The Innovator's Dilemma

Author: Clayton Christensen   Rating: 3

Why do well established companies fail to innovate in a disruptive technologies market ? Disruptive technology is defined as something which currently has no market demand or utility. There are disk manufactures, earth movers etc examples discussed in the book to illustrate the reasons. It is not that the established companies do not have talent, skill or resources. In fact, they have it in abundance. The fact is that the resources are allocated to the products where there is positive return on investment. Customer focus is another reason for lagging behind in such markets. There is no demand for such products and the utility does not justify the cost. The disruptive technologies are generally cheaper, but the cost per one unit of utility is higher. Company hierarchy is another hindrance. Companies are structured in such a way that these new ideas are seldom discussed as they are not profitable.

Second half of the book deals with how the big companies could make a dent in the disruptive markets. The author suggests that they should make a separate company with majority share holdings with the parent company. The spin out should have the full autonomy to design and market products for the emerging markets without causing a drain on the major profitable market.

Although the book is informative, I found the book repetitive. I also did not think that the topic or the reasons for failure of the big companies were any different from what we might already know.

The 5 Paths to Persuasion: The Art of Selling Your Message

Author: Robert B. Miller & Gary A. Williams   Rating: 3.5/5

    Each one of us is unique in their own way. Therefore, It is always a challenge to understand others and to make ourselves understood by others. It is especially difficult in a work environment where we constantly have to interact with different people, conduct meetings or make presentations.

Wave of Destruction: The Stories of Four Families and History's Deadliest Tsunami

Author: Erich Krauss    Rating: 2/5

    Who does not remember the devastating Tsunami of December 26, 2004. To me that was the first time I was hearing the word Tsunami. Around fifteen countries were devastated by that Tsunami.

Drive: The Surprising Truth About What Motivates Us

Author: Daniel H. Pink    Rating: 4/5

    What is it that drives us through our lives ? Author argues that we have three different types of motivation namely, Motivation 1.0, 2.0 and 3.0 respectively.  Motivation 1.0 is what comes out of our natural evolutionary process. Things that help in our survival. Motivation 2.0 is the carrot and stick motivation.

Predictably Irrational: The Hidden Forces That Shape Our Decisions

Author: Dan Ariely   Rating: 5/5

    I have not read any works of Daniel Kahneman and Amos Tversky, the pioneers of behavioral economics. I am not sure how easy it would be to read them. But I must say that this book has certainly piqued my interest for behavioral economics. It is a very interesting and fascinating field. This is an insightful book about the human behavior.

Outliers: The Story of Success

Author: Malcolm Gladwell, Rating:3.5/5

    This book is a very easy and interesting read. Author discusses about the factors which are overlooked while explaining certain phenomenon be it of success or failure. Lack of these explanations make things stand out as outliers. "Outliers" is a statistical term for any data point that does not fit the pattern. Author, through several examples, points out that the outliers in reality are not outliers.

The Long Tail: Why the future of business is selling less of more

Author: Chris Anderson

Anyone interested in learning about the trend in the current market place and where it is headed, should read this book. It is written in a way that is very easy to understand. I would give four stars to this book. This book very nicely lays out the concept of "niche" market versus the traditional "hit" market. In the past, handful of people used to decide what is important for the masses.

Start..

My first blog and this is the very first sentence. The aim here is to write about books which I enjoyed. Usually I have a lot to talk about and a lot to say about any given topic. So I decided that I make this blog and share my wisdom with the world, after a little prompting from our people around me. So here it comes, the eagerly awaited event on the Internet..and as they say, watch this space..