BOOKS, BOOKS AND BOOKS.....

As I was walking in the atrium of ISB, I saw people coming out of the book store with whole bunch of books….
I have always hated big, fat text books, yet I decided to buy those books. When did I last buy a text book before this? Definitely not during my under-graduate career. I remember how I photocopied a book on “Ship Design and Construction” which is considered a bible in ship construction. I preserved this book…. and really respected it as bible until I was involved in real practical projects, where I realized that the concepts of design and manufacturing as prescribed by this book are already outdated and no more used in the industry. Yet for four long years, I valued this book only to realize the futility at the end. I decided to use that big, fat book as an additional pillow and it served a good purpose.

I hope things are different in management education. I hope that management books as prescribed by ISB will have relevant real life experience in the industry. I hope the books which I bought today will be used to solve practical problems and will not alter their roles into pillows or something else.

Marketing management( Kotler and Keller)….Statistics for management(Levin and Rubin)…Financial accounting(Narayanaswamy)… This is only the beginning. I am sure more books will be in my book rack as the first term begins.