The Hindu Business Line : Business writings

A RECENT issue of The Economist takes a rather dim view of the business books which are being churned out on all sorts of themes. Barring, as always, notable exceptions, most of them "appear to be little more than expanded PowerPoint presentations, with bullet points and sidebars setting out unrelated examples or unconnected thoughts... Some read like an extended paragraph from a consultant's report... And all too many have meaningless diagrams. It is hard to believe that many managers run their businesses differently as a result of reading them"!

Even so, it would seem that as many as 3,000 business titles are published each year in the US alone (almost all written by North Americans), and the number sold each year is close to 10 million.

Although the top 50 business books may sell around four million copies in the first seven months, the rest sell fewer than 1,000 in their first year, with a dramatic fall-off thereafter, the average shelf-life being not more than a few months.

It is not just business books that have become victims of Gresham's Law about bad coins driving out the good or the other better known law of diminishing returns in terms of content and value.

Business journals, some published under the banner of reputed institutions, have also been forced to cast about frenetically for some worthwhile things to say, and often end up packaging vacuous verbiage as momentous profundities.

The other problem with business writing is that most of it emanates from authors who go by the situation in industrial countries, especially the US. There are few among them who are familiar with the complexities of problems and issues outside their narrow bailiwick.

Expectedly, their approach and prescriptions are of limited relevance elsewhere. Stuck in the one-size-fits-all mindset and mainly focusing on corporate players, they naturally sound preachy and presumptuous.

For the quality of business writing to improve, it should consciously draw on the experiences and contributions of China, India, and Japan, as also countries in Africa.

Business leaders and academics in these countries should give the authors their candid feedback, pointing out the absurdities and fallacies, if any, instead of joining the misleading and possibly harmful game of "Tickle-me-Toby-and-I'll-tickle you".