Review: After Steve by Tripp Mickle

After Steve

I have not read any books yet on Apple or on Steve Jobs. Back in 2007, I had come across the book by Wozniak and it was quite a hit. But I never ended up reading it. I have used many Apple products and most of them are quite good and well made. Their design and aesthetics is what surely stands out. And the bulk of that credit goes to Jonathan Ive. He had successfuly delivered breakaway products like iMacs, iPods, iPhones, iPads, and Apple Watch amongst others.

The book is well written and chronicles how, after Steve Jobs death in 2011, Tim Cook took over as the CEO and slowly the creative soul of the organization died and got taken over by people focused on finance, accounting, efficiency, and operations, rather than design, creativity, and bringing iconoclast products.

With Jobs gone, Ive fought it out for a long time, but finally exited Apple and found his own design firm.

I would highly recommend this book for it details many internal power struggles within Apple one may not have heard of. Also the author has painstakingly given a detailed background of the main characters, Ive, Cook and few others, and built up a well woven narrative. But hasn’t made it so detailed that it becomes boring. Those backgrounds were necessary to understand why those power clashes were taking place in the first place: because each person had a different rooting and a mindset to look at things.

I would suggest this book to not only Apple fans but also to business students because one gets to know how success is not a result of just hard work, but also of support, luck, and fighting it out. It goes without saying that since so many years, Apple’s phones have been launched with minimal changes and negligent upgrades. There was something magical about Ive and his design process which made the products irresistable. Though, one big learning for everyone from this book surely is: never buy the latest launched product, because it is always launched with missing features, manufacturing deadlines, and unhappy teams, and software bugs.

A must read in all ways!

Review: An Incomplete Life by Vijaypat Singhania

An Incomplete Life

My only reason for buying this book was the hype created around Mr Singhania writing about how he was throw out of his own house by his son Gautam Singhania, after the former had signed over everything to the latter. I was waiting for those juicy details which never came. I wanted a sneak peek into the family feuds of billionaires. I got very little of it through this book.

The Singhanias have been an enterprising lot and have made themselves rich and famous since more than half a century. Raymond brand is one fo the strongest and well known brands of India. They have many other business interests as well.

Mr Singhania recalls his childhood and growing up years in the first few chapters, and how the large extended family stuck together, more or less, through tough times which is quite touching for nowadays families have shrunk in size. He also recalls his various affairs he had over the years with various women while still being married to his wife. What a hypocrite!

However his writing is most passionate when he writes about his flying adventures and breaking three world records. He definitely is a braveheart! He does gives few tips in the end on how not to give away everything to children for one may end up on the streets without a penny in pocket.

This book turned out more of a personal story rather than a business book.

Review: The Biography of a Failed Venture by Prashant Desai

D:FY, where art thou?

I had never heard of the brand called D:FY. Maybe because I was not in India when it was launched. Or maybe because I had no interest in sports shoe brands and running shoes back then. Or, as Prashant himself mentioned, “multi sport” shoes. This was the first time I came across a term called “multi sport”. Whenever I have searched for shoes on Amazon or Google, it is for “sports shoes”, or “running shoes”, or “vegan shoes”, or “football shoes” (just for the looks and not for playing) or “hiking shoes”. I have never searched for “multi sport” shoes. What does it even mean? Can I play football and cricket and tennis and go for running as well in the same shoe? And go for hiking as well? And this is one of the many reasons Prashant lists for the failure of marketing of his brand D:FY on Amazon.

I had never heard of Prashant before I picked up this book. He has accomplished what many of us can’t even think about. He was worked with the likes of Kishore Biyani and Rakesh Jhunjhunwala and many others. This is an honest, down-to-earth, no holds barred book about how he rose from an average studen to a nationwide rank holder in multiple accounting exams, and then become a stock picker (amongst other roles) at various firms and finally settled in Mumbai. He made multiple of crores but his hunger for more money led him to launch D:FY sports shoe brand, with the thinking being that there is nothing in India in the range of around 4000/- rupees for the average Indian buyer.

He writes in detail about how he went about pitching it to various people and investors across the board, got shoe designers from US to work for his shoes, got vendors from China, met the marketing agencies, and the Amazon and Flipkart/Myntra heads for a marketing deal, Farhan Akhtar and Ritesh S. for a stake, and so on and so forth.

Reading this book, one wonders about the amount of effort and sleepless nights an entrepreneur has to spend working on his business. The unforeseen challenges that seem to attack from all sides, and the checks and balances of luck often deserting you at the wrong time. We mostly hear of entrepreneurs on how they have secured Series A, B, C funding, how their valuations are in billions of dollars, how MAU and DAU metrics are in their favor for a sellout, but never do we hear from an entrepreneur who failed. Because they don’t want to share their sob story.

Prashant has been woefully and delightfully honest (and often brutally so) in this book about his own experiences and his learnings during this entrepreneurial journey. He lost more than 30 crore rupees of his personal wealth during the 2-3 years of D:FY and this book should be read by everyone who only looks at the successes of Zerodha, Nykaa, PayTM, Flipkart and others. For every venture that succeeds, I am sure there are hundreds of others which fail and never take off.

A highly recommended book for all general readers; there is not a single dull moment in this book!