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Gopal, R. and Manjrekar, Pradip, BPO/ KPO Management: An industry perspective. New Delhi: Excel Books, 2008. First addition. 356pp. Rs. 595/- Paper. The Outsourcing (BPO/ KPO) industry has picked up the momentum in the later half of the current decade, opening the doors towards global Business environment. Outsourcing (BPO/ KPO) is the process whereby an organization retains the core activity to itself and outsource the peripheral activities to be done at the places where there is sufficient expertise, which in turn helps in maximizing opportunities, reducing costs and minimizing risks. The book in question tries to address the key challenges and issues in BPO/ KPO industry. The book is the compilation of the selected papers presented in the National Seminar organized by the department of business management, Padmashree Dr. D Y Patil University in Mumbai on BPO/ BPO Management to highlight the issues and draw viable solutions by bringing together both industry and academia experience for win- win outcomes. The close look in various papers gives an answer to the meaning of BPO & KPO in context and discusses the issues and challenges related to both KPO and BPO from Marketing, HR, IT and Finance perspectives. This gives practical insight into the subject as it suggests the solutions based on facts and findings rather than just giving a theoretical literature. The topics in overview covers aspects like role of women in the sector, how to achieve sustainable growth in the sector, how Knowledge Process Outsourcing is different and more technical than Business Process Outsourcing, the impact of the industry on employee welfare, role of languages in BPO, efficient use of IT for optimizing efficiency in call centers, 360 degree appraisal system in BPO/ KPO, FII investment in the sector and the threats for BPO industry. In other words, the conglomeration of various papers takes the reader to a journey from understanding the key concepts and procedures to analyzing the various problems and appreciating the suggestions and recommendations made for continuous growth of the industry. The book is divided in 28 chapters; each chapter discussing a paper. Each paper begins with an abstract which states the objective of the study, the problems discussed at large and the possible solutions, which gives a bird-eye view of the paper. The consolidated collection of papers proves its worth for professional, academicians and management students who want to take a deeper look into the key issues and challenges involved in Indian Outsourcing Industry.
Kanika Gupta, Lecturer, Institute for International Management
and Technology, Gurgaon, Haryana, India.
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Lemberg, Paul, Be Unreasonable: The unconventional way to extraordinary business results, New Delhi: Tata McGraw Hill, 2008. 218pp. Price NA, Paper Back. Although this book is written for business people such as entrepreneurs, managers, CEOs etc., it would be very good reading for students in business schools and even non-business audience because many aspects can be applied to everyday life. The author encourages the readers to be unreasonable in their thoughts and actions and shows how one can be successful by being unreasonable. Being unreasonable is not just ignoring conventional wisdom but doing more than you are asked for, acting on the possibility of great things, without worrying about the probability of success. According to the author, being unreasonable is asking, "Why should I?" every time someone says, "Be reasonable." According to the author, being reasonable is what stops you from achieving. It kills potentially great ideas with arguments about what used to work and what someone else thought made sense at some time deep in the past. The author is of the opinion that being reasonable only helps you survive. It may keep you in the business but prevents your business from flying. The book has six chapters. Chapters one and two introduce the concept of being unreasonable where as chapters three to six deal with unreasonable strategy, thinking, tactics and execution. So the author provides certain rules for breaking the rules. The author also talks about how unreasonable people see themselves acting out of a sense of responsibility. A sense of personal responsibility drives people to act in a way that "normal" people would consider unreasonable. They feel that what they need to do is important and feel responsible for carrying it through. However the author does qualify the meaning of being unreasonable by explaining that being unreasonable does not mean being unrealistic or being idiotic. There are also bad unreasonable ideas as well as good ones.
The author uses plenty of real life examples of entrepreneurs who acted
unreasonably but were successful to illustrate his points. The book can be read
easily as it is written in a lucid and conversational style. The book holds your
attention through out and does not get preachy or repetitive. It uses interesting
quotes from diverse sources such as famous writers, scientists, founders of
companies, entertainers and world leaders.
Madhu Aggarwal,
Professor, Institute for International Management and
Technology, Gurgaon, Haryana, India.
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Tabrizi , B.N., Becoming a real-time enterprise. New Delhi: Tata McGrawHill Publishing Company Limited, 2007. xix+218pp. Rs.450/- Hard Back. In today's competitive world, every company is required to be a step ahead of their competitors. In this book, Real Time Enterprise (RTE) is described as one such tool to gain competitive advantage in terms of cost, revenue and customer loyalty. With the growth of Information technology, the business's real time need is also developing. The author has emphasized that with the widespread use of World Wide Web and evolution of bandwidth technology, the real-time has become a hot topic. The prices of the technology are decreasing over time; hence the benefits will always surpass the costs associated for setting real-time, provided its implementation is successful. The book is crisply divided in eight chapters that range from reasons for realtime failure to models to implement real-time. The reader friendly text is further enhanced by inculcating rich real world case studies of successful implementation of real-time in hospitals, stock exchanges, CISCO and AT&T. The text is followed by an appendix discussing possible IT software components in an organization. Chapter 1 describes the reasons for real-time failure and emphasize on the need of real-time. In Chapter 2, author discusses the planning model of real-time that achieves expected return on investment, deals with critical information discontinuities and handles critical latencies. Chapter 3 describes the information architecture and steps for successful implementation of real-time with the alignment of four components of IT that is data, process, technology and people with the system deployment as a key to success. Chapter 4 explains the use of radio frequency identification (RFID) as one of the tools of real time technologies with real world case study of RFID implementation by Seven-Eleven Japan and United colors of Benetton. Chapter 5 explains the real time opportunities in Hospital for patient record management, prescription, bed allocation, managing equipment and management of small equipments and supplies. Chapter 6 explains the case of Cisco in terms of IT as a profit center, technology standards and e-business initiatives to enhance productivity. Chapter 7 discusses the case of AT&T that explores the improvement of overall customer experience, the enhancement of internal business efficiency, the offerings of the new features and the like. Chapter 8 explains the use of real-time in stock exchanges, taking the case of two prominent stock exchanges in United States, namely New York Stock exchange and NASDAQ. This book is mainly for Business people and professionals who tend to improve their business processes by the use of real-time. The book doesn't provide any technical knowledge or the programming recipes for implementing real-time. The author mainly identifies major lags at every step in the way to real-time and thereby making the reading appropriate as a problem solving tool. Kanika Gupta, Lecturer, Institute for International Management and Technology, Gurgaon.
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Bhattacharya, Mousumi S. and Sengupta, Nilanjan, Compensation Management.
New Delhi: Excel Books, 2009. 195pp. Rs. 225/- Paper Back. In this scenario, the book authored by Mousumi S. Bhattachaya and Nilanjan Sengupta explains the concept of managing effective compensation and its related components and processes in a very simple way suitable for all students and professionals who need to understand the strategic concept of awarding compensation. The book identifies the scope of compensation for managers and professionals along with the blue and white collar employees. The satisfaction level of employees has been discussed on the parameters of need hierarchy theory given by Maslow. The book has 195 pages and is divided in 13 chapters followed by two appendices explaining the laws related to employee compensation and welfare and the consumer price index number chart; thereby taking the reader from the smooth journey of understanding concepts of compensation in a sequential manner to framing the practical policies taking legal framework into consideration. Each chapter is followed by summary, key terms, multiple choice questions and descriptive questions which are sufficient to recap and assess the learning. The book starts from explaining the meaning of compensation and its socioeconomic effects. Then micro and macro economic theories have been described precisely that helps in setting adequate wage structure. Thereafter, the parameters for analyzing and evaluating the job is detailed which, if done appropriately, ensures that best candidate is selected for the job. Further, the author explained the techniques of performance appraisal and fixing remuneration and its components within the statutory guidelines. In last chapters, factors for wage differential in different countries and strategic view point of determining compensation have been discussed. In all, the book is a good inaugural with its first edition in the market. The author has said a lot in fewer words. However, the explanation lacks practical examples and case studies, except for few real world examples in last chapter related to compensation strategies. Also, text has been backed by adequate referencing and inculcates the findings of some eminent researchers. The book scores as an easy read; engaging academia, business students and professionals alike. Kanika Gupta, Lecturer, Institute for International Management and Technology, Gurgaon.
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Prahalad, C.K. and Krishnan, M.S., The New Age of Innovation: Driving cocreated value through Global Networks. New Delhi: Tata McGraw Hill, 2008. xviii+278pp. Rs. 695/- Hard Back. Professor Prahald's latest book builds on the earlier two books - The Future of Competition and The Fortune at the Bottom of the Pyramid and emphasizes that emerging markets can be a source of innovation and firm's need to co-create value with consumers. This book includes eight chapters and talks about the transformation of business by focusing on the essence of innovation. It also delineates the technical structure required and the impediments to value creation along with focusing on the efficiency and flexibility. Complex set of ideas have been simply put for the readers in the form of two equations - N= 1 and R=G in the first chapter. The second chapter suggests the new sources of competitive differentiation lie in the ability to reconfigure resources in real time. This chapter also highlights the link between strategy, business models and operations. The next chapter focuses on analytics and the need for managerial intervention based on ability to identify trends and reveal unique opportunities. The fourth chapter talks about the enablers in the form of technical architecture to develop resilient business processes and analytics. Appreciating the fact that each organization is unique in its culture and technical capability and consists of "legacy skills, managerial mindsets and technical systems" and is discussed under the "how" aspect. The authors have used the two equations as the primary pillars and technical architecture as the base and the social architecture as the roof. The flexible and resilient business processes and focused analytics form the interiors for the new house of innovation discussed in chapter six, seven and eight. The book discusses the complex issues in a simple manner and a number of examples are used to make the reading lively and interesting. A lavish use of figures further helps the reader in understanding intricately woven issues easily. The book is a must read for policy makers, business managers and students of business to gain a sustained competitive advantage in the age of innovation.
Kirti Dutta, Assistant Professor, Bharatiya Vidya Bhavan’s Usha and Lakshmi
Mittal Institute of Management, New Delhi, India. |
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Velayudhan, S.K. and Sridhar, G., Marketing to Rural Consumers: Understanding and tapping the rural market potential, New Delhi: Excel Books, 2009. xiii+365pp. Rs. 400/- Paper Back. Rural markets are providing a whole canvas of opportunities to marketers with their untapped potential and increasing disposable income. This edited book provides crucial information about the understanding of the rural markets and its consumers in the form of twenty eight papers that were presented at the Indian Institute of Management, Kozhikode, conference in April, 2008. The book is divided into six sections. The first section focuses on the boundaries of rural markets and consists of two papers. The first paper attempts to understand the construct of 'rurality in rural markets' and classifies the 'executives representation of rurality in rural markets'. The second paper explores the definitional issues of rural and rural market environment. The second section deals with the environment of the rural consumer: the agricultural development issues and ICTs. This section is composed of seven papers. The marketing strategies for agro products and agrochemical company are discussed. The use of internet to explore opportunities in agribusiness and as a learning resource for rural India are the highlights of this section. The third section of the book talks about the rural consumer through six papers. These papers study the buying behavior of rural consumers regarding mobile phone, health care FMCG and home and personal care products. This understanding of the consumer behavior is important to effectively cater to the needs of the rural consumer. A basic understanding of consumer behavior is, however, incomplete without the understanding of the factors influencing the rural consumer behavior. The fourth section of the book explores this dimension with the help of four papers that highlight the factors influencing the consumer behavior. To effectively communicate with the rural consumers the fifth section of the book gives an understanding of the communication process and channels of communication prevalent in the rural markets. The last section of the book focuses on marketing strategies that can be used in the context of rural markets through the help of four papers. This book is a must read for business students and strategists and marketers who plan to tap the vast potential of rural markets. Kirti Dutta, Assistant Professor, Bharatiya Vidya Bhavan’s Usha and Lakshmi Mittal Institute of Management, New Delhi, India.
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Business Week, Entrepreneur Power Plays. New Delhi: Tata McGraw Hill, 2008. 149pp. Rs. 299/- Paper Back. The book is all about how the world's most dynamic thinkers achieved the threshold in their professional lives. The book is an edited one and the articles have been picked up from Business Week. The book is split into thirteen chapters, each chapter talks about an entrepreneur and what makes him and his business different and the kind of efforts they have put in to become one of the world's best entrepreneurs and their business the talk-of-the town. It concludes with Sources and Contributors. A brief chapter wise description goes as follows- Chapter 1 talks about Sergey Brin and Larry Page and how they could keep the edge at Google, Chapter 2, Greg Norman and how he created excellence as the head of "Great White Shark Enterprises inc.", Chapter 3: Jonathan Wendel and his skills with pro gaming and popularizing computer games all across the world, Chapter 4: Kevin Rose, the founder of Digg.com and New Silicon Valley Brat Pack, Chapter 5: David Schomer, the owner and founder of Espresso Vivace Roasteria, a $ 1.7 million coffee empire based in Seattle, pioneering in the high-quality coffee world, Chapter 6: Huang Guangyu and his GOME Electrical Appliances having a high brand recognition in big stores in the US like Circuit City and Best Buy, Chapter 7: Jeff Bezos and his achievements with Amazon.com, Chapter 8: Linus Torvalds and his success with open source software-Linux and how it proved to revolutionize the world of operating system, challenging Microsoft, Chapter 9: Anshe Chung and her "Linden Lab", creator of online virtual world called Second Life, Chapter 10: Yang Yuanqing, Chairman of the lenovo group and why he is considered as the "Chinese Bill Gates", Chapter 11: Apollonia Poila^ne and her expertise with manufacturing bread and taking her family business to a new height making their product as a potent national symbol, Chapter 12: Robert Funk and his professional staffing company ACME, Chapter 13: Roger and Cynthia Lang and their plans to make their ranch a thriving business without hurting the environment, a complete u-turn from their erstwhile business stream in the Silicon Valley. The brief of the book given above sounds both interesting and amazing as one surely wants to read how these people reached the top beating all challenges especially in such a competitive environment and their ability to handle failures. The book is not disappointing the reader on these fronts. The chapters are not very long so it does not get boring to read it all at one go. The book has variety which makes it a good read and sharing some of the best practices could help budding entrepreneurs by triggering off ideas in their minds. Kirti Sharma, Senior Associate, Financial and Transaction Support with a business and management consulting firm. The firm provides financial and operational consultancy to business entities mostly in the European market.
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Gary Kroehnert, Basic Training for Trainers, New Delhi: Tata McGraw-Hill Publishing Company Limited, 2004, 3rd Edition, pages x + 258. Price 250/-. Paper Back. This third edition of the book Basic Training for Trainers is an essential resource for new as well as experienced trainers. It provides wide ranging situations a trainer may face and dexterous and imaginative handling of the same. The twenty eight chapters of the book cover all aspects of training starting from Principles of adult learning to researching, analysis, location of training, games etc. Chapters like Measuring trainee achievement and Trainer effectiveness help to quantify the outcome of the training process both for trainees and trainer. Topics like multiculturalism in training are increasingly becoming pertinent in a working scenario dominated by need to interact beyond borders for sustainability. Each chapter is well structured, easy to follow and includes application examples along with a reference list for further reading. This edition also includes updates on new developments in the section Top 20 bloopers for training. The large format of the book enables enlargement of the forms for effective utilization and also makes it easier to jot down notes on the pages. This book is also important for students as it gives an overview of the main competencies to be developed as a trainer. Kirti Dutta, Assistant Professor, Bharatiya Vidya Bhavan’s Usha and Lakshmi
Mittal Institute of Management, New Delhi, India.
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Gary Kroehnert, Basic Presentation Skills, New Delhi:Tata McGraw-Hill Publishing Company Limited, 2004, pages vi + 169. Price 195/-. Paper Back.
In line with the number of training books authored by Gary this book gives an
overview of the competencies a person should develop for making effective
presentations. It is also important for making successful training and information
presentations as it delineates the skills needed for effectual public speaking. Overall
the twenty chapters of the book cover a wide range of topics covering all aspects
of presentations like using an overhead projector, using a microphone, presentation
aids etc. The book is an easy read and discusses all sections in self-explanatory manner. This book is extremely important for students; teachers, corporate workers,
politicians etc. who need to talk publicly and/or develop an aptitude for making
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Des Dearlove, Business the Richard Brandson Way: 10 Secrets of the world's greatest brand builder, New Delhi: Wiley India (P) Limited, 2007, 3rd Edition, pages xvi + 172, Price 229/-. Paper Back. Richard Branson, the ubiquitous brand builder of Virgin, has built a successful brand that transcends products. This book takes a look at the business tycoon's life and traces his success to identify strategies responsible for the resounding success. The book starts with the life and times of Branson and maps the history of Virgin right from Branson's birth to 2006. The ten subsequent chapters are then devoted to the ten mantras that lead to his phenomenal success. Each strategy is discussed in details and how Branson managed the difficult moments make it engrossing, lively and a good read. The relation to Branson's success makes the strategies all the more convincing. The book is comprehensive as there are strategies relating to how to manage competition (Pick on someone bigger than you); spirit of the entrepreneur (chapter 2: Do the hippy, hippy shake and Chapter 3: Everything's Negotiable); managing People (Chapter 4: Make Work Fun, Chapter 7: Don't lead sheep, herd cats); Brand management (Chapter 5: Do Right by your Brand); Communication management (Chapter 6: Smile for the camera); and strategy (Chapter 8: Move faster than a speeding bullet, Chapter 9: Size does matter, Chapter 10: Never loose the common touch). The main points are summarized at the end of each chapter and can be easily revisited and referred to. These strategies are universal lessons and are relevant for students, academicians, practitioners and entrepreneurs as they can be applied to any business or career.
Kirti Dutta, Assistant Professor, Bharatiya Vidya Bhavan’s Usha and Lakshmi
Mittal Institute of Management, New Delhi, India. |
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