Books · RohitBlog

Presentation Jazz- Book Review

Thursday, August 28th, 2008

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PresentationZen - Book Review

Monday, July 21st, 2008

Author: Garr Reynolds

Publisher:New Riders

Pages: 222
Rating:

This week, I read one more presentation-related book. The last one I read was - “Say It With Charts, Zelazny“. A fantastic read, more focused on how to better present your “Charts”.

PresentationZen on contrast, is on the more wider topic of Presentations. A Presentation may be made using various tools- be it MS PowerPoint or Apple’s Slidenote. Doesn’t matter! What the author Garr has to offer is, simple ideas on Presentation Design & Delivery. Staring with why 99% of Presentation are bore, Garr goes on length to present simple ideas on how to go about designing your Presentations.

6 simple concepts- is all it takes towards better presentation.

The most fundamental use of presentation as per Garr is to assist you. Yes! Presentations ‘assist’ you. So many presentations start with the offbeat bullet points. We have tendency to filll the presentation with as much data as we can. Garr, advise this is not what presentations are meant for. Imagine, if presentations could present all the data, then what is your need to be present on the stage. Bullseye! I never thought about it. Yet, I have seen 99% presentations going the wrong way. Now, let me add my thoughts here- I feel most of the time, we use presentations to give facts or serve as documentation- & not really for actually delivering a presentation. My view, most of us think, word documents have become to ubiqious, which has led people to just skip over it. Hence Presentations are used to atleast have people see the important point. Garr calls this “Slideumentation“- a combination of Presentation & Documentation.

More tip- Presentation should have at most 6-7 words, while a contextful image should be used to drive your point emotionally.

Garr has used Zen comcepts (Simplification by Amplification, Bento) to make his presentations simpler. A Collection of his presentations at the end of book, will give you an idea on how to design presentations. Plus, additional notes by renowned presentation experts like Duarte (www.duarte.com) is much help.

Alas, I have limited time to describe what I feel after reading the book. I just can’t stop praising.

The author, Garr Reynolds is Presentation designer & internationally acclaimed communications expert based in Japan. He shares his experience / tips on presentations on presentationzen.com.

The book is well presented (in line with its subject) with good paper quality. Neat fonts, great context images & easy layout makes joy while reading.

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Thinking Course - Book Review

Wednesday, July 16th, 2008

Author:Edward De Bono

Publisher: Facts On File

Pages: 208
Rating:

Thinking Course: This is perhaps those rare books which I took to reading but never finished. Reasons? Can be simply one or many. At some point, I lost interest. May be because I started reading much more interesting (to me) books like “PresentationZen” & “Start It, Sell It”. Apparently, its more to do with the book itself.

I feel weird that Ed De Bono’s books never evoked much interest in me. Possibly, I am already accomplished Thinker. But no, I was hoping to find some practical examples/ tools to apply in real life.

The author has described many Thinking tools. But, I think ‘those’ tools would work very well in ideal life. I liked the underlying concept behind the book. As per Mr Bono, traditional education (Lo! Another one commenting on traditional education), has been lacking on teaching its students “Thinking Tools”. What we have been taught is information, but never tools that can help in Thinking/ Decision process. The book might have succeeded in its objective, but to me the ideas presented were abstract.

Please note these are my views, not necessarily applies to a good author like Mr Bono. May be I will progress enough in future to reread the book. You can check Amazon page for reviews- some agree with me, while others don’t.

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Start It, Sell It & Make a Mint

Wednesday, July 16th, 2008

Author:Joe John Duran

Publisher: Wiley

Pages: 240
Rating:

Ever wondered what it takes to start a business? let alone thought of selling it later to earn a Mint! Joe John Duran does exactly that. First, few words for the author. Mr. Duran is CFA. He co-founded Centurion Investments with other partners. The company went to on to manage billions dollars of investment & later was sold to GE Capital in 2001 (just after September 2001 attack).

Mr. Duran explains 20 “vital secrets”, Real world anecdotes and step-by-step strategies to build and sell a successful business. Each Vital Secret starts with a African fable, later, Mr Duran explains what the Vital Secret should mean to you (as an Entreprenuer) & What you shoud do to make the Vital Secret work for you. It’s not just author’s real life experiences, but what makes it special & a ‘genuine’ is interviews author made with many Entrepreneurs who once started their business & then sold for good profit.

I thought, selling your business can be easy one, sign agreement & puff! Your bank account swells while you retire. Not entirely true, Mr Duran dismiss this illusion, as lot goes in to selling process. His experiences on negotiating contract with GE Capital is truly exhilarating.

This book doesn’t need more words from me. I recommend you read this book, if you are a newbie looking to start your business, or already has a business & needs advice on selling it to most profit.

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How to be the Employee Your Company Can’t Live Without

Sunday, June 8th, 2008

Author:Glenn Shepard

Publisher: Wiley

Pages: 160
Rating:

This week, I read another interesting book on self-development. This genre has caught my attention more than any other books of Fiction/ Non-Fiction categories.

I borrowed the book from Company library. Initially I thought cynically, grrreat! Sure, why not? Wouldn’t every company like its employees to read ’such’ books. But hold on, I was wrong as I tell you now- after reading this book.

But first, two words about author- Glenn Shepard has authored two books (How to Manage Problem Employees & How to Make Performance Evaluation Really-Work) before this one. Mr Shepard is the founder & President of Glenn Shepard Seminars in Nashville, USA. Glenn is a management consultant. He has been presenting Seminars to 100,000 managers from 500 Fortune companies.

It may look like a book written especially for corporations to have their employees read & be good employee. But let me read this without any kind of prejudice. Glenn caste Employees to be of three types- Low valued, Run of the Mill, Highly Valued employees. Highly valued are the ones who are productivity exceeds their CTC (cost to company), while Low valued employees care little to Company. With this differentation, Glenn presents 18 ways to start thinking like Highly Valued Employee. While book is all about how to be great employee, but please don’t take in any demeaning sense. After all we all earn living on a Job. You can apply all the principles whether your are on Job or heading own Business. After all, who says Business owners don’t work as much as their employee- on the contrary its reverse usually.

This is a practical, actionable guide with over 18 Ways to Become Indispensable for your Company.

Learn how to be low maintenance employee
Customer delight!
How to be your Boss’s right hand
How to be Relaibel employee
Ways to grow your Network & so Influence for that BIG position
Why making Mistake is not bad
Why you should treat your Company as ‘Your Own’
Become Problem solver- Now this lesson is worth is cost of the whole book. As I experienced in my work, nothing would match the joy of having your less experienced colleague solving problems (instead of creating!). This chapter has numerous real life examples of real people who solved problems in their Work. And that too even when the problems were not related directly to them.

So, go ahead & read the book. As a professional, you will learn Qualities that will lead you to path to success- Corporate or your own Business.

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29 Leadership Secrets from Jack Welch

Monday, June 2nd, 2008

Author: Robert Slater

Publisher: Tata-McGraw Hill

Pages: 134
Rating:

Here comes one of zillion books that might have been written on General Electric’s (GE’s) most celebrated CEO- Jack Welch…guess it should be ‘Jack of all trades’. Yes, he is!

I did read one of the Books by Jack Welch himself, his biography. I must say I am impressed & inspired by Mr Welch’s innovative & to the time’s challenging decisions he did take. He might have earned “Neutron Jack�? (a name which in Mr Welch’s own words- has haunted him) for his A, B & C management philosophy- Nurture As, Develop Bs & remove Cs. But he has a point to prove- when he fired low performers, there were more people to GE when he retired in 2001.

This is compact book (as compared to other volumes on Jack Welch). Robert Slater has long written many books about Mr. Welch, & this is what I call…brief summary of leadership fundas of Mr. Welch. As the title suggests, the book presents 29 Leadesrhip Secrets from Jack Welch- with his own words describing situations he faced & how he lead GE to success.

If you are busy, & perhaps don’t have time to read detailed long books about Mr. Welch, I suggest you read this book, it will hardly take a day or two to finish. Plus, the book is filled with many real life examples of leadership secret which you can apply in your life, workplace.
Rating: 9/10 [ Content - 10, Layout - 10, Style - 9 ]

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Don’t Make Me Think- Book Review

Saturday, May 31st, 2008

Author: Steve Krug

Publisher: New Riders Publishing

Pages: 201
Rating:

Don’t Make Me Think: “A Common Sense Approach to Web Usability”… this is what the tag line says. Belleme, its cent per cent truth of this book.

Web Usability refers to making your site Usable to its users- creating better user experience, enabling them to do quickly what your users want to do. Simple, isn’t it? But how many times you have you found sites that are hard to understand, displays best on only one type of browsers, throws error codes that doesn’t make sense, & throws a zillion other things that wouldn’t interest you.

Web Usability today is very critical in this Internet age, where a significant part of your revenue will come from your Website. It makes perfect sense you pay Website it’s due towards simpler, better usable design.

This is what Steve Krug tries & succeeds to large extent in this book. He puts his more than 20 years of experience in web Usability in simple terms. Steve Krug (site: www.sensible.com) has been doing Web Usability testing for many Fortune companies. The first edition of this book was published in 2000, which was an instant best seller.

Now, for some, who are not into Web development or designer, this book may not make full potential. Nevertheless, even if you are a database programmer for website, you can read it & provide your thoughts / perception towards a better Web design. After all, whatever you do at back end would be seen by thousands on Website.

The books writes 12 short & packed with illustrations chapters to achieving better Usability design.I highly recommend, anyone anything to do with Website do read this book. It will open your eye in way force you to start thinking from your user’s perspective. Plus, there is interesting chapter devoted entirely to doing your own Usability testing without costing 10,000s of Dollar.

All in all, must have for all Web Developers, Designers, Marketing, Project Manager, CEO who are serious about people giving their Website due attention.

Rating: 10/10 [ Content - 10, Layout - 10, Style - 10 ]

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Rich Dad’s Guide to Investing

Saturday, October 7th, 2006

“Rich Dad’s Guide to Investing�? - the 3rd book of Rich Dad Trilogy by well known author and entrepreneur - Robert T. Kiyosaki. Read book review.

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Learn to Analyze Financial Statements

Sunday, August 27th, 2006

Here’s another book from the “IN A WEEK�? series that I chanced upon this week. I’d written previously about “Report Writing IN A WEEK�? which is very good book that teaches you to Write Reports and that too in WEEK.

Analysing Financial Statements IN A WEEK is all about how a layman outside the financial domain can learn about analyzing financial statements.

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How to Get Rich Quickly and stay Rich Forever!

Friday, August 18th, 2006

I’m sure everyone wants to be one! Well, if you are serious, then you must read the book - “Rich Dad’s Retire Young Retire Rich” by Robert T. Kiyosaki with Sharon L. Lechteer, CPA. This book will be an eye opener, at least it was for me, in many ways we think. I’ve tried to put my words on this book. Interested? read here.

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Archive for the 'Books' Category

Presentation Jazz- Book Review

PresentationZen - Book Review

Author: Garr Reynolds

Publisher:New Riders

Thinking Course - Book Review

Author:Edward De Bono

Publisher: Facts On File

Start It, Sell It & Make a Mint

Author:Joe John Duran

Publisher: Wiley

How to be the Employee Your Company Can’t Live Without

Author:Glenn Shepard

Publisher: Wiley

29 Leadership Secrets from Jack Welch

Author: Robert Slater

Publisher: Tata-McGraw Hill

Don’t Make Me Think- Book Review

Author: Steve Krug

Publisher: New Riders Publishing

Rich Dad’s Guide to Investing

Learn to Analyze Financial Statements

How to Get Rich Quickly and stay Rich Forever!

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