With 25 years of experience in advertising, founder member of Chlorophyll brand and communication consultancy Anand Halve has penned a book on "Planning for power Advertising ". How relevant is the subject material of this book, when the rules of advertising are being rewritten in a jiffy and much more, Anand shared, in conversation with Correspondent Nidhi Jain.

*Book different from other advertising books
Formatting and focus were two different things that made me write this book. Most of the books of yesteryears are outdated and they need to be refreshed. What we have is mainly from the US and UK market and are not applicable in the Indian context.

*Is it based on the experience you gathered or the outlook you have for the future
Today, in India there are more than 1,500 management schools. They are in dire need of knowledge on the constantly changing market landscape. Result: this book.

*Is it an extension of your talent or just a labour of love
Today when it comes to advertising, children are important decision makers, which didn't relevantly exist sometime back. The fundamentals remain intact, only examples change regularly. Anything which is learnt and taught needs to be revised after two years. For instance, today's most important subjects are sponsoring and events. To be a teacher, we have to become students to learn new trends.

*Book's inside
My book needs to be read sequentially i.e., step by step. The first couple of chapters are very important since it emphasises on the Indian market.

*Who can relate
Specialised businessmen, writers, economists.

*Research done
Two types -- firstly, theory should be visualized practically and secondly, by observing human emotions.

*Any other writing projects
A second edition of the same book with insertion of topics related to children and radio and also about observing new age Ads, plus observing and understanding human psychology.

*Your preference--fiction/non fiction
Business books and Hindustani and Urdu poetry.

*Favourite author
Woody Allen, Jack Welch.

A product of the Jamnalal Bajaj Institute of Management and the London School of Economics, Sita Laxmi Narayan Swamy, Senior vice president, network marketing, Zee Telefilms Ltd always lived life on her own terms. A multifaceted personality with keen interests in a variety of domains like art, painting, reading and writing, this lady is a pleasure to talk to. Her enthusiasm, zest for life and never-say-die attitude is contagious.

My tryst with books
Her tryst with books began when, tired of moving from one town to another due to her father's transferable army job, she went and complained to him that just when she was beginning to settle down in one place and make new friends... it was time to move and pick up the pieces of her life all over again. As a six-year-old, she went and cried to him, "This is not fair papa. Every two years we have to move and I spend so much time making friends, only to leave them behind. That's when her father picked up a book, handed it to her and said, "From today, this is going to be your best friend."

"I think I took him rather literally (thankfully)," she says.

And the rest as they say is history. Books have become an integral part of Zee Telefilms senior vice president network marketing Sita Laxmi Narayan Swami's life and she boasts of a mammoth collection... a passion which has been lovingly nurtured over the years.

As a child, when she was grounded by her parents for any mischief, they realised that barring her from meals or playing with friends didn't mean a thing to Sita. However, it didn't take them long to find her Achilles' heel --- "No books for you," her mother then began saying! And that worked!!!

"I really feel that books are a great way to travel to places that you've never been to. They are a great way to listen to points of views of people you may never meet. Books also help a person who wants to keep learning - not just management fundas - but about human nature and life. They really elevate and liberate you and actually make you evolve. For me, life would be a lot less enriching without books," she says with obvious passion.

Being in the media a common complaint heard is - "I don't get the time to read!" But for Sita that doesn't hold true... more so because she makes the time to read! "I don't have to push myself to do it. I want to find the time to read. So I can easily trade a Saturday night outing for a book," she says.

My favourite books

There are three books that have shaped her into the person she is today. The Little Prince by Antoine de Saint-Exup?ry. "It's about a little Prince who comes to Earth from a different planet. It's a story about him recounting his space-travelling experiences to a pilot he meets in the Sahara. It is also slightly metaphysical and spiritual as well in the sense that while he is talking about very real experiences, you keep reflecting and feeling that what was being said was so true about human beings as well," says Sita.

One line from the book that Sita has kept in her heart and lived by is - "'You can only see things clearly with your heart. What is essential is invisible to the eye". "It's very beautiful and profound but it's true. What is obvious is sometimes not as important as you think and one needs to take out time and the energy to look beyond the obvious even at a day-to-day level," says Sita.

The other book I really like is Mister God, This Is Anna written by Fynn. "It's a beautiful book about this little girl from the street who has miraculously entered this big household. It revolves around her thoughts and philosophies and how it changes their lives."

The third one, a best seller that almost everyone has read, is The Alchemist by Paulo Cohelo. "Having said that, I have also read a lot of Paulo Cohelo's lesser known books like Veronica Decides To Die and By The River Piedra, I Sat Down And Cried," she says.

"When growing up, you tend to read books like The Fountainhead and it does leave an impact on you," she adds.
 

Fancy books on Physics too

"I also tend to read a lot of books on Physics and science because I like to read a lot about time and space," she says. Books by Stephen Hawkins like A Brief History of Time and also some on philosophy like The Gift of Now by Susan Squellati Florence have also caught her fancy.

"I've also enjoyed reading The Tibetan Book of Living and Dying by Sogyal Rinpoche," she says.

Love for Literature and poetry

She also harbours a special love for literature and dotes on books by W Somerset Maugham, DH Lawrence and shorts stories by O Henry.

"Now this may come as a surprise and a lot of people don't know this but I also read a lot of poetry. My favourite poet is TS Elliot. Of course, in India authors like Vikram Seth, Amrita Pritam and Gluzar," says Sita.

"I could go on and on for more than three hours on this and I'm sure by the end of it I'll end up recommending some books to you!" she laughs.
 

Management books

"I don't like the term management books because it makes them sound boring but of the books I really liked are Life After The 30 Second Spot by Joseph Jaffe. I love Tom Peters especially his latest book Re-imagine! and I loved Freakonomics: A Rogue Economist Explores the Hidden Side of Everything by Steven D. Levitt and Stephen J. Dubner," she says.

Another book Sita enjoyed reading was Lovemarks: The Future Beyond Brands by Kevin Roberts and Business is Unusual by Anita Roddick, where the author talks about why she started Body Shop. "These books also go into corporate social responsibility. Of course you are creating products for the consumer and hoping to reap revenues out of it, but it delves into how you need to give back to the world, what you have got from it."

Her interest in books is surely a varied one. "In fact, when I go to a bookshop, the book calls out to me. I'm not much for reading reviews before buying the book. So most often I've read a book long before it has been declared a bestseller," she says.

Weekly itch to buy books
Sita frequently visits book stores since she feels the urge to buy books almost every week. "Every room in my house is filled with books. There isn't a nook or corner left in my house where books are not there since I possess many thousands of them," she says.

So if you want to catch Sita over the weekend, hit the bookstores and not some fancy club!

By Hetal Adesara

Zubin Driver, Head - Creative and Promos, TV18 Group tells us that his dad was an avid reader and he was the one who introduced Zubin to reading at a very early age.

"We have a big library at our ancestral home and our tastes in books are very similar. He had a huge collection of books in literature, fiction including many American and British authors, and even some on anthropology. My taste in books is very eclectic and I have a number of favourites."

Jorge Luis Borges is a great writer

My favourite author is a South American author Jorge Luis Borges. He worked as a librarian and specialises in short stories. Among my other favourites are French author and philosopher Albert Camus and Milan Kundera.

Camus' The Plague is a well written book on a plague epidemic in the Algerian city of Oran. It is a deep metaphor about the way we live and about people losing and gaining hope.

I find something interesting in every book

Personally, I've hardly found a book that does not interest me except for a stray few that might have put me off as the author made no effort to hold the reader's interest.

Self-help books are ridiculous

Self-help books are in itself a huge con deal. I find the concept very funny. Firstly, they are constantly trying to sell the idea that people are not good enough, so there is a huge pressure on people to buy their books.

According to me, it is bull shit! I don't read them at all and do not recommend them to anybody. In fact, I consider these books dangerous as they taint people's minds. For example, people with psychological problems should visit a doctor rather than reading self help books which end up making them feel even worse.

Earlier I used to spend a handsome amount on books

My passion for books have led me to build my collection. I have a thousand odd books at home. Earlier, I used to spend a handsome amount on books, but now I have cut down on it. I literally have to be pulled out of a book or music store to resist the urge to pick up more. However, I do pick up books when I travel and manage to finish them in a day.

I read four to five books at a time

At present, I am reading a really weird book called, Die Blendung (Auto-da-F?) by a Bulgarian author - Canetti. Though bizarre, it has been written quite well by this unknown writer.

I read at least four to five books at a time. I keep jumping from one book to another and a serious book takes ages for me to complete. Paperbacks, on the other hand, are a fast read. I'm like an owl as I mostly read at night after 10:30 pm.

It took me almost two years to complete my first book

Currently, I am occupied putting together a book of short stories. The book is all about what happens in people's minds, their thought processes and dreams. It is more on the psychological side and not quite a narrative.

The title of the book is still undecided. I have been working on this book for the last two years and haven't spoken much about it. Hoping to publish it soon, the book is extremely important and close to my heart.

About the Author - Dr. Nalini Rajan is associate professor at the Asian College of Journalism in Chennai. Her key academic areas are key issues; deprivation; identity politics; democratic practices and institutions. The other two books penned by her are Mass Media, New Technology, and Culture and Secularism, Democracy, Justice.

The GenX journalists of today (including me) have had it much easier in life. Neither do we have to scan through bulky newspaper archives for a past report nor do we have to visit libraries for research work. All it takes is to enter a "key word" on the internet search page and in a blink you have hundreds of pages on the topic you've been looking for.

Why I mention this is because Dr. Nalini Rajan's Practising Journalism - Values, Constraints, Implications throws light on the journalism days gone by starting from the days of the British Raj and the kind of conditions that journalists and the publishing industry used to work in. At the same time, it also dwells on the days to come. An interesting collection of factual accounts from various editors and journalists highlighting the dos and don'ts of journalism is how this book can be best described as.

If you want a crash course in the history of the Indian press and the trials and tribulations it underwent from the times of the Colonial rule, till date; then this is the book to read. Rajan gives us a more-than-brief introduction to the content of the book, which tells us in a jiffy what to expect in the 400 page tome. As Rajan puts it, the history of journalism is not linear but consists of a series of criss-crossing loops.

This book, which has been divided into four parts, has contributions from stalwarts like B R P Bhaskar, N Ram, Harivansh, Dilip D'Souza, Mukund Padmanabhan, Valerie Kaye, Darryl D'Monte, Pamela Philipose, V Geetha, Nirmal Shekar, Devinder Sharma, Kalpana Sharma, Lawrence Liang, S Anand, MH Lakdawala, Praveen Swami, Shyam Tekwani, Bindu Bhaskar, Robert Brown, Robin Jeffrey, S Gautham, KP Jayashakar and Anjali Monteiro, Mahalakshmi Jayaram, Steven S Ross, Ashish Sen and Anjali Kamat.

While it is a comprehensive account of what the Indian press was / is all about, it does at times become more of a platform for contributing editors to tom-tom about their newspapers. One such example is a chapter by Harivansh where he glorifies Prabhat Khabar and tells us how it emerged a winner without bending the norms and succumbing to various external pressures.

It also dwells on topics like the growth of the regional and 'national' media in India, investigative journalism, sting operations, Page 3 journalism, online journalism, rural and urban reporting, agricultural reporting, sports journalism, sensationalism in reporting and the new age journalist.

Overall, it's an interesting and comprehensive piece of reading, which tries to touch upon every important aspect of journalism with illustrative articles.

By Hetal Adesara

"Since my early days I have been reading books related to astronomy and cricket. It's not that I was deeply inclined to study about planets and space, but it's been in me because of the course I chose in my post graduation level. We were required to do projects on the subject and therefore my liking for it sort of grew," says Tam India CEO LV Krishnan.

As far as cricket is concerned, it's been my passion to know about it in depth. Though I can't play cricket at all, I love reading about it. After all, it is not essential to virtually practice what you read. I never lay my hands on self-help and motivational books as I find them very boring.

I spend quite a lot of money on books at times and I usually shop at the Crossword book store in Bandra.

My favourite books...

Sunil Gavaskar's Sunny Days has been my best read ever. The book is an autobiography of the great cricket legend Sunil Gavaskar. This was the first book he wrote and after this another three followed.

I'm not a fiction fan at all and so I have no favourite authors. As far as non-fiction is concerned, I only read in about astronomy and cricket.

I'm reading Steve Waugh's autobiography Out Of My Comfort Zone, which I find extremely entertaining. It gives a detailed description of another great man in the field of cricket.

Books that do not hold me?

No other books hold me the way books related to these topics do. I haven't really been able to peruse any 400 page books for the past many years now. There is hardly any time left for all this.

Browsing and E-Reading...

I do read a lot of snippets on the internet but not any kind of books. Apart from books and related material there is a lot to be learnt from the net. Advancements in the field of technology have taken great leaps and the net is catching more and more viewership than any other form of media.

About the Author - Jack Welch began his career with the General Electric Company in 1960, and in 1981 became the company's eighth chairman and CEO. Mr. Welch is currently the head of Jack Welch, LLC, where he serves as an advisor to a small group of Fortune 500 CEOs and speaks to businesspeople and students around the world. He is the author of the No 1 New York Times bestseller Jack: Straight from the Gut.

"I have been asked literally thousands of questions. But most of them come down to this:

What does it take to win?"

People's quest to be a winner is what motivated Mr GE to pen his second tome. And that too with his younger journalist wife Suzy Welch, a marriage that caused waves in the US when it happened. And it does go into directions where he has not gone before. Winning offers a road map not only for senior level managers and CEOs but also for business owners, middle managers, people running factories, line workers, college graduates looking at their first jobs, MBAs considering new careers and entrepreneurs. In a very lucid manner, the author has drawn out his recipe for people, who maybe either losers or starting out, to become winners.

And what better endorsement can he get but from Microsoft Chairman Bill Gates: "A candid comprehensive look at how succeed in business - for everyone from college graduates to CEOs."

The book is divided into four parts. The first, Underneath it all, is conceptual. This part talks about the mission and values and the ways to achieve success in the business. The mission should be to win in business and for that there should be a set of guidelines and values to be followed. Welch also talks about the lack of candor which is the biggest dirty little secret in business as it blocks smart ideas, fast actions and acts as a killer of success. He admits that candor is something nobody likes because it may upset the status quo, and goes on to add that all his bosses cautioned him about his candor. "But it was my candor, that helped make GE the success it is," he says. "Candor can be the biggest change for the better."

Welch points out that in most companies the 20:70:10 principle is at play, and companies have to take hard decisions: the lower redudant underperforming 10 per cent have to go, while the top 20 per cent have to be consistently rewarded. The most difficult is keeping the middle 70 per cent motivated all the time.It's essential that the message goes out to all that those who can diifferentiate themselves and emerge as standouts, will get rewarded. Differentiation helps clarify business and run it better in every way, he emphasises.

The second section titled Your Company, is about the innards of the organization. It's about mechanics- people, processes and culture. In this, Welch speaks about leadership skills and rules to be a good leader. He introduces the reader with the skill of hiring the right personnel. Welch also talks about the toughest part; letting go. Often in an organization non-performers are fired - this may be the worst day of his or her career. Good managers often find this part the hardest, feeling the guilt, and anxiety before, during and after. He puts forth a two step process to getting firing right. First, No surprises and the second, minimize humiliation.

Your Competition - the third section - deals with the world outside the organization. It says wholesomely about how you create strategies, budgeting, organic growth, merger of two companies, pitfalls of the deal, six sigma (one of the great management innovations of the past quarter century and an extremely powerful way to boost a company's competitiveness.)

In the last two sections, Jack talks of lighter stuff. Your Career, is about managing the arc and the quality of your professional life. Starting with a chapter on finding the right job, it is followed by what it takes to get promoted. It also includes a chapter on how is it to work for a bad boss. The last in this section addresses the human desire of wanting it all at the same time. In the end, Welch tries to tie the loose ends in his section Tying up the Loose Ends which answers nine questions which he came across while writing the book.

The author puts forth real life examples for better understanding, and this leaves an impact on the reader. Throughout the book he shares with readers his experiences at GE - where he was rated among the top managers globally - and what it took to make GE a top global corporation. Undoubtedly, the book as Gates says, is a valuable addition to any manager's shelf.