starts with Bill Gates, Paul Allen, Carly Fiorina, Steve Jobs, Naveen Jain and John Chambers- to name a few. These chapters is divided into headings, from their personal life to work life. How do they play a role of great Visionaries. so read ON

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IACOCCA An Autobiography

Leadership Means Setting an Example.
How did Lee Iacocca set an Example of Leadership

The book is : Iacocca - An Autobiography by Lee Iacocca

Let me talk straight; this book is all about automobiles, automobiles and automobiles. What I mean by that is, it all revolves around GM, Ford, Chrysler and not to forget some Japanese giants. It is truly an autobiography, not a case study. It starts from his birth, to schooling, getting a job in Ford, being fired from Ford, joining Chrysler and rest as they say is History.

It will be most useful from management point of view, but also if, you are somehow related to manufacturing or auto industry. So! what I as an under grad computer science engineer have learned from this book is more then the above mentioned beneficiaries. We as an undergrad always wondered how such corporate ’’honchos’’ are able to do such great things in life. All we try to know is how are their persona, what are their daily routines, how do they interact and of course how do they make a balance between their social and work life. No book is going to tell us this in detail. For that we need to be present with them like a shadow :). What we should learn from this book is how should we maintain our calm and composure at times when we are facing the worst phase of our life.

People are no GOOD or BAD. Its the situation that makes them and as the cliche goes ’’Time changes everything’’. Even people which are closest to our heart can not help us, and enemies can become best friends. How should we face the government and their laws ? How we should keep all the strings attached ? We should sometimes break the convention of business , and for that matter anything in life, when we have one leg in grave. Change is the only thing that is constant. Even Bill Gates is follower of Change.The top(opposite to bottom) line is : its all about management and priorities. But during stress it is very important to maintain confidence/courage, faith, tolerance/temper and patience/perseverance. I term this as the CFTP protocol . The main thing is, it affects our life and family. Hence it boils down to maintaining a universal Balance.

THIS BOOK IS A COMPLETE PACKAGE.

Excerpts :

01 - You’ll never really know what happiness is unless you have something to compare it to. -If someone is bigger than you are, don’t fight back.

02 - Use your head instead of your fists.

03 - Life isn’t always going to be fair.

04 - The ability to concentrate and to use your time well is everything if you want to succeed in
business-or almost anywhere else,for that matter.

05 - If you want to make good use of your time, you’ve got to know what’s most important and then give it all you’ve got.

06 - Establishing priorities and using your time well aren’t things you can pick up at the Harvard
Business School.

07 - Formal learning can teach you a great deal, but many of the essential skills in life are the ones you have to develop on your own.

08 - Mistakes area a part of life; you can’t avoid them. All you can hope is that they won’t be too
expensive and that you don’t make the same mistake twice.

09 - The dealers are really the only customers a company has.

10 - If you screw up, don’t give me any excuses-- go look at yourself in the mirror. Then come see me.

11 - When the product is right, you don’t have to be a great marketer.

12 - Whenever you’re trying to promote a brand name, your first task is to make clear where the brand is available.- As everyone knows, there are only two ways to make more money: you can sell more
goods or spend less on overhead.

13 - Styling and value are what sells cars, but QUALITY is what keeps them sold.- Leadership means setting an example.

14 - If everybody is suffering equally, you can move a mountain.

15 - Gasoline is the blood of the car industry, an interest rates are the oxygen.

Most important - Always think, first, in terms of the other person’s interest.

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ODYSSEY PEPSI to APPLE

Colas to PCs
A Journey from Pepsi to Apple

The Book is :Odyssey: Pepsi to Apple - John A. Byrne

First let me correct my mistake on the authors. This book is written by John Sculley and John Byrne. John Sculley was the then CEO of the company

The Halo Effect!!! What I felt while, I was reading this book. Well a true management book. But can be read by a true computer jerk. Why jerk!!!, anyone who knows about Pepsi and Apple. You will just fall in love with all the people mentioned in the book.

Well this is the first time i am writing a review for a book, which is fourth in my read list. The best part is, it compares the conventional company and a modern one. John Sculley mentioned it as Second and Third Wave company. It all starts with a brief preview of how Pepsi works. The rest of the book, as they say, "is history". It focuses at a point where John enters Apple. How he rode a roller-coster ride at apple.

Actually what made me read this book is Apple. Now that everyone has heard of i Pod, and someone may even possess it, apple doesn’t need any introduction. It is one of the most innovative corporation of time. Though i Mac is still costly, but it is the most sort for by ’’Desktop Publishers’’. In fact the term Desktop Publishing was born during the time of Macintosh.

One of the torch bearer for the company STEVE JOBS is most synonymous to APPLE then anybody else. The best part of this book is, it tells how only ideas don't make a company. Management is equally important, or sometimes more important, to put this ideas to reality and this is where Steve lacked. Also how fundamentals of one company(Pepsi) doesn't work for other(Apple), especially with a generation gap.

What made Apple fall is the emotional bondage between John and Steve. This made John reluctant to pull off Steve from its mistakes, which later was out of control. Steve began to spoil the company like anything. Well spoil here means he was not good at management. So everything he did, which he thought was right, took the organization towards hell. Only because of friendship Sculley was not able to control this. But later to save the company Sculley had to take a strong action against Steve.

Hence briefly what Sculley is trying to tell is, though the basic fundamentals remain the same, running an organization changes according to different verticals. Also emotions does not play an important role while you are the leader of the company. If things go wrong you have to correct it that moment.

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