Why the West Rules for Now – A Summary
Why the West Rules for Now
Précis of Ian Morris’s book
Archaeologist Ian Morris’s book ‘Why the West Rules for Now’ takes a look at over 15 000 years of history to offer fresh insights into why development differed in the East and West and what the future will bring. It looks at the patterns of history to see what they reveal about the future. All his findings are based totally on archaeological digs that have been discovered and dated back to different time periods in history.
Employees First, Customers Second – A Summary of Vineet Nayar’s Book
In the spring of 2005, after being at the head of HCL Technologies (HCLT) for just a short time, Vineet Nayar realised that the company was in trouble. It was one of the five major IT services companies in India with thirty thousand employees, operations in 18 countries, revenue of about $700‐million and a healthy annual growth rate of about 30% over the previous 5 years. However, it was growing more slowly than the market leaders in its industry and slower than its immediate rivals, losing market share and falling behind in mindshare too.
The book ‘Employees First, Customers Second’ tells the story of how HCLT – now a company of 55 000 people and around $2,5‐billion in revenues – made the decision to change and how its transformation was accomplished through the unique approach of Employees First, Customers Second (EFCS).
Heroic Leadership – A Brief Summary
After living for seven years as a Jesuit seminarian, practicing vows of poverty, chastity and obedience to the Jesuit general in Rome, Chris Lowney was transformed into a corporate man as an investment banker at JP Morgan. Lowney’s years in business revealed that leadership challenges, especially how to recruit and mould leadership in your company’s teams, is a universal corporate challenge faced by all companies around the world and throughout time. He realised that the super smart, ambitious and strong willed recruits at JP Morgan didn’t always translate into long-term successes at the firm. Lowney noticed that many up-and-comers with raw talent and sheer ambition, either were terrified of making major decisions, or terrorised anyone who dared make a decision without them. Some were good at managing only numbers and not human beings and most were uncomfortable with change and taking personal risks.
5 Minds for the Future – A Brief Summary
In his book, ‘5 Minds for the Future’ Howard Gardner concerns himself with the kinds of minds that people will need if we are to thrive in the world during the eras to come. Also, in the inter-connected world in which the majority of human beings now live we need to identify the kinds of minds that should be developed in the future for the greater good of our society as a whole.
The 5 Minds for the Future identified by Gardner refer to 5 characteristics of the mind that Gardner suggests each person should aim to develop. While each person will not be able to develop them all in equal measure, we should aim to develop aspects of them all for the balance of mind needed for the future…
Strategic Intuition – A Brief Summary
Have you ever wondered how some people come up with their great ideas, and wished you knew how to do the same? William Duggan’s book, ‘Strategic Intuition’ is about the discipline of great idea formulation and how creativity and rational thinking combine in the mind to achieve this. The aim of his work is to help understand how great ideas are formed, so that we can learn how to practice these techniques and come up with great ideas ourselves. As Duggan points out “Strategic intuition puts leaps of human achievement within the grasp of all human beings “
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