Chetan Bhagat’s pens another ‘unputdownable’ book in the genre of
of his earlier two new novels. It has all the ingredients that has
endeadered him to his readers–humor, friends, first love, first sex,etc.
Only this time, he choses a bigger canvass and he succeeds to a large
extent.

The book takes us through the journey of three friends in Ahmedabad,
set against the earthquake, the communal riots and the historic
India-Australia cricket series. Chetan while using them as the background
uses the incidents as plot points as well and steers the story around
them.

However, somewhere down the line you get a feeling that Chetan
had Bollywood in mind:) Specially when the story turns violent
during the communal riots and the story threads hurry towards
a resolution, you can’t escape the Bollywood hangover.

Ovearll, if you overlook a few mistakes(anachronisms),
Chetan’s 3 mistakes is a good read.

“The Leadership Pipeline: How to Build the Leadership Powered Company by Ram Charan, Stephen Drotter, James Noel”.

This book gives a detailed account on

1. The six transitions we have to make as we move up the leadership pipeline
a. from managing yourself to managing others
b. from managing others to managing managers
c. from managing managers to functional managing
d. from functional managing to business managing
e. from business managing to group managing
f. from group managing to enterprise managing.

2. The threshold that is defined at each level as a set of skills, time applications and values.

3. The importance and the definition of ‘let go’ required for each transition

4. The ‘pipeline clogging’ that happens when there is an unsuccessful transition.

5. Various scenarios of ‘pipeline clogging’ and the associated symptoms/smoke signals.

While the book deals mostly at the organization level, there are
takeaways for individuals as well.

For instance, you could use the book to lay out the
skills, time applications and work values at the possible
leadership levels you have passed through or wish you
would pass through in the next few years, and create
your set. This will serve as a great guide as you move
up the career path. Likewise, if you had missed certain
transitions during your career climb, you could make a
conscious effort to pick those skills or understand the
time applications/work values.

Finally, the book also presents a broad framework for performance
management, with this neat classification of results excepted
from the leaders.

Defining Performance Standards

Broad Range of results

 

Operating Results(revenues, costs, profits)

 

Customer Results (acuisition, retention, penetration, satisfaction)

 

Leadership Results (setting direction,communicating, developing people,

 

setting standards)

 

Management Results (control, quality, timeliness)

 

Relationships (working relationships, teamplay, internal and external,

 

business and government)

 

Social Responsibility (doing right by the community, government and

 

environment)

 

Individual technical competence (those part of the work that only

 

you should do)

“The Leadership Pipeline” is a great book and a must read. The
concepts presented can be customized to any organization and the
case studies will sure help in putting together the material required
for designing the leadership pipeline framework.

Related links
Satyam Way and Leadership Pipeline

“The Appeal” is the latest from John Grisham’s stable and his 20th novel.

Unlike his other books “The Appeal” doesn’t jam onto one character so
much as its characters run a relay race of a plot, passing the baton
as the story progresses.And, for a change it is not about racism,
even though it is set in the South.Instead it is about a giant chemical
company which is making money at the cost of human lives.

The novel though starts off like a David win againt Goliath, for unknown
reasons traces the reversal of fortune. Rich guy makes more money
at the last, while the crusading lawyers find themselves bankrupt.
You are likely to remember movies like ‘The Civil Action’ and
‘Erin Brockovich’.

Though slow paced at times, the novel is a good read, specially
if you areinterested in how Supreme Court judges are elected.
Infact, it offers a great primer on campaign management:)