Business success is about both growth and cost, emphasises Wileman. “Growth is exciting for everybody: managers, staff, stock analysts, journalists. Cost is dull and depressing.”

But the reality is like golf, he analogises. “Drive for show, putt for dough. Growth is the fat driver, the Big Bertha, smack the ball down the fairway 300 yards and you’re a Tiger.” In comparison, cost management is ‘the putter,’ the author argues.

Though there are situations where customers see high cost as a signal of quality, as in the case of perfume, cosmetics, high-end fashion goods, investment banking, consulting, or legal services, most business now strive to be cheaper and better, Wileman observes. “Tight cost management is seen not as opposed to high quality but as part and parcel of it.”

Fittingly, therefore, he concludes the book by declaring the cost manager as hero. It is important, though, that the intelligent cost cutter distinguishes ‘good investment in future growth from bad excessive cost today.’

Vital read.

In India, people are very fond of planting trees but are unable to bear the cost of saplings, writes S. C. Aggarwal in War on Poverty ( www.shiprapublications.com ). He suggests that industrial units can use their vacant land to raise saplings of jamun, papita, aam, neem, sheesham, amrud, etc., and give these free of charge at factory gates between 6 a.m. and 7 a.m.

“It will be a great service to the nation if each industrial unit distributes at least 1 lakh saplings every year free of charge to the public,” the author hopes. “Proposal should be made in the Budget to allow deduction of Rs 20,000 from the taxable income for any corporate or non-corporate taxpayer in case saplings are distributed to the public after growing them in the space lying vacant in the industrial premises.”

Earnest effort to decode the poverty puzzle.

Sense of urgency

The demeanour of a chief executive is an essential ingredient at all times, particularly when implementing any strategic plan, says Ranjana Kumar in A New Beginning ( www.tatamcgrawhill.com ). She talks of why it is necessary, when implementing a turnaround plan, to make even a modest achievement look like a big achievement and an occasion for rejoicing. That can dispel the prevailing sense of gloom and create an upbeat mood across the organisation, reasons Kumar.

A secret of her success in the miracle at Indian Bank was the sense of urgency she invariably displayed in the dealings with the staff, branch managers, executives, regulators and the owner.

“I have always maintained that the Controlling Office/Head Office is to facilitate the business growth of a circle office/branch office in the spirit of accountability. The responses of the Controlling Office should be quick, and the directions given must have clarity,” the author insists in a chapter titled ‘the art and science of turnaround.’

The woes of the bank, she says, were due to the ‘falling in line syndrome,’ with the executives and the staff down the line complying with the dictates of their respective higher authorities, without thinking about the consequences.

“It was not only corruption or immorality or any mala fide intention which led to the situation in which the bank was placed. It was rather a varying degree of ‘intellectual dishonesty’ betraying the interests of the organisation to please the higher authorities.”

There should never be ‘falling in line,’ declares Kumar. “Even the boss should be sounded when he is on the wrong. There cannot be a better input for an ideal corporate governance of the bank.”

Recommended addition to the finance and management professionals’ shelf.

D. MURALI

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