Power, for All

Title: Power, for All (Link to Goodreads)
Author: Julie Battilana, Tiziana Casciaro
Genre: Non-Fiction
Published: August 2021
My Rating: 4 on 5

I have to admit I had not heard of this book until I saw this mentioned on the recommended reading list of Tiziana’s course ‘Leading People in Organizations’. Rarely am I given an opportunity to meet an author up close and attend her classes, so I made sure I read this book before I landed in her class. Without knowing the authors behind the book, I read this as any other non-fiction book on corporate culture. But when I met the passionate and morally grounded Tiziana, I realized she embodies everything that this book stands for.

This book is all about power – how it has always had a negative connotation that power corrupts people, how it is assumed to be wielded by the people high above in the hierarchy, and the book tries to shatter these myths by decoupling power from role or title and brings in other factors like having influence by controlling resources that other needs. Power seems unattainable to most of us, but this book breaks the equation of power to its bare bones and provides ample instances of so called ordinary people gaining and wielding power. For instance, the study conducted at a French plant revealed that the most powerful were not the managers in the top run of the hierarchy, but the power rested with the maintenance team who had access to the most valuable resource – fixing broken machines. If machines were broken, it impacted the productivity and the linked pay for every worker. Thus, the team which had sole control over this valuable resource wielded the greatest power.

Gender too makes an appearance in the book, as the authors focus on the struggles of Donatella Versace, who took over as the CEO after her father’s untimely death. When she found no support from the board or her next level leaders, she built up her confidence by finding a group of strong, determined women who were not only her allies, but her critics too. The book quotes a study on how women’s leadership success is influenced by the gender composition of the team and concludes “… to get executive positions with the highest levels of authority and compensation, women need one more thing: an inner circle of close ties with other women.”

Both the authors being academicians, the book is based on years of research and cites many studies, experiments and real-life examples to demonstrate how to gain power, use it well and not let it corrupt you. I had the privilege of being part of the discussions in class about some parts of the book and that elevated the learning to the next level. This is a must-read book for every person, irrespective of one being a manager or a worker or even if one is not in the corporate world.

Beyond the last blue mountain: R M Lala

Title: Beyond the last blue mountain (Link to Goodreads)
Author: R.M. Lala
Genre: Non-Fiction
Published In: 1992
My Rating: 3.5 on 5

The name Tata is not new to Indians and is taken with great reverence. It is synonymous with integrity and ethical practice. The company has seen many a visionary leaders at the helm who have played their part in expanding the business while keeping the company’s core principles intact. The founder, Jamsetji Tata, is credited for sowing the seeds and the Chairmans who took up the baton are equally respected for nurturing the plant and for making it a mammoth tree which it is today. Jamshetji passed on the baton to Dorabji Tata, who in turn brought J R D Tata as the leader. When JRD took over, Tata already had established itself in 14 enterprises and when JRD retired from the company, it had more than 90 enterprises, the most noteworthy of these being the aviation industry – domestic and international airlines.

R M Lala’s book chronicles the life of JRD Tata, from his birth to the last leg of his life, while focusing on how his childhood was influenced by the tall leaders in the family and how he was groomed to be the future leader of Tata & Sons. It is very clear JRD was born with a silver spoon – born in France, educated in elite schools and frequent trips to foreign locales, but a point to note is how grounded he still was to the reality and understood the pain of the masses. His humility is celebrated through the various anecdotes. When JRD established the first mail airline service, he flew the planes himself since there weren’t many pilots, while managing his other responsibilities as a Chairman.

JRD was a visionary. He predicted the importance of airlines in the commercial success of a country and established one even when the country was under the influence of the British. He expanded the Taj group of hotels, envisioning the tourism industry which was to bloom. He was a stickler to punctuality and would ensure that every Air India plane took off and landed at the right time – even if it meant that it flew in circles over the airport to avoid landing early.

This biography does justice to the tall image of JRD and gives glimpses of JRD as a Chairman, as a father and as a person. The latter part of the book goes into JRD’s introspection of his life and his contribution to Tata. However, the author often digresses into irrelevant things – a description of Winston Churchill, the number of dishes and gifts offered at a banquet, a few pages on the qualities of Kish Naoroji and Dr Matthai – how do these help in understanding JRD better? If the author had focused only on the personality under discussion, the book could have been easily half its current size. I had hoped to get more insights into how JRD ran his business – the kind of decisions he made, how he weighed his options, how he took risks and how he ran such a mammoth company. The book gives tiny glimpses into this, which is fine, since this is a biography and not a management book.

Despite the length and at times boring narration of incidents, this biography is still a worthy read if one wishes to understand the person behind the name JRD Tata.

Business Adventures: John Brooks

Title: Business Adventures (Link to Goodreads)
Author: John Brooks
Genre: Non-Fiction
Published In: 1969 / 2014
My Rating: 3.5 on 5

I want the year 2021 to be the year where I step out of my comfort zone. I am trying newer things in other aspects of life – work, knitting and even workouts. Why not apply the same to reading, as well? So, this is me reading a book which I never thought I would read. Surprisingly, I quite enjoyed it.

The book cover reads that this book has “Twelve classic tales from the World of Wall Street”. Brooks narrates his experience with companies and Wall Street when he was a financial journalist. Some of these tales are his first-hand experiences, while some are researched and gleaned through interviews. These tales cover cases like the failure of Ford’s Edsel model to the devaluation of the Great Britain’s Pound Sterling; from the success story of Xerox to the nail-biting, thriller-esque story of short-selling and cornering. As someone who was as far away from Wall Street and its stories as possible, I was pleasantly surprised when I realized I was enjoying these tales.

The chapter which I could relate to the most was about Ford Edsel. As someone who is part of a product development team, I could understand the challenges in envisioning a new car model, developing it and launching it. We all do our best, hoping that the product is a bestseller, but only time can tell if we were right. The same is the case with Edsel.

The tale which was the hardest to grasp was the last one – on the devaluation of Pound Sterling and the incidents preceding that. I had no idea this is how global markets work and how coupled they are. The whole idea of the federal bank sitting on (I mean that literally, as the gold is in the basement) a heap of gold was hard to fathom. How US federal bank went out of its way to salvage the London stock market and its cascading effect on the other major markets was eye opening. I always thought the countries are at loggerheads!

Another story which was interesting to me was the one about Goodrich vs. Latex. When an industry expert decides to quit Goodrich and join its competitor Latex, the question of intellectual property and trade secrets come into picture. This is a matter which comes up often in my field of work and most corporates take a common stand of getting the employees sign a non declaration agreement. But to look at it from another perspective – that of an employee and the employer – was interesting.

The edition I read was published in 2014, but as per Goodreads, this book was first published in 1969. As expected, the stories are from old days and lack more contemporary stories, but the finance world is such that the old age stories are still very relevant. I would have loved to read stories about the 2008 recession, the dotcom boom, the explosion of social media companies and the start-ups scene.

The best part about the book is that Brooks does not attempt to answer any question. He presents facts and opinions of experts from both sides of the story and lets the readers draw a conclusion.

Without getting into the details of every chapter, let me summarize by saying if you are even remotely interested in economics and the business side of things, you will enjoy reading this book. You don’t need to understand stock market or financial numbers to appreciate the challenges faced by this corner of the world as narrated in this book.

A Woman in Berlin: Eight Weeks in the Conquered City: A Diary

Title: A Woman in Berlin: Eight Weeks in the Conquered City: A Diary
Writer : Anonymous
Published: 1945
Genre: Non-Fiction
My Rating: 4 on 5

 

There are countless books written about World War 2 – some are historically accurate while some are fictional accounts. Most of these books highlight the sufferings of the Holocaust victims, which is absolutely needed. Very rarely do we get a glimpse of people on the other side of the war – the Germans. Anne Frank’s diary gave us insights into the atrocities carried out against the Jews and how the general mass stepped up to help the Jews in whatever way they can. This book is a diary of a woman who lives in Berlin and her ordeal at the hands of Russians, long after the war was won by the Allies.

The author remains anonymous to the world, but we know she lived in East Germany, wherein women have made attics and basements their homes to protect themselves from airstrikes as they wait for something worse – Russians conquering Berlin and pillaging the city. The book chronicles the fear as the women wait for Russians to land at their doorstep, the disgust at witnessing the pillaging and rape which the Russian soldiers recklessly carry out and the bravery they show to going to any extent for survival, including striking deals with the soldiers. While the West Germany was conquered by sophisticated enemy of Britain and US, the East Germany people were not so fortunate as they were taken over by the hooligan Russians, most of them being illiterate and rustic.

The author strikes as a woman who is extremely self-aware of her own strengths and weaknesses and the bleak situation she is going to face. The writing is beautiful and tugs at your heart. I knew what to expect from this book – the violence, rapes, starvation, deaths – but this book still left me speechless. The levels to which a human can stoop to took me completely by surprise (or shock). This is not an easy read, definitely not a light one, as the book stays with you long after you have stopped reading it and one needs some time to come out of this painful phase.

Out of all the numerous World War 2 related books, this book stands out for the perspective it brings and its excellent prose. The book is grim and casts a cloud gloom on the reader, but this still remains a very important read.

Entry #3 for Nonfiction Reader Challenge 2020
Entry #2 for The Backlist Reader Challenge 2020

Freedom at Midnight

Title: Freedom at Midnight
Writer : Larry Collins, Dominique Lapierre
Published: 2001
Genre: Non-Fiction
My Rating: 3 on 5

India’s independence was a moment of celebration, but also a painful memory as the country was partitioned and millions of people lost their lives. Every year as we take pride in raising the tricolor, our heads also hang in shame for the brutality which we caused in the name of religion. While every school teaches the children when India got its independence, very little is said about the events which led to this historical moment and more importantly, the violent events which followed this moment. To fill this void, I decided to read this book, well knowing, that neither of the authors are Indians and nor were they a witness to these events.

The book starts off heaping a huge praise on Lord Mountbatten, who apparently was influential in India attaining her independence. While there may be some amount of truth in it, the sheer adoration, the flowery praises are so over the top that one starts wondering if this book should have been named “An ode to Mountbatten”.

This book is a result of the interviews with Mountbatten and some archives which he had saved over time. This gives the book a very “English” perspective and can come across as biased in some places. Wish the authors had heard the other side of the story too. While the Mountbattens are admired for their bravery and leadership, we do not see the same treatment for Indian politicians. Gandhi is revered, Nehru gets a few notable mentions, Patel is largely ignored and Jinnah is painted as a monster.

This book did strike a chord with the chapters on the actual partition – the drawing of the line – the exodus that followed and the eventual murder of millions of people. The authors paint such a horrid picture of these ghastly events – the train full of corpses is still a haunting visual for me. The mindless pillaging, rapes, murders, mutilation of human beings by other so-called human beings is so mind numbing – one wonders how religion can become more important than human lives.

The book makes a segue into Gandhi’s assassination. This section of the book reads like a thriller – building up suspense, ending the chapter on a cliff hanger – and has all the elements of a page turner.  If you want an outsider perspective on the freedom struggle and eventual independence, albeit with a touch of fictional narrative, do read this book, by all accounts. If you want a more neutral perspective or even an insider view, then pick up a book by local authors, which is what I am planning to do next. On this point, any recommendations on what book I should read on this subject?

 

Entry #2 for Nonfiction Reader Challenge 2020
Entry #1 for The Backlist Reader Challenge 2020

 

Maybe You Should Talk To Someone

Title: Maybe You Should Talk to Someone: A Therapist, Her Therapist, and Our Lives Revealed
Writer : Lori Gottlieb
Published: 2019
Genre: Non-Fiction
My Rating: 4.5 on 5

Human psychology has always held a special interest for me and it was only natural that I picked up this book as soon as I read the blurb. Lori Gottlieb is a TV writer turned psychotherapist. As a practising psychotherapist, she witnesses the various reasons one can become anxious, addicted, depressed or suicidal in life. While Gottlieb could have stuck to describing these encounters, she instead puts herself in her patient’s shoes and describes her experience as a depressed soul seeking soul nourishing therapy. And this interspersal of her narrating as a therapist and as a patient is what makes this book so engaging and relatable.

Gottlieb goes through a bitter breakup with someone who she dreamt of marrying and this leaves her shattered and depressed. She continues to counsel as a therapist, but denies the deep rooted truth that she too needs to see one to get over her grief. What starts as a therapy session to get over her boyfriend turns into an eye opening series of discussions with her therapist which ends up with Gottlieb facing some bitter truth of her life.

I have seen a couple of therapists and psychiatrists in my life and none of these sessions came anywhere close to the kind of insightful, meaningful discussions Gottlieb has with her patients and her own therapist. The journey of her patients – especially the one who is facing her imminent death and is coming to terms with it – is such an emotional roller coaster that the reader starts cheering for every small win the patient makes and feels totally torn when they veer off the therapy track. This book re-convinced me that therapy is a much needed addition to anybody’s life, not necessarily the depressed and the oppressed ones. And it also helped me realize that the reason my therapy sessions weren’t that beneficial was because I haven’t found the right therapist for me yet.

The book pulls at your heart as the reader make a strong bond with every of Gottlieb’s patients, Gottlieb herself and even her therapist. To see therapist’s troubled past and how he deals with it while counseling Gottlieb is something I found interesting.

With all the troubled pasts and depressed patients, one might assume that this book makes for a heavy read, but it is anything but that. Gottlieb’s writing style is casual and breezy and this makes the book a very easy read. There might be places where you put the book aside and ponder over Gottlieb’s words, which happened often with me.

2020 has started on a high note for me, when it comes to reading (and reviewing – a review after a whole year!). Hope it only gets better from here.

Entry #1 for Nonfiction Reader Challenge 2020.

 

 

Becoming

Title: Becoming
Writers : Michelle Obama
Published: 2018
Genre: Non-Fiction
My Rating: 3.5 on 5

I am wary of books written by or about celebrities just after they assume an important role or give up one. Satya Nadella, Sundar Pichai, Narendra Modi – the list goes on. As soon as someone takes up CEO role or becomes the PM, either the person himself/herself or someone else comes out with a (auto)biography. I try and stay away from such books but I made an exception with Becoming – for two reasons. I have been in awe of Michelle Obama ever since she came into the limelight. Her grace and dignity are impressive and I wanted to hear what she has to say about her life. And I thought she would have something substantial and meaningful to say, considering she was the first Black First Lady of US. And I am glad I made this exception.

Becoming is neatly segregated into three sections: Michelle’s childhood, her meeting Obama and their marriage, and the tumultuous journey to the White House and their stay there. Michelle had the privilege of growing up in a non-traditional Black family, in the sense that she had a safe and loving environment, father with a steady job and parents who emphasized on providing good education. One stark example would be Michelle’s parents’ insistence that Michelle and her brother speak proper English with the right grammar and pronunciation. While this helped both the siblings to assimilate in the bigger world, it set them apart from the most of the Black families as they were seen as “different”. Michelle’s struggle in settling down on going to Princeton and her natural choice of hanging out with peer Black students is a very emotional read.

Compared to the first section, the second one is slightly boring. Her first meeting with Obama, their initial interaction leading to a date, courting and eventual marriage – this borders on cheesy (for me) in some places. What this section achieves though, is show the contrast between the two personalities. While Michelle was always the do-gooder, approval seeking person, Barrack was hyper-focused on civil rights, and didn’t want to spread his roots and settle down. Heck, he did not even believe in the institution of marriage. This section also shows the dedication Mr. Obama always had on his humanitarian work, his contribution to non-profit work and his sincere empathy.

The concluding section is the most interesting. This is where Obama decides to plunge into politics, by dipping his beak as Senator and eventually aiming for the White House. The amount of hard work, strategy, planning and money that gets poured into Presidential politics is mind boggling. I could relate to Michelle so well when she was on the fence about this. She wanted her husband to achieve his dreams, but also wanted a safe, protective environment for her kids, away from the media glare. She knew that once they enter the political world, there is no shying away from the public. Every word said or unsaid, every dress worn, every hair of strand that is out of its place would get judged and not just for herself but for her daughters as well. How she struggles to keep them grounded and give them as normal as a childhood she could provide is commendable.

As one of the most influential Presidents of the US, Barrack Obama definitely will go down in history with golden laurels, but as the First Lady, Michelle did not fade under his shadow, but made a mark for herself and found her own voice.

Now that I have read the book, I wonder why Michelle named it “Becoming”. There is a theme, of course, on how she climbed the stepping stones of life, but considering her constant struggle of “Am I good enough?”, “Do I belong here?”, “Is this for us?”, a better book title would have been “Belonging”.

Elon Musk: Tesla, SpaceX, and the Quest for a Fantastic Future

Title: Elon Musk: Tesla, SpaceX, and the Quest for a Fantastic Future
Writers: Ashlee Vance
Published: 2015
Genre: Non-Fiction, Biography
My Rating: 3 on 5

Elon Musk needs no introduction. He is almost always in the news for both right and wrong reasons, and the latter, more often than not. I am a fan of his vision, his larger-than-life ambitions and his fearlessness. I decided to read this book for two reasons – to know what kind of a life Musk led before he came into the spotlight and also to understand what makes him, him. While the book did give a glimpse of his life and answered my first question, it barely answered the second one.

Ashlee Vance gives a brief account of Musk’s life – his carefree parents, troublesome childhood due to getting bullied, strong bonding with his siblings, his strong urge to move to the US, and the trigger for his entrepreneurship and the eventual founding of companies. He intersperses this with the current happenings in Musk’s life, so this does not follow the chronological order. Vance also tries to explain the troubled relationships Musk has had with his spouses. In short, this book gives us a pretty good idea on how Musk’s life has been.

Vance also touches upon some of the behaviors which is scrutinized by the world. Musk’s recklessness in taking risks, in pushing people to an extent that they reach a breaking point and in being a total control freak. Musk dreams big and so do many visionaries. What makes Musk stand apart is proclaiming to the world on when he is going to achieve that dream even before having a first cut plan on how to achieve it. On multiple instances, Musk has announced release dates and his team had to run amok to meet that date. Setting up aggressive schedules is one thing, but what Musk does is suicidal. He is constantly pushing the team to the brink of breaking with his cold behavior which borders on being abusive.

Vance almost hero worships Musk and such a person cannot do justice to a biography. Even when Vance is discussing Musk’s questionable behavior with his first wife, it is as if Vance is defending Musk’s behavior. Musk is sometimes horrible to his employees and Vance has to say something justifying that. Vance does say he refused to let Musk read this book before publishing, but it certainly looks likes someone edited this book heavily before it hit the press. This book reads like a big list of justification defending Musk’s objectionable behavior.

Vance’s commentary and the numerous interviews barely give a glimpse of why Musk does what he does. And this is my main issue with this book. Musk’s voice is completely missing. I understand this is a biography and not an autobiography, but there is always a way to bring out the inner voice of the person in question. This book is like shadowing Musk and going around watching what he is doing, but what I wanted was to get into his mind to see what was going on. Why does he care so much for the human race that he goes to the extent of setting up a colony in Mars as an alternative world, but is abusive to his wife and demeans his employees who work for him? What kind of an empathy is this that you care for the overall race, but treat the individuals like slaves? What kind of a human  celebrates life but chides his employee for missing work to witness the birth of his child?

I still am a fan of Musk’s vision and his larger-than-life ideas. But a fan of this book, I am not. I will wait for the day when Musk decides to write his autobiography.

 

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Open by Andre Agassi

Title: Open
Writer : Andre Agassi
Published: 2009
Genre: Non-Fiction
My Rating: 4 on 5

Andre Agassi was the first tennis player who I came to admire from the time I learnt what tennis is. I remember watching the first tennis match of Agassi with his bandanna (so fitting that I don’t recall who his opponent was) and rooting for this guy without even knowing his name. There was something about Agassi – his passion, his resilience to not quit and more than anything his vulnerability (he lost that match) was so attractive. I went on to become his fan.

Agassi is honest and transparent in his autobiography. His life is like an open book (heh), so I don’t need to delve into what part of life he covers and what he leaves out. Starting with his early childhood days of growing up under a strict father who put Agassi into a very rigorous training – so rigorous that Agassi starts hating tennis. His teenage years of fighting with himself and the world, getting wild haircuts and attires just to be invisible, which the world thought was to gain attention – this journey is so heart wrenching. Agassi recalls every critical match in his life and dissects it with a retrospective view and comes up with reasons on why he lost matches and why he won some. It is so difficult to digest that Agassi lost some really pivotal matches in his life. And it all comes down to the player’s state of mind. A player can predict how the match will go based on just one’s own state of mind. To see the happenings in the player’s mind, up close, coming straight from the horse’s mouth is incredible.

Agassi explains a tennis match in such a beautiful way, by comparing it to life.

It’s no accident, I think, that tennis uses the language of life. Advantage, service, fault, break, love, the basic elements of tennis are those of everyday existence, because every match is a life in miniature.

Despite the rich and stardom status, Agassi was always grounded. There are so many instances in the book where he came across as an average human being and reached out and helped others and not throw his weight around. His own struggle when his coach’s child is fighting with a life threatening disease shows how close he is to his “team” and treats them as family more than anything.

For someone who breathes, eat, sleeps and lives tennis and whose life was made by that very sport, Agassi’s hatred towards tennis is hard to believe. He really means it when he says he hates tennis – reiterated multiple times all through the book.

I leave you with one of my favorite quotes from the book.

I play and keep playing because I choose to play. Even if it’s not your ideal life, you can always choose it. No matter what your life is, choosing it changes everything.

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Nabokov’s Favorite Word Is Mauve

Title: Nabokov’s Favorite Word Is Mauve
Writer : Ben Blatt
Published: 2017
Genre: Non-Fiction
My Rating: 4 on 5

If you love statistics and you love books, this book is a must-read for you. Blatt digs into numerous books – some classics, some contemporary, some bestsellers and some fan-fiction and churns numbers to answer many interesting questions.

Blatt starts with an anecdote in which two scholars use statistics to determine the authors of essays published anonymously. While these scholars had painstakingly manually mined the data in those years, Blatt achieves the same by writing a program to mine the data. He confirms what was claimed by scholars years earlier. Using this as a base, he expands his program to mine books to answer some interesting questions.

We have all heard about using adverbs sparingly, but did Ernest Hemingway really follow his own advice? Blatt mines Hemingway’s books and confirms that Hemingway did stick to his own advice. Blatt also realizes that men write a lot about men and little about women, but women authors do not discriminate. How many authors use cliches and how often? Is the writing style different for British and American authors? Which author uses the most exclamation points and in which book? And of course, the question which the book title answers – what is the author’s favorite word? These are some of the questions which Blatt answers in this book.

Some questions/answers are more interesting than others, but the whole book keeps you engaged. Given the nature of the chapter, you can read these chapters in any order. Blatt details out his data sample (what books are considered and what are not), justifies his choice and explains the technique he used. He makes it very clear what data he is after and how he achieved the results. His idea of mining fan fiction works for some of the question is genius.

The book is not set out to teach you writing techniques or make you a bestseller author overnight. This book answers some of the questions any book reader would have wondered one time or the other. I wish the book was longer and hope the author is planning on a second book already. I wonder what questions he is going to answer next!

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