

Stephen J. Adler, Global Business-Power Plays. New Delhi: Tata McGrawHill Publishing Company limited, 2008. ix + 149pp. Rs. 299 paperback. The book talks about the subject of strategic management in international context and the chapters given in form of case studies create a very comprehensive illustrations of the various strategies of business. This brings practical insights into the subject. The case studies or the chapters cover various topics of the aforementioned subject under consideration. These include contemporary topics like the strategies for an internet based business, conglomerate business strategies, entry strategies into nascent and emerging markets, strategies to tackle the dynamic consumer behaviour and strengthening consumer buying power, strategies for joint ventures etc. Some of the case studies concentrate on intriguing topics like how to succeed in risky emerging markets and also in mature markets, positive learning from others failures, branding strategies through innovation against the potential competitors and financial management strategies through cost cut. The countries/markets under study are from across the globe and origins of companies includes a blend from emerging markets to the developed nations. Though the case studies published in this book are simply the reprints of the previous editions of Business Week, the consolidated collection proves it worth for the strategy professional, academicians and the management students. Also, the structure of the case studies provide ready refresher for the readers. The case begins with a proper lesson plans which is more likely works as an abstract for the case, and a power play move which outlines the ongoing business strategy discussed in the case. The power play boxes within the body of the case reflect the key learning to be derived from the case and hence can be considered as a part for the teaching note of the case for the academicians. The case ends with a Monday Morning page which discusses the problem at large and the various possible solutions derived from the moves played by the strategists in the case. There are twelve cases in total supplemented with a trend's tech future case which talks about the emerging markets and their consumers who are leveraging technology for their benefits. Overall, the book provides a good amount of practical illustrations of the global business strategies. Gaurav Tripathi, Assistant Professor, Institute for International Management and Technology, Gurgaon, Haryana, India.

Nath, Kamal, India's Century. New Delhi: Tata McGraw Hill, 2008. 229pp. Rs. 550/- hardback. India's journey from the early post independence days of 'Jugaad' to a country with multitude of resources has been traced with humor and exhaustiveness by India's Minister of Commerce and Industry; Kamal Nath. The book takes the reader , as the name suggest, through 'India's century' and highlights the capacity of Indians to innovate with minimal resources and offer solutions to issues which even superpowers like US and UK were unable to address. The book is not a skewed view of an Indian politician depicting his love for the country but a fact file of India's good and bad and wrongs -rights, described from a critical-political standpoint as well as from the perspective of a native Indian who has witnessed the entire growth curve and also contributed to it in many ways. The book is an easy, enjoyable read and is crisply divided into twelve chapters giving a wholesome picture about India's parallels, primarily the rural- urban parallel, technology- tradition parallel and the developed yet developing phenomenon of the country. For a foreigner, the book would seem like a comprehensive summary of India's flight, addressing some complex but obvious questions, in chapter nine, that any person who is not native to the country might like to ask. The author sets a realistic mood from chapter four onwards, highlighting grave issues like Babri Masjid, Nuclear testing, their impact on India's position on the global perception map, country as an 'IT powerhouse', the development of the dominant product and service industries of the country, India's march towards globalization and finally the envisioned future of India being the "workshop of the world' and its 'back office' too. The book would prove an interesting read for any student, professional, academician, researcher or foreigner who wants to take a deeper look at 'India's prosperous present’ and its ‘future of phenomenal growth’. Meghna Rishi, Assistant Professor, Institute for International Management and Technology, Gurgaon, Haryana, India.

Sahu, Ashok, Information Management in New Millennium: Opportunities & Challenges for Library Professionals. New Delhi: Ess Ess Publications, 2008. 521pp. Rs. 1250/- hardback. Due to revolution of technology, the information services have increased their variety and quantity and refined in their quality. Information Management is a crucial job for the library professional in 21st century. The professionals are now being challenged by new environment which demands changes in their styles, attitude and skills towards organizing and processing of information. Information technology has also tremendously changed the role of library to information centre and librarian to information manager. This book is very helpful to library professionals to understand how to manage the information in new environment. This book is targeted at practitioners. This is an edited book which is a compilation of 29 papers in different areas of information management. The papers are contributed by professionals and scholars from very eminent institutions nationally and internationally. The book is divided into four parts - Information and Society, Information Management, Digital Library & Electronic Resources, and Future Trends. The papers in the first part of the book has discussed impact of information on society and how the present society depends on the information. The second part discusses managing, marketing of information and quality management in libraries. The third part of book explains concept of digital library, digitalize the documents, RFID security systems, and electronic resources. The fourth part of book explains about future generation of library and expert systems. The papers of above book discuss and explain very clearly how to manage, organize, marketing of the information, and concept of digital library which helps professionals. It is a valuable resource for the librarians, academicians and students of library science for their research work. Dr. Rabindra Kumar Mahapatra, Reader, Department of Library Science, Sanjay Memorial Institute of Technology, Berhampur, Orissa.

V.S. Somanath, Microfinance, Redefining the Future. New Delhi: Excel Books, 2009. xii+275pp. Rs. 525/-. Paperback. Microfinance as a developmental and economic tool has caught the imagination of banks and other financial institutions, and NGOs in India. A good definition of microfinance as provided by Robinson is, ‘Microfinance refers to small-scale financial services for both credits and deposits, that are provided to people who farm or fish or herd, operate small or micro enterprises where goods are produced, recycled, repaired, or traded, provide services, work for wages or commissions, gain income from renting out small amounts of land, vehicles, or machinery and tools, and to other individuals and local groups in developing countries in both rural and urban areas’. The book under review, “Micro Finance, redefining the future” is a path breaking effort and it focuses on how the demand for microfinance can be met on a national scale and how microfinance can extend its network and reach the unbanked. The book would be of interest to the bankers, the NGOs, the donors, policymakers and government officials, microfinance consultants, economists and all those who are involved in the alleviation of poverty in the country. Throughout the book are feature boxes that present memorable quotes from the text, from experts, from related books, famous people etc. Case studies are also used extensively of NGOs operating especially in the Southern states of India. The book has been divided in three parts with eleven chapters in all. At the end it has ten Annexures which include the Draft Formats of Agreement for use by Banks while financing the Self-help Groups, Model of Credit Rating of NGOs for financial intermediation, specimen of application to be submitted by the Selfhelp Group to Banks while applying for loan assistance etc. The key features included in the first part of the book includes an overview of Microfinance, Magnitude of poverty in India and subsidized credit to microcredit which focused on the extension of small loans to individuals who are too poor to qualify for the traditional bank loans, as they have no assets to be offered as guarantee. The first part also looks into the poverty of the poor, the gradual shift from subsidized micro credit to commercial microfinance and redefines the future of microfinance. The second part examines the delivery of micro finance through various linkages and focuses on institutional self-sufficiency and large scale outreach. The key features included the initial selection of the borrowers and forming groups at a lower cost than the commercial banks which reduce the transaction costs of poor borrowers and savers. The third part tells us the voice of the poor, the author's personal experience in carrying the movement of microfinance across the Southern States of Karnataka and Andhra Pradesh. It focuses on the impact of microfinance on the client's household and their micro-enterprise and discusses the evolving model to attain the outreach and viability of microfinance and also the role of technology to reach the unbanked. Rumki Bandopadhyay, Assistant Professor, Institute for International Management and Technology, Gurgaon, Haryana, India.

Gupta, Praveen, Six Sigma-Business Score Card, India: Tata McGraw-Hill, Second Edition, 2007. 310pp. Rs. 450/-. hardback. The author provides a rather interesting amalgam of two related, yet different aspects to managing business performance worldwide. While ‘quality’ and its impact on business success is widely recognized and measured through various certifications and tools like ISO/ and more recently Six Sigma. The Balanced scorecard and its numerous adoptions have been recognized as an instrument for measuring a ‘Firm’s’ performance to a substantial extent. Gupta, through this work provides a very relevant linkage between the above-mentioned models and offers business managers and leaders a more wholesome and inclusive model to use for measuring their performance. The book retains a practical orientation and does not really attempt to offer a substantial literature review that may look at the development of ‘academic’ argument with respect to performance measurement concepts, theory and practice. This may limit the use of this text as a source for academic review purposes. The focus is on establishing the need for a 'new' model, and having done that in chapter 3, the author introduces the new model and its key elements. The approach to guide a prospective practitioner through the entire process of understanding the model, planning for its implementation (chapter 5), developing a strategy to execute the same (chapter 9) and monitoring the business performance by application of the model establishes a credibility from a utilitarian perspective. The discussion on how even small businesses can utilize the model at a conceptual level and draw benefits from its application widens the scope of the book making it a relevant read and a effective guide for a much wider audience. The book retains a good flow and offers numerous corporate examples of application with success to keep you interested, and engaged. A good read for undergraduate/ post graduate business students and business professionals at large. Sandeep Munjal, Associate Professor and Assistant Dean, Institute for International Management and Technology, Gurgaon, Haryana, India.

Argenti, Paul. A., Strategic Corporate Communication. India: Tata McGraw- Hill, First Edition, 2007. 274pp. NA. hardback. Strategic Corporate Communication offers an impressive and wholesome perspective on communication aspects concerning business enterprise. The focus on the ‘Indian’ context adds value as ‘communication skills’ and other behavioral elements draw from and are impacted by the socio-cultural contexts that are vastly different across nationalities. The author draws linkages between how written and verbal communication elements in the ‘western’ and ‘eastern’ scenarios are different. In an increasingly global business scenario an understanding of the same and being able to fine tune, strategize and control outbound communication elements to your advantage can be a tremendous competitive advantage and a capability. Argenti looks at the process in all forms. The internal communication aspects are reviewed in chapter 5. The necessity for appropriate management of upward and downward communication, and use of technology to enhance the ‘virtual’ communication platform as the futuristic direction for firm's internal communication is discussed very relevantly. Equally interesting is the impact of strategic communication in developing a focus on ‘Internal Branding’. Though not supported by an exhaustive literature review, the author does establish the theoretical progression of the subject and looks at the backbone of communication theory in the Indian context. The outgoing communication aspects are linked with the growing importance of corporate reputation (Chapter 4) and the discussion is further expanded while looking at corporate advertising and media relations. Both these segments provide an in-depth understanding of key issues that surround effective communication aimed at efficient utilization of firm's resources. Investor relations including those with the government bodies in both Indian and U.S. contexts add value to the book and should provide valuable insights to all readers. The book retains a good flow and closes very effectively through a segment titled 'Crisis Communications' by showcasing numerous examples in both Indian and U.S. contexts to provide a feel for real business communication situations and their impact on the business success. A good read for undergraduate/ post graduate business students and business professionals at large. Sandeep Munjal, Associate Professor and Assistant Dean, Institute for International Management and Technology, Gurgaon, Haryana, India.

Jeffrey K Liker and Michael Hoseus, Toyota Culture: The Heart and Soul of the Toyota Way, Place: Tata Mc Graw-Hill Edition, 2008. 562pp. Rs. 450/-. paperback. “Toyota Culture; The Heart and Soul of the Toyota Way” (2008) by Jeffrey Liker and Michael Hoseus provides amazing insight about how Toyota has taken the unique human systems painstakingly developed in Toyota Japan and transferred it into a very different western culture. To accomplish its goal Toyota continue to strive to achieve through continuous refinement of the manufacturing process which speeds and simplifies the process. Lean the production system as practiced by Toyota is not sustainable without the culture to support it. This culture is a complex amalgam of leadership values, communication, training and development, and measures to build trust. People are the key and, indeed, the early name for the Toyota Production System was the “Respect for Humanity” system. “Toyota Culture” describes how a supportive and continuously improving culture has been developed at Toyota's American plants. It is the culture of the company, and relationships between management and production staff that drive this improvement. The book deals with the management of the human resources in the company and it describes this as “the people value stream”. The book is separated in five parts. The first part gives an introduction and exemplifies what is meant by “company culture” referring to the work of Ed Schein. Then it discusses about “the people value-stream” where the rest of the book is organized around. Part II is about the value stream itself while Part III and IV are the supporting processes of the people value stream. The second part deals with the grooming of the people within Toyota. The issues illustrated in this section are quite elaborate where it started from taking a fresher and then moved into problem solving, one of the essential parts of the Toyota culture. It concludes with the improvement of the quality of life of an employee while remaining within Toyota. However, at times, the management and training imparted to the people as dealt in this section sounds repetitive as it was in “The Toyota Way”. The third part started by looking at the Toyota organizational structure, where special emphasis was given on team culture and leadership qualities in a team. In this section it discussed issues related to the work safety problems and various other issues in detail related to problem solving. It also discussed the concepts of visual management and servant leadership and what role exactly is played by management in finally enabling the value-added work. The fourth part of the book introduced the organizational supporting processes especially HR processes. It mentioned how they actually valued life. It mentioned how Toyota dealt with ups and downs in resourcing and moved to HR policies and rewarding policies. Chapter 15 is a short introduction to Hoshin Kanri and the experience at Toyota. The last part is the conclusion and discussed about our learning from Toyota, the “what can you do” part. The last chapter looked at lean implementations and wonders why they fail. It tried to find general change recommendations to try to learn from Toyota while creating your own company culture. However, most of the book discussed about Toyota in the US and hardly about the Toyota culture in Japan. Additionally implementation of these management methods in an American culture sounds absurd given the cultural context of America. Moreover the book has a major manufacturing focus and hardly talks about other operations. The culture in the different functions like organizational structures and teamwork is bound to have differences. Besides, it may require proof reading for avoiding some minor yet relevant typo errors. All in all, it's a highly recommended Toyota book even though a reader would have benefited from more discussion of some of the tougher issues had there been more discussion about how they resolved involvements with the unions or other labor relations issues Toyota faced during their transition to the United States. Debdeep De, Lecturer, Jaypee Business School, Jaypee Institute of Information Technology University Noida, India.

Capodagli, Bill; Jackson, Lynn, The Disney Way: Harnessing the management secrets of Disney in your company, New Delhi: Tata McGraw Hill, 2007. xvi+313. Rs. 299/- paperback. Inspiring people through the four principles of Disney's business philosophy forms the backdrop of this revised book. The Disney Way of dream, believe, dare and do form the four main sections and include inspirational stories that help original readers to evaluate their results. These four principles also provide the new readers with a framework and help them soar beyond the limits of traditional management thinking. The thirteen chapters of the book include a number of anecdotes and boxed examples which make a good read. At the end of each chapter a checklist of questions to ask and actions to take effectively summarizes and provides clarity to the readers. Understanding the importance of the employees in an organization all the principles talk about including the employees in the process right from dreaming to doing. The management is encouraged to not only follow these principles themselves but to engage their employees in doing the same. Exhibiting commitment of the organization and empowering employees are highlighted throughout. The application of these principles throughout the organization builds teams and results in the employees not only fulfilling the customers needs but in creating 'the happiest place on earth' where customers are served as true guests. The last chapter discusses seven organizations and the levels of excellence attained by them through the application of the dream, believe, dare and do principles. The authors do not ask for simple imitation of the Disney way but the understanding of the principles and application of the same as per the organizations requirements. This book is useful for people from all walks of life and from any organization or sector as it motivates them to achieve success by believing in their own dreams and also instills courage to pursue them. Kirti Dutta, Assistant Professor, Institute for International Management and Technology, Gurgaon, India.

Tapomoy Deb, Performance Appraisal and Management Concepts, Antecedents and Implications, New Delhi: Excel Books, 2008, Rs. 395/- paperback. The root of Performance Appraisal is in the early 20th Century and can be traced to Taylor's pioneering Time and Motion studies. As a distinct and formal management procedure used in the evaluation of work performance, appraisal really dates from the time of the Second World War ie., not more than sixty years ago. The System of Performance Appraisal began with very simple methods of income justification. Appraisal is used to decide whether or not the salary or wage of an individual employee was justified. The process was firmly linked to material outcomes. If an employee's performance was found to be less than ideal, a cut in pay would follow. On the other hand, if their performance was better than the supervisor expected, a pay rise was in order. Performance Appraisal is defined as a structured formal interaction between a subordinate and supervisor that usually takes the form of a periodic interview; wherein the work performance of the subordinate is examined and discussed with a view to identify strengths and weakness as well as the opportunities for improvement in employee's skill development. The book under review, "Performance Appraisal and Management-concepts, antecedents and implications", has focused on the essence of the subject in a holistic and integrative manner by emphasizing the concepts, causes and the consequences. The book explores the foundations of performance management and appraisal in detail. This book has been divided in five parts comprising of ten chapters in all. Each chapter opens with an Executive Summary presenting the reader the key issues to be addressed. Throughout the book are feature boxes that present memorable quotes from the text, from experts, from famous people, studies and reports, newspapers, useful websites etc. Case studies are also used extensively to help illustrate points that add interests. Part A of the book under review discusses about the conceptual framework of human resource management and also examines the various components of performance management. Ethical and legal issues were discussed in designing a performance appraisal system for optimizing individual and organizational results. The second part of the book opens with a discussion to understand the concept and meaning of motivation and also to recognize the role of motivation in managing and improving performance of employees. It also focused on the theories of leadership the context of performance management and appraisal system. The major theories focused were the Trait Theory, Behavioral Theory, Visionary Leadership Theory, Likert's Theory, Situational Theory, Fielder's Contingency Theory, Path-Goal Theory etc. While exploring the relationship between behavior of leader and employee's group performance as well as satisfaction, couples of important studies of the past were also highlighted like Ohio State University Study and Michigan Studies. The second part of the book also emphasized on the role of ongoing mentoring and managing protégé performance. The third part brings forth the essential constructs of the implications of performance management and appraisal in detail. It examines various career systems and strategies available for leveraging employee performance and also evaluated the phases of career development for maximizing employee performance and contributions. It discusses the phases of training and explores correlation with performance improvement programmes. The fourth part deals with comprehensive cases at the end of the text that have been picked by the author to go hand in hand with performance appraisal concepts and to sharpen the managerial skills of the management trainers and equipping them practical aspects of a manager's job, whereas the final part gives an insight into how real world organizations manage and appraise performance of employees, managers and CEO's. Finally there is a section at the end of the text on References that note other sources for follow-up and research. Overall, this book would be highly useful for the HR practitioners, Business Managers and Management Trainers. Rumki Bandopadhyay, Assistant Professor, Institute for International Management and Technology, Gurgaon, Haryana, India.

Pete Engardio, CHINDIA-How China and India are Revolutionizing Global Business, New Delhi: Tata McGraw-Hill Publishing Company Limited, 2008, xi + 384. Rs. 395/- paperback. This book compares and contrasts the two emerging economies based on their economic environment of business. This comparison leads towards the effect of the two economies on the economies worldwide. The book is a compilation of previously published articles of Business Week focusing on China and India in last five years. The obvious and latent economic level differences are the key contents. The market and industry capabilities are present in a comparative manner outlining the key areas of strength for each economy in conjunction with why such landmarks were achieved which, is ultimately based on the difference in the business environment of the two economies. The business environment bought in discussion with spotlight on a host of issues including the economic stability, capital efficiency, market structure, organization structure, corporate level issues, political and legal bottlenecks with special reference to intellectual property rights, social problems and inadequacies with reference to aging population and labor rights, education level in technical areas and ecological issues. The strength of banking and financial industry is given due importance in the book. All these issues are strongly linked with the levels of business growth and factors bolstering the obstruction to business growth in the two economies. Most of the articles discussed do not highlight the dates but they certainly appear to be contemporary and future oriented focusing on the economic revival and boom. The economies are discussed at par with mighty economies like Japan and Korea as well as the US and some European economies. Cost and other benefits to the foreign companies indulging into outsourcing is another issue highlighted at length. The outsourcing has its aftermath in US in terms of several companies filing for bankruptcy and job losses going into millions, which is the heart of the discussion. On the critical side, some forecasts are conservative but realistic. Most of the articles focus only on China with India getting fairly lesser spotlight in the chapter. A reader from the triad economies will get enough idea about investing in the two emerging economies with an outlining of the key business environment differences. A question and answer session with a subject matter expert is given at the end of every chapter to make the compilation more synchronized. The book throws a question for the readers to find out whether India and China will be the next global powerhouses or not? Gaurav Tripathi, Assistant Professor, Institute for International Management and Technology, Gurgaon, Haryana, India.

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