The best Friend

Very often I have come across this saying that books are your best friends which can never leave your side and will always entertain you when you have no one to take care of your entertainment. It is with a noble help of books that you enrich your knowledge so much that you may personally don’t have to witness the situation. It is by the means of books that teaches you be good, to fly, to reach atop Mount Everest, to conquer the fiercest battle, to converse in different languages, to dive in the deepest ocean, to be a detective or a criminal, to cook the most exotic dish and what not.

I have always been fond of reading books and continue to do so whenever I sneak away with sometime. It enriches my mind and freshens me. Reading books as much as possible is the only action that I have always advised my friends or keens. One of the best book that I have come across and would recommend everyone to read, especially who would want to make a career in corporate world is “Ten commandments of Business Failure”  by Donald Keugh, ex CEO of the Coca Cola company.

There are many reasons why this book required a recommendation. Firstly, though the book is related to business world, it is so lucid that even a person who is not related to business world even remotely would enjoy the journey of reading

Secondly as Mr. Keugh who spent more than three decades in Coca Cola shares his insights and experience as how he saw better times as well as challenging moments. He explains very profoundly about the mistakes people do when they are in to a business, be it large or small.

Thirdly, all the commandments with examples that he shares are so precise and accurate that the moment we read those anecdotes gives a clear pictures as to what reason brought catastrophe for one company and success to the other. For eg. “don’t take risk” approach , “playing close to foul line” mindset, “putting all the faith in external consultant” behavior  all results in to the doom of companies. In order to succeed one has to be bold enough to take risks in business. Xerox once took risk of hiring a scientist whose idea was discarded by others, it succeeded. It then stopped taking risk, and now it is just an another photocopying company. Many companies try fiddling with law. They may get initial successes but in the long run they cannot befool others.

Fourthly, not only can his insights be applied to the industries and business but also to our day to day way of life. For e.g. in one of the commandments he speaks about being inflexible. This brought many established companies in USA (Republican steel, Allavista)  to bite the dust and some to face dire situations like Ford and IBM. Being inflexible harms even a common man. Assuming infallibility, isolating oneself, being afraid of future  are some other commandments that he shares that basically relates to business failure but it has effect on our personal life too if we follow these principles.  

I have always admired this book and whenever I find myself lost in my professional dilemmas I refer this books and imagine what Donald must have done now. Even if I don’t get the answer, I just get the positive feeling about the task enshrined upon me.