Category: BookReview

“Storm-The Norm” by Anisha Motwani tells the story of 20 Indian Brands.

The brands covered are:

• PVR
• MakeMyTrip
• Radio Mirchi
• Sprite
• Axis Bank
• XUV 500
• Kurkure
• Honda
• Sensodyne
• Idea
• Ford EcoSport
• Fiama Di Wills
• Times of India
• Cadbury Dairy Milk
• Saffola
• Dabur Real
• Raymond
• Tata Tea
• Kissan
• MTR

I particularly find the creation of brands very interesting-the amount of time,effort,energies,research and money to build a national brand is truly colossal.

Perhaps this explains why once a brand gets established, it becomes difficult to dislodge it and hence investors in companies with marquee brands have an advantage.

The author is successful in bringing “war stories from the sales field” to give the reader a flavor of sales and marketing.

One story that I found especially remarkable was that of Cadbury’s Diary Milk.

The Brand was more than 60 years old with slowing sales and the Company wanted to rejuvenate their brand.

Their research led them to this unique insight:

There is a significant difference in the cultural perspective on happiness between East and West.

In the West, happiness is to be found in personal striving and fulfillment of desires.

In the East, happiness tends to be defined in terms of interpersonal connectedness and social harmony.

Hence most happy occasions in India are collective-festivals,celebrations etc-and are ritually accompanied by sweet (meetha) consumption

Hence the brand shift from chocolate to meetha and their iconic campaign “Kuch Meetha HoJaaye !”

Do buy this book if interested in brands and marketing.

 

 

The Book ‘Business-The Emami Way‘ is written by the Founders of Emami- R.S. Agarwal & R.S. Goenka

The authors have written the book not to explain about their business or the incredible success that Emami has achieved, but instead to offer ‘lessons’ to young entrepreneurs.

As such , the format of the book is peculiar…it does not follow a chronological order.Instead, the book is organized in chapters such as ‘Basis of Business’, ‘Leadership’, ‘Willpower’ etc

In each chapter, questions are asked relating to the topic and R.S Agarwal answers this question in his own way.

R.S Agarwal is a very learned and accomplished person…as such his answers are long, rambling and preachy.

This makes the Book a very tiresome read and is a struggle to complete.

The Q & A excerpt below illustrates my point:

Question: How does one prepare oneself to face crises in business?

Answer: This art can be learned by practice.As humans,we have to face many problems in life and everything can be tackled by being patient,using our experience to arrive at the best solution,by exerting our willpower and keeping the faith.Storms will come and go,but if you are strong, you will not wilt.You need to remain calm.

And so on and on.

My struggles in reading this book was rewarded by this Rajasthani proverb which came at the very end:

Bhagya re Bhagya teen jana

Poonjee kum vyapaar ghanaa

Zor kum gussa ghanaa

Amdanee kum, kharcha ghanaa

Translation:

3 kinds of people have to flee world of business

Those with less capital,but more business

Those with less drive, but more emotion

Those with less income, but more expenses

Buy this book if you have:

Kharcha Kam, Amdanee Ghanaa

Kaam Kam, Time Ghanaa

Two Wise Men-Stories for Children inspired from the Wit & Wisdom of Warren Buffet & Charlie Munger is written by Safal Niveshak Blogger Vishal Khandelwal and S.B. Vallari

The book  contains eleven short stories – each of which tries to convey a lesson or a message based on Buffett/Munger’s sayings.

It is written in a very simple style which a child can easily read on her own and understand.

I feel the book would be appropriate for kids aged 8-14 .

What I didn’t like about the book was the moral at the end of each story which tended to be long & preachy-could be off putting to the rebellious kids of today !

The best part is that the book is FREE and kudos to the authors for keeping it so.

Do get this book and give it to your kids as a summer reading.

The book Rokda-How Baniyas do business by Nikhil Inamdar covers the stories of five Marwari entrepreneurs:

1. Neeraj Gupta – Meru Cabs
2. Radheshyam Goenka & Radheshyam Agarwal – Emami
3. Rohit Bansal -Snapdeal.com
4. R K Somany – Hindware
5. V.K. Bansal – Bansal Classes

Each entrepreneur operates in a different sector and hence the book makes for an interesting read.

However, there is nothing in common in each story which one can point to and say “This is the Baniya Way of doing business”

I found the story of V K Bansal of Bansal Classes very inspiring.He was diagnosed with muscular dystrophy and doctors at AIIMS,New Delhi told him he will not survive beyond the age of 40.

He took to teaching as a way of supporting his family and his dedication and intensity to his craft resulted in not only his eponymous classes flourish but also established Kota as India’s Coaching Center Capital.

The story also offers plenty of insights into the cut-throat world of coaching.

One line about this industry is memorable “This is a business which earns first and then spends”

Being a Mumbaikar, I also liked reading about Neeraj Gupta and his struggle to get Meru Cabs going.Underworld threats (Dawood demanded 2 Crores from him) , political hooliganism, strikes , misconduct by drivers etc were some of the challenges he had to face to make his business a success.

The Book is a light and a breezy read.What irritated me was the author’s tendency in going overboard in praising the entrepreneurs and not asking any tough questions.

Do buy this book if interested in Indian entrepreneurs.

 

The title of this book is a misnomer, it should have actually been named as Bringing the Rainbow-The R K Somany story as this book is autobiographical in nature.

The Somany family controls over 55% of India’s sanitary market and the circumstances which led to this makes for fascinating reading.

R K Somany describes his Marwari roots and how the  family migrated from Rajasthan to Calcutta.There the family made its fortunes in trading jute and the stock markets.

Subsequently,like other prominent Marwari families, they moved to manufacturing and through sheer hard work made their enterprises a roaring success.

R K Somany writes very honestly about his childhood,personal life and family tussles which is not only unexpected but very illuminating.

The book is full of anecdotes and brings to life the changes that occurred in India’s landscape from Independence.

One anecdote which stands out is during the infamous Calcutta riots of 1946, Amiya Nath Bose,nephew of Netaji Subhash Chandra Bose, came to their home and collected 2000 rounds of ammunition.

“You look after the Marwaris,I’ll look after the Bengalis”, he told the Somanys

Another interesting aspect of the book is Mr.Somany’s thoughts on succession planning in family enterprises.While the older generation would dearly want their legatees to take over operational control, they seem to have accepted the idea of having professionals at the helm of affairs.

One big takeaway personally for me from this book:

“In the tradition of all the great Marwari businessmen I admire, I believe that cash is king,Every transaction, every move, every decision we take has to be cash positive”

Do buy this book if interested in Indian family run businesses