The Billionaires Apprentice: The Rise of the Indian - American Elite and the Fall of the Galleon Hedge Fund
Anita Raghavan
(Hachette, Rs. 499)
One of the biggest scams to rock the business world was the arrest of Raj Rajaratnam, a Sri Lankan billionaire, following charges of insider trading, and the collapse of his company, Galleon Group. But even more shocking was the involvement of Indian businessman, Rajat Kumar Gupta, considered Rajaratnam’s accomplice and mole.
This thriller-styled tale is set against that backdrop. Born in Kolkata and orphaned at 15, Gupta blazed a trail from Delhi’s IIT through Harvard Business School to the inner sanctum of corporate America, serving on the boards of Goldman Sachs, American Airlines, and Procter & Gamble. In a story that moves from Manhattan to Kolkata, Anita Raghavan takes the reader behind the scenes as Gupta is drawn into Rajaratnam’s web of insiders. This book chronicles how a dogged team of SEC officials, federal prosecutors, and FBI agents discovers and prosecutes the biggest insider trading case of this generation.
Dhandha: How Gujaratis Do Business
Shobha Bondre; Translated By: Shalaka Walimbe
(Random Business, Rs. 199)
This is the life story of five Gujarati businessmen, who epitomise the spirit of entrepreneurship in the Gujarati community. Jaydev Patel is a New York Life Insurance agent credited with having sold policies worth $2.5 billion so far; Bhimjibhai Patel is one of the country’s biggest diamond merchants and co-founder of the ambitious ‘Diamond Nagar’ in Surat; Dalpatbhai Patel is a motelier who went on to become the mayor of Mansfield County; Mohanbhai Patel is a former Sheriff of Mumbai and the leading manufacturer of aluminium collapsible tubes; and Hersha and Hasu Shah own over a hundred hotels in the U.S.
The book moves across continents to track their story and discover what makes them tick and puts them under a single umbrella.
Simple: Conquering the Crisis of Complexity
Alan Siegel and Irene Etzkorn
(Random Business)
Simplicity is a complex issue. Authors Alan Siegel and Irene Etzkorn have, for decades, championed simplicity as a competitive advantage and a consumer right. Consulting with businesses and organisations around the world to streamline products, services, processes and communications, they have achieved dramatic results.
This book is a culmination of their work together, and here they show us how having empathy, striving for clarity, and distilling your message can reduce the distance between company and customer, hospital and patient, government and citizen, and increase your bottom line.
Examining the best and worst practices of organisations such as the IRS, Google, Trader Joe's, Chubb Insurance, and ING Direct, the authors recast simplicity as a mindset, a design aesthetic, and a writing technique.
