The New Rules Of Business : Strawberry Krishna Reads

Our Pick Up Line : You take care of the employees, they take care of the customers and your business!

Human beings are story tellers! Rather than processing abstract information, human brains are perfectly evolved to tell and listen to stories. The author Rajesh has deftly exploited this affinity in human nature to deliver a set of rules for business under the ever changing environment. This style of writing has created a book which is very easy, breezy to read. But the same strength also manifests as a borrowed style of narration. Along the way he has asked himself certain pertinent questions which also bubble up in the reader’s mind and he has answered them himself!

When business glides smoothly, none thinks of seeking a reference of business principles. Only when they hit an obstacle, or in the middle of crossroads, instead of getting carried away by the heat of the moment, wisdom dictates to adopt the principles. It is at such times a ready-reckoner of the principles currently valid for the contemporary times comes in handy and Rajesh has done a good job of it perhaps because he had this in mind as the purpose for writing this book.

If one conducts thought experiments with the ideas in this book, for example, the customers are God and worth of being worshipped, we have come across innumerable real life examples of businesses thriving by excellent customer satisfaction and many , especially in the public sector, being wound up due to negative customer care!

Unlike the books of Jack Welch, Lee Iacocca or Richard Branson this book is not about a new trail blazing business breakthrough, but a compendium of paradigm shifting business practices popularized by business prophets. The philosophy of Rajesh can be summed up as ‘ listen to the masters’ and he seems to have compiled such wisdom and followed it in his distinguished career, and has ventured to pass the accumulation of this for the benefit of other business executives too!

He is quite persuasive and reels off story after story to drive home his points, to become ambassador of the customer, not for the company only, creating a super cool brand and worshiping customer as God! The chapters on communications and fun workplace are practices in vogue for quite sometime. The chapters on creating super cool brand and being admired leader are value added versions of trends existing in some form.

Worshipping customers as Gods, transforming employees and customers into ambassadors and nudging are sensible insights which are sure to work except that this ideological track puts the entire burden of creating heaven on earth on the manager, making one to wonder if we have to do everything what are others here for?!

Embracing omnichannels, disrupting your business yourself, delivering delightful experiences instead of mere products or services, creating sales consultants, better before cheaper, revenue before cost and pivoting are bright strategies which are sure to stand the businesses adopting them in good stead! In reality even the best of the organizations are plunged in internal turmoil and external tsunamis that at any time can submerge them without a trace!

The most important strength of the book is it’s fast and easy pace which makes it read like a thriller and the weakness is it’s dealing with a best case scenario of the business world! All said and done, great compliments are due for the author for writing a very entertaining, fast paced book for business, which is a unique admirable talent!