Books

Given the need to put ideas together in a sharable format and the developments in Print-on-Demand industry, I decided to take a plunge into writing. Listed below are details about my books. (new one first)

Understanding Firms - A Manager's Model of the Firm

Generations ago, the firm was conceived in the image of the army. Since then the army has moved on, but the firm hasn’t. Naturally, we experience severe difficulty while working with firms. Employees are dissatisfied, mergers fail, innovation is impossible, cost cutting is never enough and growth is not always profitable. May be we don’t understand the firm so well.

The book presents a unique model at intersection economic and managerial theory. The model uses five elements - the concept of transaction chains, Coase transaction cost hypothesis, Porter’s bargaining power theory, a new way of profiling transaction and new types of roles undertaken by employees.

This model provides insights into which mergers will work, how to make them work, how to promote disruptive innovation, how to manage knowledge oriented teams etc. It explains why sometimes our strategy fails, why we are blind to competition and inefficiency. This model provides a new framework for thinking about firms. This framework will help us make firms better.

The book is available in both print and kindle format here.

Subverting Capitalism & Democracy

Understanding Firms

What caused the current financial crisis? A lot of answers have been proposed. But do we know the root causes? This book looks at the causes behind the causes we know. The micro-faults that subverted capitalism and democracy are still overlooked. Today, finance dominates our socio-economic hierarchy. Sadly, we know less about finance and economics than we like to believe. We must relook at the basic concepts of finance and economics. We need to know how large pools of money create systemic weakness. We need to ask why the media and the regulators were sleeping at the switch. We have to go beyond lobbying, beyond "intellectual capture", beyond exotic financial instruments and ask the next level of questions. Only then we will reach the root causes. Now is the time to set the system right. I hope this book will extend the discussion towards a solution. The book is available on Amazon in both print and kindle format here.

I have also published a short synopsis of ideas discussed in the book. The synopsis is available for free download here.