The Hindu Business Line : Learning everything is only one half of the battle

EVEN as you prepare for CA exams, here is something to help you: Debra R. Hopkins's You can pass the CPA Exam, from Wiley (www.wiley.com). A book that can give you valuable inputs to first finish your present goal. "To pass the CPA Exam, learning everything is only half the battle. The other half is getting psyched," is a message from the back cover.

"Passing the Uniform Certified Public Accountant (CPA) examination is not easy. Every six months, over 60,000 people attempt to pass this difficult two-day exam. With a first-time passing rate of 12-15 per cent, it is assumed that most people will fail upon their first attempt... The odds are against you," is not too helpful a start, but you need to face truths and study.

"Real studying means that you are using time to learn topics, not just wasting time by ticking off the minutes you spend sitting in a chair starring at your books," observes the author. "It is easy to determine if you have wasted study time or used your time wisely to learn and retain information." How? Simply attempt to answer the sample questions at the end of the chapter. You learned if you can correctly answer; else, you know what. Don't miss the 60-minute audio CD of the author "walking you through the exam, with advice on how to stay on top of it."

Budget, easy on the eye

THE latest issue of Consolidated Commercial Digest from the Company Law Institute of India P Ltd (www.cliofindia.com) is a Budget special, departing from the common trend of reproducing the text from the Ministry of Finance without much value addition. Highlights are given A to Z, from `additional depreciation' to `wealth tax' for direct taxes. The 155-para speech of the FM follows thereafter.

It is in the portion that gives the Finance Bill, you can see the publication helping you readily with extracts from `Notes on clauses', shaded in green and plugged in contextually. Thus, after the para on `insertion of new Section 88D', the explanation states that it is for tax rebate "in the case of individuals having total income not exceeding one hundred thousand rupees."

The publication is friendly on the eye, unlike broken types in scanned images of notifications put up as PDF files on tax sites. Have CCD at hand when attending Budget meetings.

Ask questions, and listen to answers

WHAT you hold is a newspaper and what you read is news. To go behind the screen and explore the insides of the business of news, you may have to read Ken Auletta's Backstory, from The Penguin Press (www.penguin.com). Though the book is about the US media, there is enough and more to gain as insights about journalism.

Though the author is a columnist for The New Yorker, he doesn't spare his fraternity: "New generation of windbags, callow people who think they become investigative reporters by adopting a belligerent pose without doing the hard digging, bloviators so infatuated with their own voice they have forgotten how to listen," and so on are some of the phrases that hit you in the intro.

"Synergy is rarely journalism's friend," notes Auletta, referring to how bosses try to push down the gullet of journos the merits of `team culture' between business and news divisions at media companies. "We journalists need borders," he proclaims. "We want the advertising department to stay the hell out of the newsroom." A perennial problem that has no ready solutions.

"The public is no mere spectator to this dialogue," warns the author. "If readers don't trust journalists, if they cynically believe we're all in the tank, or make things up, or push our own political agendas, politics will become even more shrill and uncivil with no trusted referee to sort out the facts." Convincing argument. "We would be perceived as partisans, the way too may European journalists are."

For Auletta, the acorn of good journalism is `humility'. More essential than good writing or hard work, he would say. Why? Because "humility is required to use two of a journalist's irreplaceable tools: the curiosity to ask questions and the ability to listen to the answers." Hey, that's Journalism 101!

Don't push stress under the carpet

YOU may be familiar with the `Chicken Soup' series of books. Now, Ralph E. Retherford tells you what to do When Chicken Soup is Not Enough — a book from Eswar Press (www.eswarbooks.com). "Often we connect our illness, or our aches and pains, to various physical factors, like an infection or twisting the wrong way," writes the author explaining a common habit. "Sometimes we are right... But an equal or greater number of health problems are due to stress." What can be more stressful is to know that "very few people can define stress". Catch up with Ralph to get well.

Clean your company of diseases

MOST people go to work to earn a living. "Questions of joy and happiness rarely figure in their thinking of the workplace," write Imre Lovey, Manohar S. Nadkarni and Eszter Erdelyi in The Joyful Organization, from Response Books (www.indiasage.com). It need not be so, argue the authors. "A truly strong organisation is one whose employees experience joy in performing their tasks which inspire them to give their utmost to add value and to realise organisational goals," they maintain.

However, before staff can be joyous, organisation has to become healthy. "A healthy organisation is one which deals with issues before they turn into persistent problems." The authors guide you through a health check, listing more than a score `common organisational diseases' such as workaholism, paranoia and so forth.

For each of these malaises, the book provides a one-liner, description, symptoms, causes and origins, while the antidote is provided in ample measure. Thus, `long-sightedness' is not about your eyes but about how organisations think big but find following up to be boring. "A long-sighted organisation focuses on the future, ignoring everyday operations-related issues. It loves to deal with strategies, and visions, but fails to give adequate attention to frequently occurring problems. Detailed planning, pragmatic execution and follow-up are rather weak in this organisation." Add to your joy, but first check your company's health.

Tailpiece

"Good, bad and ugly. What's the opposite?"

"Service, service, and service."

ReadingRoom@TheHindu.co.in

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