DISCOVERING THE NICHE MARKET - REVIEW OF CHRIS ANDERSON'S "THE LONG TAIL"

Chris Anderson was the editor of Wired Magazine until 2012. Now he is cofounder and CEO of 3D Robotics, a company producing drones. His book The Long Tail: How Endless Choice is Creating Unlimited Demand (Updated and Expanded Edition, 2009) was shortlisted for the 2006 Financial Times and Goldman Sachs Business Book of the Year Award.

THE FOUNDING OF FACEBOOK - REVIEW OF DAVID KIRKPATRICK'S "THE FACEBOOK EFFECT"

I first came to know about Facebook in early 2011 through my students at the university where I teach. I found that they were sharing my class notes and assignment questions on Facebook which was intriguing to me. I wished to know if it was deemed appropriate and "respectable" for a faculty member to be active on Facebook.

A CITADEL FOR SCIENTIFIC RESEARCH - REVIEW OF JON GERTNER'S "THE IDEA FACTORY"

Journalist Jon Gertner has provided a meticulously detailed look at research in one of the world's best incubators of invention in his book The Idea Factory: Bell Labs and the Great Age of American Innovation (2012).

Bell Labs was set up in the 1920s as the research and development wing of AT&T. While a lot of routine development was carried out at Bell Labs to make telephony convenient and affordable, it was also a hub that catalyzed research that ushered in the electronic age.

CAPITALISM REBOOTED - REVIEW OF MACKEY AND SISODIA'S "CONSCIOUS CAPITALISM"

In 1970, the Nobel Prize-winning economist Milton Friedman wrote an essay in the New York Times entitled "The Social Responsibility of Business Is to Increase Its Profits". In this article Friedman criticized businessmen who make employees, communities and the environment their concern. He said, "Businessmen that take seriously their responsibilities for providing employment, eliminating discrimination, avoiding pollution...are preaching pure and unadulterated socialism."

TEN YEARS FROM NOW - REVIEW OF ALEC ROSS'S "INDUSTRIES OF THE FUTURE"

In his book Industries of the Future: How the Next 10 Years of Innovation will Transform Our Lives at Work and Home (2016), innovation expert Alec Ross provides a future vision not just of the industries but of the entire digital age.

Ross takes a look at the industries which will dominate a decade from now - robotics, advanced life sciences, the "code-fication of money", cybersecurity and big data. He believes that all these data-driven industries will play a major role in the evolving Information Revolution.

THE FUTURE OF JOBS - REVIEW OF MARTIN FORD'S "THE RISE OF THE ROBOTS"

This is possibly the scariest non-fiction book I've ever read. Martin Ford's The Rise of the Robots: Technology and the Threat of Mass Unemployment (2015) won the FT-McKinsey & Company Business Book of the Year 2015 Award (until 2013 called the FT-Goldman Sachs Business Book of the Year Award). It talks of how businesses are automating jobs right, left and centre causing unemployment in the millions.

SURVIVING THE FUTURE - REVIEW OF ROBERT T KIYOSAKI'S "SECOND CHANCE"

In Second Chance: For Your Money, Your Life and Our World (2015), Robert T Kiyosaki of Rich Dad, Poor Dad (1997) fame takes a look at how the world has changed after the 2008 crisis.

Kiyosaki reiterates what he has consistently stated in all of his other books: the rich do not work for money, they work to build assets that yield cash flows that endure whether they continue to work or not. In Rich Dad, Poor Dad , Kiyosaki had made some controversial claims: "Your house is not an asset" and "Savers are losers". These claims got validated when the housing market collapsed in the US in the Great Recession and the Fed responded by slashing interest rates to zero.

MAN WITH A MISSION - REVIEW OF ASHLEE VANCE'S "ELON MUSK"

Meet Elon Musk. The man behind SpaceX, Tesla Motors and SolarCity. SpaceX is a company that makes rockets and sends them into space. Tesla is a company that makes electric cars. And SolarCity makes solar cells.

I was flabbergasted by Elon Musk's audacity as portrayed in Ashlee Vance's Elon Musk: How the Billionaire CEO of SpaceX and Tesla is Shaping Our Future (2015). Musk is a man on a mission. He wants to save humanity from self-destruction and extinction. He wants to reverse global warming. He wants to establish human colonies in Mars.

AMAZING AMAZON - REVIEW OF BRAD STONE'S "THE EVERYTHING STORE"

Brad Stone's The Everything Store: Jeff Bezos and the Age of Amazon (2013) won the 2013 Financial Times and Goldman Sachs Business Book of the Year Award which is a superlative achievement. This book, however, is not like other FT-Goldman Sachs award winners such as Raghuram Rajan's Fault Lines (2010) or Abhijit Banerjee and Esther Duflo's Poor Economics (2011) which were more formal and academic. Stone's book reads more like a popular yarn, something that Walter Isaacson would be proud to write.

GOING THROUGH THE LETTERS - REVIEW OF LAWRENCE A CUNNINGHAM'S "THE ESSAYS OF WARREN BUFFETT"

It was with some trepidation that I picked up Lawrence A Cunningham's The Essays of Warren Buffett: Lessons for Investors and Managers (3rd Ed. 2009). I had heard that the book was mainly a collection of excerpts from Berkshire Hathaway annual reports and I usually find annual reports dry and monotonous.

MANAGING IN INDIA - REVIEW OF RAVI VENKATESAN'S "CONQUERING THE CHAOS"

Ravi Venkatesan's Conquering the Chaos (2013) is written with Western CEOs in mind but I found it an easy read and it was somewhat reminiscent of C. K. Prahalad's The Fortune at the Bottom of the Pyramid (2004) (and indeed, Venkatesan does talk of straddling the pyramid).

SHODDY MANUFACTURING – REVIEW OF PAUL MIDLER’S “POORLY MADE IN CHINA”

Yet another book on China. While Richard McGregor’s The Party (2012) was a criticism of the Communist rulers of China (see review here), Paul Midler’s Poorly Made in China: An Insider’s Account of the China Production Game (Rev. Ed., 2011) is about the duplicity of Chinese entrepreneurs.

STATE CONTROL IN CHINA – REVIEW OF RICHARD MCGREGOR’S “THE PARTY”

An alternate title I contemplated for this post was: “China refuses to grow up.” By this I mean China cannot quite grapple with the legacy of Mao or come to terms with civil change and a pro-democratic outlook. China is doomed to fabricate lies and dress them up as history, attempting to suppress dissent at all times.

DISRUPTIVE VISIONS – REVIEW OF FRED VOGELSTEIN’S “DOGFIGHT”

I bought my first smartphone last year – a Samsung model. Until then I was using a Nokia featurephone. Little did I realize while buying the smartphone, that it had taken a bloodless revolution to come up with the gadget I was holding in my palm. This is the topic of Fred Vogelstein’s Dogfight: How Apple and Google Went to War and Started a Revolution (2013).

THE OIL BEHEMOTH – REVIEW OF STEVE COLL’S “PRIVATE EMPIRE”

Two-time Pulitzer winner Steve Coll has written a goldmine of a book called Private Empire: ExxonMobil and American Power (2012). Indeed this book has bagged the prestigious FT/Goldman Sachs Business Book of the Year Award for 2012.

SMALL TOWN WONDERS – REVIEW OF RASHMI BANSAL’S “TAKE ME HOME”

Stay Hungry Stay Foolish (2008) was about entrepreneurs with an MBA from IIM-Ahmedabad. Connect the Dots (2010) was about entrepreneurs without an MBA. I Have A Dream (2011) was about social entrepreneurs. Now Rashmi Bansal is out with a new book Take Me Home (2014) about entrepreneurs who have built global enterprises in the small towns of India.