Corporate Avatars by Disha - Book Review

In this book ‘Corporate Avatars’, Disha talks about more than 38 quirky characters who you will meet at work. She offers 3 or 4 valuable tips to deal with each type. She also offers a funny solution if none of the tips works.  The book is not preachy and offers valuable tips in a humorous tone.

Some of the quirky characters Disha describes are Mr. Maggi Noodles who wants everything to be done so fast, in 2 minutes that is. Then there is Mr. Meeting who convenes long fruitless meetings for anything and everything.  Ms. Process, who will not move her little finger even if a small step in the process is not followed, even if we are going to lose lakhs because of the delay. Ms. Short Skirts who sets everyone’s heart racing because of her bare-it-all attires.  Then there is Mr. Aloof who abhors interaction with fellow human beings and wants even the simplest of talks to be communicated over e-mail. “It was as if humans where his biggest problem on earth,’ says Disha.  Mr. Indisciplined, who worked odd and late hours and expected everyone to stay back late to get work done with him.

Disha starts every character analysis with a small and funny quote. Here are few samples.

Ms. Gossip Monger – “I love imagining stuff which does not exist. It takes me away from the mundane realities of the world.”

Mr. Email Expert – “Born to spam others”

Mr. Netaji – “I love playing political games. I could not join the Indian government. So, here I am.”

Mr. White Liar –  “If lying was a job, I would be a billionaire.”

The Lovebirds – “ Do we come to office to work? I thought I came to meet him, and he came to meet me.”

Mr. Male Chauvinist – “The woman at work are killing our economies.”

The main tips are for you to read, ponder over, and apply. You will enjoy reading the book. 

The book runs to 197 pages and is available on Amazon India for Rs.210 now. The book is published by Jaico Publishing House. Disha is an alumni of IIM Calcutta and has worked with Paytm, Yatra, and Mentor Graphics. She is at present with Amazon India. You can write to her at dreamerdisha@gmail.com.

A sample funny final tip given for Mr. Busy -

Final Tip : When Nothing Else Works: Every time he writes an email at 2 am, set an auto-reply saying, " I am presently lost in dreams of you and will only be able to reply when I reach office." 

The Corporate Jungle by Seema Raghunath - Book Review

Read ‘The Corporate Jungle’ by Seema Raghunath.  She starts of the book with an introduction that clearly says corporate politics exists in all organizations. She asks us not to be naïve and not to think that if we are apolitical, others around us will also be apolitical. It would become like the story of the ostrich with its head in the sand and thinking the world is also blind.

As she has called the book ‘The Corporate Jungle’, she talks about nine character types in offices and maps each with the name of an animal.  So she talks about Lions, Bears, Cats, Chameleons and more.  She starts of each type with a long list of bullet point characteristics about that type of animal/employee and later explains their behavior in detail. She also talks about nine political strategies followed to reduce and destroy people.

Say for example, the Lions abhor camps and won’t stoop to make godfathers. They rely on their merit and want to be king of small kingdoms. The Bear who is highly intelligent and loudmouthed and doesn’t mince words while talking to someone. The Bears burn all bridges without any care.  The under qualified and under-skilled Suckerfish who attaches them to a speedy shark in office. The timid Morphs who think a hundred times before voicing their opinions. The aggressive Jaguars who have the deadly combination of courage and charisma.

While talking about the weak Cats, she quotes a few lines that show how a cat is unlike other smart animals. This almost sums up how people fall for political ploys and how smart people behave. “The Cat is not the smart Lion who can see through people and their motives to plan course correction way ahead. They fall into traps all the time, eventually ending up complaining, whining and bickering about their luck, time, bosses, work, and just about anything that happens in life. Cats make bad judgements. They take things at face value, believing what people say. Smart people judge or assess people or situations based on a thorough study of facts collected from various sources: from meetings, conversations, reviews, reports, and networking. Smart people also read people, read between lines, connect the dots and heighten intuition to arrive at what they sense. This does not come easy for cats. They find it hard to fathom the sublime. They don’t go looking for patterns or changes in people and environment. Their predictive indexing is therefore poor, which is why they find themselves in tough spots. They end up doing things no one else wanted to do, roles that were redundant.”

Seema introduces a political strategy in between the animal types. There is the mustard gas strategy that includes running a co-worker down, harming his image by spreading canards, exaggerated version of events, conversations and situations, twisting facts and misrepresenting small disagreements. There are more strategies like the Lip Service Strategy and Isolation strategy. Seema reiterates the fact seen in many books that the protagonist of ill will, denies and never agrees to any participation in a political strategy. So confront them with facts.

The book speaks to your heart and to your mind. The language is lucid and clear. Seema has been an executive coach and HR consultant with around 20 years of work experience. On the personal front she overcame the gloom of dyslexia with her writing. She blogs at collegeoflifelessons.com The book will be a good guide for fresh as well as experienced employees to be aware of the various negative undercurrents in an organization. The book has 207 pages and at present costs Rs. 227 on Amazon India.  

Fade into Red Book by Reshma Barshikar - Character Interview for Book Tour

Fade into Red is a book about an investment banker Ayra who goes to Tuscany, Italy to settle a wine business for her client. She is engaged to her childhood sweetheart Karthik. But she is very busy with her work. Who she meets in Italy, details of wine business, and how she struggles to maintain a work-life balance is the story. I have quizzed the author Reshma about the characters in her book and she has come out with intelligent and soul-searching answers. Here we go...

1. Were all the characters in the book gathered from your real-time experiences or were they fictional?

I think most my characters were an amalgamation of people’s characteristics. Kartik’s looks were completely inspired by Sendhil Ramamurthy (Heroes) and I always thought of Ayra as an Indian Amelie. Ishaan and Celio were built around certain character traits and a feeling I got when I thought of them. I always saw Celio standing at the top of a hill, proud with windswept hair. Narina is a product of two of my closest girl friends. Sandeep and Vikram were my favorite to create and are very much inspired by Bollywood. Their physicality was especially fun to work with.

2. You have portrayed Ayra as a girl who is always tempted to give precedence to career over family. Why have you portrayed her that way?

Investment Banking is hard on your personal life. I don’t think Ayra ever consciously chooses work over family but that’s how it ends up because you tend to take your family and friends for granted- the problems of unconditional love, as work always seems more urgent and much more conditional. I honestly don’t believe anyone ever consciously chooses work over family.

Reshma Barshikar, Author

 3. Karthik is an ideal and romantic guy. But he is not able to keep Ayra hooked. Why is it so?

Great question! I don’t think Ayra, or I for that matter, know the answer to that question. While it was clichéd, I wanted to address this constant friction between passion and security. They say nice guys finish last but if you wait till the last page of the story you’ll find that’s often not the case. I find it interesting that a lot of people think Karthik is ideal. He’s not perfect either; he is sometimes insecure and unhappy but something changes when he finds his way and emerges as someone everyone wants to love.

4. Which character in the book did you spend most time in developing or made an effort to evolve? Why?

Needless to say, I initially spent a lot of time on developing Ayra but she pretty much created herself as the story developed and she surprised me towards the end. Sandeep and Vikram were the most fun to write. Ishaan was hard to pin down primarily because we only see him only from Ayra’s perspective and her perspective is clouded when it comes to him. So his unpredictability and indignation might seem extreme to her while being quite normal to others.  And I wanted that irritation to come through which I think it did because a lot of readers identified with her and really didn’t understand him despite finding him terribly attractive.

5. Have you met wine experts like Celio? Were they any different from people in other professions?

I read a lot of books and met a few vintners. I think they are no different to anyone else who loves their work with a passion and intensity, almost to a fault; it begins to define them. The vintners I met are proud of their heritage and derive great pleasure in making good wine; many of them think it’s almost magical. 

Destination Work - Book Review

'Destination: Work' is the mantra at ValuFirst, an international airline that makes huge profits. The employees wear 'Thank God It's Monday' (TGIM) badges. And are very happy and finish their jobs quickly.

Biz Trenz is another company in direct customer service, but is running on loss. Nancy is a common friend of both companies. She is curious to know why ValuFirst was experiencing seamless excellence and why Biz Trenz was going down the dumps.

She goes on a field trip to ValuFirst and finds out that managers work along with and help subordinates on the floor, they celebrate small successes to energize them for the next goal. The managers are genuinely interested in their staff, and the senior management speaks with all employees whenever they get a chance.

Compared to this fun style of management at ValuFirst, Biz Trenz is run by fear and follows 'Management by Numbers' program. Profit and bottomline are the sole focus of managers and people are just pawns in achieving targets. How Nancy transforms Biz Trenz using the 'Destination: Work' program of ValuFirst is the story of the book.

Very well written, the book has lot of examples. There is the story of three cats that need to be led to a kitchen. Initially, the focus is on 'your needs' and so you shoo, shoo the cats with a stick. Two cats run in  two different directions and one cat stays put on the cushion. Instead if you focus on 'their needs' and attract them with their favorite food bar, all three come running to the kitchen. But make sure you don't cheat them and give them their due. Else, they wont 'come' the next time ;)

A nice read, the book has 117 pages and costs Rs. 150. 

Who Killed Change by Ken Blanchard - Book Review

Agent McNally is the detective who investigates the death of Change in an organization ACME. In the course of finding out the killers, he interviews Peter Performance Management, Bailey Budget, Victoria Vision, Aidan Accountability, Clair Communication, Terry the Trainer and many other suspects.

MCNally finds out that Clair Communication has laryngitis and so cannot speak often. She also does not wear her hearing aid and so does not listen well. Victoria Vision wears rose-colored glasses and has a rosy view of things to come. One another person has a hefty upper body but skinny lower limbs. McNally compares such physical inequities with management messes. The upper body is similar to broad strategies and the skinny limbs are similar to the weak tactics that are not followed up or accounted for!

A SuperCop employee is one who opposes any change with a tag line, "We never ever did it that way."  Reprimand is always ready to find faults and point out mistakes of others. A Hypocrite will always say, "We will do it" and continue his/her own plan. 

The book is a simple read and does not offer any exotic or out of the world ideas. However, the idea of choosing people as characters of management functions and comparing their behaviour and physical attributes to management activities is interesting. The book can be a non-detail book for management graduates.

It's How Good You Want To Be by Paul Arden

Recently, I visited the Oxford bookstore in Chennai and enjoyed the ambiance of the reading lounge attached to a mini coffee shop. I picked up the book by Paul Arden as I had a hot blueberry muffin. I loved the book. And the marketing strategy worked and I bought the book too. I have listed interesting insights from the book.

-It's not how good you are, but how good you want to be. Spice Girl Victoria Beckham's ambition was not to become a world famous singer but a world famous brand. Her benchmark was Persil Automatic, the world famous washing powder. Even though she was a singer, she did not set other singers like Madonna or George Michael as her benchmark.
-All creative people need something to rebel against, it's what gives their lives excitement. And it's creative people who make the client's life exciting. Creative people strive for excellence where mediocrity is needed and they do it for themselves.
-Energy is 75% of the job. If you haven't got it, be nice.
-Do not covet your ideas. Give away everything you know, and more will come back to you.

-Ideas are open knowledge. Don't claim ownership.
-Avoid knocking the competition. It usually serves to publicize them rather than you. It may win attention, it may win awards, but the likelihood is that it won't win sales. Criticizing is also much easier to do.
-Experience is built from solutions to old situations and problems. The old situations are probably different from the present ones, so that old solutions will have to be bent to fit new problems (and possibly fit badly). So, you become lazy and stop thinking. Experience is the opposite of being creative.
-If you can't solve a problem, it is because you are playing by the rules. Theatre director Joan Littlewood said, “If we don't get lost, we'll never find a new route.”
-An organization's reputation is built on one or two key people and key accounts. Try to be that key person and involve in the key account.
-Do not put your best people on new business pitches. The most respected creative people will probably do something too controversial to be acceptable to a conservative group of clients at your meeting. Put the people who consistently get the agency out of trouble on it. Their work may not be as dazzling, but it will be intelligent and the client will relate to the idea better.
-Don't give a speech. Put on a show. Instead of giving people the benefit of your wit and wisdom (words), try painting them a picture. The more strikingly visual your presentation is, the more people will remember it and you too.
-Don't promise what you cannot deliver. Do not over promise in your enthusiasm for creation. Instead, undersell and create a trusting relationship with the client by delivering before deadline.
-It's not what you know, it's who you know. Do not be afraid to work with the best. The best can be intimidating, but they respond positively if you prove your good intentions.
-If you are involved in something that goes wrong, never blame others. Blame no one but yourself. Say, “It's all my fault.”
-Present whatever you want on a Tuesday. On Tuesdays, the client or an employee feels great about meetings, people, and work.