Books: Corporate Hagiopedias

How Google Changed the World
Virginia Scott , 141 pages, Rs. 295

I would wager the Wikipedia page on Google offers more insights than this detailed but one-sided version of Google’s history. The book seems to be written based almost entirely on publicly available media coverage, and the author does not seem to have spoken to a single person at Google or its competitors, or even technology analysts and commentators.

It is written like a high school research report: Third person narrative, zero personal insights or opinions, detailed endnotes that reference lengthy URLs and callouts to demystify complex terms.

With chapter titles like “How Google Uses Fun to Attract Customers,” one wonders if this is marketing material for the company, but then wouldn’t the company have spoken to the author? Some chapters are completely forced, like “Google for Education”, where the author tries to convince readers that students and teachers should use Google tools.

“Using Google to Make Money” contains five fictitious case-studies of how businesses can rely on Google tools to, well, make money. “Google Controversies” seems more a token attempt to portray balance than any real criticism, and the final chapter, “The Future of Google” offers no new insight but merely lists down some of its products and services that have yet to succeed.

The book demystifies Google the company and Google the meme for people unaccustomed to both, but for others, it offers nothing new.

(Review by Rohin Dharmakumar)

How Toyota Changed the World
K. Dennis Chambers, 132 pages, Rs. 295

How did a company that started out as a loom maker, diversify to become one of the largest auto companies in the world? That’s the question this book seeks to answer. It chronicles the historical forces that shaped the company, with insights into what drove maverick founder, Kiichiro Toyoda, who tinkered away in a corner of his father’s loom factory, trying to reverse-engineer Fords and Chevrolets.

And it details the development of the Toyota Production System: Kaizen (constant improvements); Just in Time inventory (which could perhaps only have been perfected in resources- and space-starved Japan); fixing defects as they arise; and a ruthless focus on eliminating waste.

It is an easy read, and it tells you what makes Toyota one of the greats. Having said that, it falls short of delivering the promise implied in the title. For instance, it talks about how GM “whose vice chairman sniffed at the Prius in 2004 as an ‘interesting curiosity,’ is now the proud producer of a full line of hybrid pickups and SUVs.” But it gives no details of how the Prius foreshadows a global shift towards cleaner, battery-driven vehicles, with every major automobile company ready to come out with its own hybrids.

For a slim book, it devotes a lot of space to Japanese history and the origins of the Toyoda family, and too little to the impact the Toyota Way has had on technology, processes and the world of automobiles.

(Review by Sveta Basraon)

How Apple Inc. changed the World
Jason D O’Grady, 185 pages, Rs 295

It is hard to write anything about Apple that the world does not already know. But O’Grady, former writer for Macworld and MacWEEK, is equipped to try. So how different is his account from other famous books on Apple like Insanely Great, Revolution in the Valley, or Icon? The short answer: Not very.

It is, though, a very “web-generation” book, in that it dispenses with conventional chronological narrative and divides the story into chapters that tackle different aspects of Apple (eg.:“Founders and Key Players,” “Strategies and Innovations,” “Impact on Society”)

Each chapter also has “pseudo-hyperlinks” to other chapters. So when you are reading a chapter on Apple’s Technology Timeline and you come across the name of Jonathan Ive, the next line says: “For more on Jonathan Ive see chapter 8 on Apple leadership.”

This approach segregates the matter effectively so that if a reader doesn’t want too much detail on Apple strategy it is entire possible to skip that chapter, yet be informed about all other aspects of Apple.

This is an interesting read for its novel approach. However, if you like narrative and a sense of drama then look for those other books on Apple.

(Review by Shishir Prasad)