Mr. China

Many of us in India (and I am sure elsewhere in the world) have been mesmerized by the Chinese economic and industrial juggernaut. The external understanding of this process revolves around SEZs, FDI, and the Chinese government’s economic policies.


Tim Clissold’s Mr. China (Collins Business, 2004) suggests that the process of transformation of the Chinese economy was far less orderly and structured than it appears from outside. In particular, it highlights the role of foreign private equity in trying to consolidate and grow existing enterprises in China, and the huge challenges such an endeavour faced.

I found the parts that describe the change process from “factories” to “industrial enterprises” particularly insightful; they remind me of a HBS case we studied several years ago at IIMA on how a Soviet factory was managed. The book also highlights how important an institutional structure, rule of law, contract enforcement, and banking processes are for sustainable industrial development. These were clearly not in place in China till the late 1990s, though things have changed substantially now. In such an environment, private equity firms had to be as entrepreneurial as the firms they were funding!

Written in the style of a thriller, Mr. China is essential and fun reading for anyone interested in the growth of business enterprises in China.

Upwardly Mobile

Ranjini Manian is the founder of Global Adjustments, a Chennai-based professional services firm that helps foreign companies and expatriate managers adapt quickly to India. I have had the opportunity to hear her speak to a group of non-Indian managers, and she has a nice way of presenting Indian culture and dispelling the myths and mysteries regarding doing business in India.

In her latest book, Upworldly Mobile (Penguin Portfolio, 2011), Ranjini shifts her focus 180 degrees to provide advice as to how an Indian manager can be more effective in a global business environment. She covers a wide range of topics ranging from how to behave in meetings, to mobile and email etiquette, to communication skills. She emphasizes the need to retain one’s Indiannness, and at the same time reach out to the world.

This is a very practical book and will no doubt be of great help to Indians setting out into the global world of business. It’s infused with a spirit of pragmatism (in my cultural stereotyping, I see this as more like the Chinese!) but honestly, I found the tone a bit too gung-ho, and the advice an overly enthusiastic buy-in to the “flat world” philosophy. Worth a quick read though – it has some nice quotes from Gandhiji and Indira Gandhi among others, and the advice won’t do any harm.

Books read in 2011

I read 33 thought-provoking books in 2011. Sharing the details with you in case any of you would like to read any of these. Do write to me if you want more details.

https://docs.google.com/open?id=0B_JQN9Y6fQRsOWVlOWRjMzItMmQ2Ni00MmYwLTllZDgtODI5Y2FkZjlkYjg4

Brick by Red Brick...Institution Building at IIM Ahmedabad

Professor T.T. Ram Mohan of IIM Ahmedabad recently wrote a book titled Brick by Red Brick, focusing on the role of Ravi Matthai and Vikram Sarabhai in building IIM Ahmedabad. My recent column in Edu Tech magazine provides a review of this book and what I learnt from it:




https://docs.google.com/viewer?a=v&pid=explorer&chrome=true&srcid=0B_JQN9Y6fQRsZTk2NjhiMWUtMjU2OC00ZjNiLTgyODctMjlkMmZiZWM2NTFi&hl=en_US

The Books I read in 2010

Here's a list of the books I read during 2010, with my ratings. To be honest, I enjoyed reading all of them though I have given them different ratings. I hope to read more fiction during 2011.

Indian Design Edge

This book written in 2008 by Darlie Koshy, then Director of India’s National Institute of Design makes an impassioned plea for a greater emphasis on design in India.


He makes the following important points:
• Design thinking is more important than ever before.

• India needs to create a distinct design identity based on our culture, crafts and traditions. But this identity has to be relevant to modern times.

• Design has to be integrated with technology and the market. Design is an integral part of a brand strategy.

• Design has tremendous potential in the service / experience economy. Indian designers have not paid enough attention to the potential of design in this arena.

• India does not have a critical mass of designers. While the National Design Policy (2007) is a good first step, much needs to be done to make design a national movement.



Dr. Koshy provides useful insights into the transformation of NID during his tenure (2000-08). He set up new campuses at Gandhinagar and Bangalore, and expanded the number of programmes and intake. This will enable a comparison between the heritage campus at Paldi (Ahmedabad) and the new offshoots. This would enable competition, and a validation of different design paradigms.

The book has case studies of IndusTree, KAARU, new coinage developed by NID etc. These are useful in understanding how design and an Indian ethos can be coupled together effectively.

Overall though, the book left me worried. I had interacted with Ashoke Chatterjee, a former Director of NID, in the late 1990s. Even then he was talking about the Ahmedabad declaration on design (1979), and need for a national design policy. But it has taken such a long time even to get the design policy in place. Some of the new events started by Dr. Koshy like the CII-NID Design Summit, Businessworld-NID Design awards are valuable, but still a drop in the ocean. And the huge strides taken by other countries (I have some direct experience at least of the Korean efforts that Dr Koshy has documented in this book) show us up as very slow and fragmented. This story repeats itself in other domains as well. What a tragedy….

Employees First, Customers Second

Vineet Nayar's first-person account of the transformation of HCL Technologies certainly gives food for thought. While many companies talk about the importance of organizational knowledge and the need for managers to facilitate rather than control those who create value for customers, Vineet has explained the specific steps he took at HCLT to invert the pyramid. My favourites - posting the 360-degree feedback of the CEO on the intranet, and getting frontline associates to rate their managers on how they facilitate the customer value creation process. Vineet shows that companies can be run in a much more transparent manner without in any way diluting corporate performance; in fact, the greater openness can be a huge motivator for employees. This book is in the tradition of classics such as Ricardo Semler's Maverick, and is highly recommended.