Faster, Smarter, Higher: Managing your Career by Utkarsh Rai

Title: Faster, Smarter, Higher: Managing your Career
Author: Utkarsh Rai
Publisher: Rupa Publications India
ISBN: 978-8129137500
Genre: Business
Pages: 199
Source: Publisher

Faster Smarter Higher: Managing your Career by Utkarsh Rai is the kind of book that of course you can race through but the idea is that you don’t. It is a book about managing your career after all and might I add that it isn’t one bit preachy. Thank God for that!
I am not the sort who reads business books or books such as these. However, this one caught my fancy and I am glad that I read it.

The book explores career and its paths not just by the virtue of hard work but more. What’s that more you ask? Is it something I possess? Is it something that is there in me? Oh yeah, sure it is, but it is all about finding that sweet spot to hone those skills – most importantly – managing key relationships at work, which is what this book is about.

“Faster Smarter Higher” is a go-to guide to what to actually do at work when it comes to interpersonal skills and how those skills will propel you forward on the ladder of success. At the same time, it is very lucid and structured. The book doesn’t confuse you and lets you think for yourself. What’s great is that there also insights from 51 business leaders on the same topic/s.

Utkarsh’s writing is easy and not complex. More than that it isn’t repetitive which it could have been given the topic. I liked the book overall. It was insightful in most places and did not seem rushed at all. A quick read but the one that you will keep thinking of a lot, because well, it has to do with your career after all.

The Innovators by Walter Isaacson

Title: The Innovators
Author: Walter Isaacson
Publisher: Simon and Schuster
ISBN: 9781471138799
Genre: Non-Fiction, Computers and Technology, Business and Investing,
Pages: 560
Source: Publisher
Rating: 4/5

I remember reading, “Steve Jobs” by Walter Isaacson with great trepidation. I thought I would get bored. I thought I would not be interested in it for long. I thought these things and a lot of other things before I invested time in the book. I loved the book at the end of it, so much so that I thought there was not any need to pick up anything on “Steve Jobs”, since this book was most comprehensive. Walter Isaacson does it again this time with “The Innovators”.

There have been countless books written on the digitized revolution and the Silicon Valley. Walter Isaacson’s book is different in the sense that he takes a complete look at the innovators, the geniuses, the hackers, and the geeks and what they did and did not do to get the revolution going. “The Innovators” is a book which looks at everything – right from the start, to the middle and the future of entrepreneurs and creative geniuses.

“The Innovators” tracks the stories from the 19th century – to Lovelace and Babbage to the Ethernet and Xerox, the Manhattan Project, Bill Gates, Steve Jobs of course and Steve Wozniak. He covers almost all of these people and how their creativity helped them harness not only their goals, but also the clear and visible difference brought in an entire culture of people.

The writing is crisp and easy to understand. There are parts that do drag but one can overlook them in the larger scheme of the theme and essence of the book. The book is written with the view point of ideas. That is the core and essence of the book. The people of course play a very important role, but it is the ideas that take center-stage in a book like this.

Mr. Isaacson tells the story of individuals with brilliant ideas. There is sometimes collaboration of people, sometimes when people work on their own and yet at the end of it all, the reader is left with more clarity on them and the various eras in which different ideas were shaped and formed. One can then use the cliché and say then that the book is “well-researched”. The layout and the hyper-narration at times is perfect. The systematic building of concepts only lends to the overall effect of the book.

At some point, I thought that maybe some people were not included which could have been and some which perhaps did not need inclusion. The narrative is very strong and maybe again why one can see why the author could not have included everyone in the book.

“The Innovators” is one of those books that also help us to some extent see what technology could mean in the future and its implications. Overall, I would say that even if you are not a technology buff the book will appeal to you only from the point of view of knowing more about these people and the ideas they thought of. I highly recommend this one.

Here is the video of Walter Isaacson speaking about the book: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3umNPsKUnzA

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Book Review: The Billionaire’s Apprentice by Anita Raghavan

Title: The Billionaire’s Apprentice: The Rise of the Indian-American and the Fall of the Galleon Hedge Fund
Author: Anita Raghavan
Publisher: Hachette India
ISBN: 9789350097366
Genre: Non-Fiction, Business
Pages: 512
Source: Publisher
Rating: 5/5

“The Billionaire’s Apprentice: The Rise of the Indian-American Elite and the Fall of the Galleon Hedge Fund” by Anita Raghavan reads as good as any thriller, so much so, that it actually makes you forget that it is non-fiction and actually happened. The way the story turns out and how it reached its end, is very difficult to write without making it sound boring. Raghavan on the other hand, takes it and turns it to a page-turner. On another level, the story that was on almost everyone’s mouth – the McKinsey and the Galleon Fund connection needed that kind of a voice to tell it intriguingly and with all honesty.

The book isn’t just about the fall of the Galleon Hedge fund or only about Rajat Gupta or Raj Rajaratnam or the insider trading that took place. It is also about South Asians and their will to make it big in the country of dreams – The United States of America. The sub-texts in the book are plenty, and Raghavan sure knows how to string them all together, without letting the main plot fall apart.

Rajaratnam clearly had a lot of connections. It is the way he used them, is what is fascinatingly told through this book. Why did Gupta, who was so revered and well-known, fall into this? Why did his protégé Anil Kumar become a part of this?

Anita’s writing is direct and to the point. The chapters alternate giving a more humane angle to each of the parties involved. She doesn’t glorify them nor does she show them as villains. What she does is some brilliant documentation of events and what led to them being played out. There is no mincing of words or any attempt to hide facts, as the case should be in a book of this nature. Anita does not take sides and yet gives the reader a complete view of things. The cultural conditioning aspects of the scandal are also brought out quite well and with great understanding – maybe that’s why the background of each character had to be told at the beginning of the book in alternating chapters.

“The Billionaire’s Apprentice” brings to light one of the biggest stories of our times in a well-researched manner. Nothing is missed out on. Every significant detail is mentioned and more so what works for the book the most is the humane side of things. A must read even for those who aren’t interested in business and market politics.