Book Review: One Up On Wall Street by Peter Lynch with John Rothchild

Thanks to Street Smarts, I was introduced to One Up On Wall Street by legendary investor – Peter Lynch & John Rothchild.

If there is one book, which people interested in equities, especially beginners, have to read, then it is One Up On Wall Street. Simple language, smart concepts and splendid logic.

Peter Lynch managed the Magellan Fund at Fidelity Investments from 1977 to 1990, averaging a 29% return(as opposed to a normal 9-10% return). This book is a tribute to the mankind from the genius.

Amid all the ideas discussed in this book, one particular idea to call out is – understanding why you own an equity. When you buy an equity, you buy it for a reason – something that you believe in. This holds true for the entire time you own the equity. This will also determine when you should sell it. Despite the complex analysis you do, you need to remember the fundamentals – the company needs to be simple enough for an idiot to run. The idea of simplicity amid complexity.

The best example of simplicity(which I often quote) is Google. Although there are numerous complex algorithms running behind the search engine, for the user, the search page is unbelievably simple. 6 letters – GOOGLE, a search box & hit! Same goes with Apple.

Now, this book was first published in 1989, before the internet era. Times have changed, the method by which you evaluate tech companies is completely different (eg: Amazon). Although some of the methods specified in the book is not applicable to certain industries(like tech), One up Wall Street, even today, holds good for a majority of the sectors. The ideas expressed are so lucid that you can possibly use it as a framework for developing your own method.

Certain terms, such as a ten bagger, is coined by Peter Lynch. These set the standards that you can expect from this book. While One Up On Wall Street definitely helps you in understanding equities, I would like to highlight the importance of learning over knowing, a principle that is hidden in almost every page. At every stage, Peter Lynch “learns”, he does not “know”. This fundamental principle makes him succeed, almost every time.

One Up On Wall Street is a charm, embrace it. Definitely a must read.

Rating: 5/5

Book Review: Hot Commodities by Jim Rogers

After Street Smarts (& being considerably impressed by it), Hot Commodities seemed a logical sequel for reading. This book gives an introduction about the commodities market, something which you might find in your copy of Economic Times or WSJ, but which is difficult to comprehend. The book starts by making you familiar with terms which are increasingly used in the futures market. If you have already read Street Smarts, you will definitely find the similarity in writing-style, concepts and strategies. However, the most important thing about this book is the fundamentals of economics are hard-tuned with it. The concepts of demand and supply and how it affects the commodities market is something that every investor should keep in mind. The book primarily deals with how the prices of various commodities, listed in the futures market, have changed historically. As Jim tries to analyse the reasons behind a particular rise or fall, you start to understand why the fundamentals are important.

However, if you have read other Jim Roger books, you would find some of the concepts repetitive. But it is important to understand that unlike triology sagas, this book is standalone. If you are interested in business books and thinking about a quick summer read, grab this book!

Verdict: Great introduction to commodities. Must read for everyone who is interested in both equities and commodities.

Rating: 3.5/5

Book Review – Street Smarts: Adventures On The Roads and In The Markets by Jim Rogers

Business + travel wonderfully integrated with the nuances & emotions of life. Is there anything else you would want in your work-life harmony?

The book – Street Smarts is written by the American investor, businessman & author Jim Rogers. Considered in the likes of legendary Warren Buffet, Jim Rogers is one of the most famous investors in the world. In this book, Jim begins his journey of life with how he accidentally joins Yale & Oxford eventually landing up in the  Wall Street in the 1970s. He talks about the bull & bear markets and how he learned to cross the markets through the bull & bear times. His strategies on stocks as well as commodities reflects his attitude towards life – that every problem has a solution and every fall is an opportunity to rise stronger than before.

The best part of this book is how it tells about travel as an integral part of life and what Jim learns through travel. Jim has actually travelled around the world thrice! His strategies of integrating travel with markets and learning how businesses are in different countries, learning how a war in one country can raise the price of a commodity through the world, his learning of getting the basics right, supply & demand is a learning for us. At each stage, Jim is constantly “learning” and importance of learning over knowledge makes this book philosophical. This book brilliantly connects the dots, which is very similar to Steve Jobs’ Stanford Commencement speech. You can only connect the dots backwards and I am pretty sure this book is written as an attempt to realize that.

The book also talks about how Jim’s strategies changed through time, a career spanning many decades, why he chose to become a Singapore citizen and wanted to learn Mandarin, on why probably there is a shift in terms of development from the US to the Asian countries in the 21st century.

Street Smarts is an amazing book. The hardcover, optimum font sizes and the way the book is written makes it a brilliant book. If you are interested in investing, business, travel etc then this book is highly recommended. The book is nevertheless important to everyone as it relates the beauty of things in the world and how everything is connected in the world. I started reading this book on an evening & trust me – all that I wanted was to read till I completed it.

Possibly one of the finest books ever.

 Rating: 5/5

Book Review: Connect the Dots by Rashmi Bansal

Rashmi Bansal is one of the most famous authors from India. Her books – Stay Hungry Stay Foolish, Connect the Dots, I have a Dream have been big hits. All of her books are on entrepreneurship – she shares stories of people who have made it big. Stay Hungry Stay Foolish is book on 20 entrepreneurs with MBAs. This one is about another 20 without. Both of these books’ titles link back to the famous Steve Jobs Stanford Commencement Speech.

The book starts off the famous story of Prem Ganapathy, Founder of Dosa Plaza. The book then moves on to back-to-back biggies like Kunwer Sachdev(Su-Kam), Ganesh Ram(Veta), Sunita (Fem Care) and N.Mahadevan(Oriental Cuisines). All of these stories are gripping and an absolute delight to read. It will probably give one of those “Eureka” moments. The book then has stories on entrepreneurs in diverse fields – book store chains, agriculture, dairy, software products and what not! One surprise was introducing stories of entrepreneurs in the field of design & arts towards the end of the book. Some of the stories of enterprises like Reva, story of Harishchandrachi Factory movie inspires the readers to do think different.

The book is, of course, non-fiction and writing style suits it. The language is simple. Any person can pick-up this book & read through 20 brilliant entrepreneurial journeys(without MBA). While the first few stories were totally gripping, the book seemed to lose its charm towards the middle. Some of the stories lacked details or were too short to leave a lasting impression on the reader. Also, too much of similar stories make it difficult for the reader to read it at a stretch. But towards the end of the book, as Rashmi introduces designers, photographers, dancers & movie-makers, the book totally brings back the wavering attention and gives the perfect finish.

Bottomline: The book was an exciting read for me and I totally recommend it.

Rating: 4/5

Book Review: The Mckinsey Way

Book: The Mckinsey Way

Author: Ethan M.Rasiel

Who should read the book?

Any person who has little knowledge on how management consulting(MC) works. You could be an MC aspirant or someone working in the industry. You have a basic knowledge of how problem are solved in the industry and what methodologies are followed. But you are “curious” to understand how The Firm works and how it is different. Please note that this book does not tell any detail about the clients or problems already solved by Mckinsey. Client confidentiality is fully respected, perhaps just the way it is in The Firm. It will however give you a perspective on how problem solving is done and how Mckinsey problem solving is different. This is not the book to be recommended for someone with years of practice as a Management Consultant.

Book Review:

The Mckinsey Way is a typical weekend read. You could perhaps read the entire book at one go during your flight or train travel. The book is very easy to read and the language is simple. The book starts off with the author’s life at Mckinsey, some of terminologies/everyday work at Mckinsey. The entire problem solving approach is then discussed, right from the initial hypothesis to issue tree to storyboarding. As my work includes most of these, I was easily able to relate to all of the processes used. However, this might be difficult to understand for an MC newbie but he will be able to grasp all of these.

The book states of the interesting approaches followed at Mckinsey – 80/20 rule, the elevator test, looking at the big picture – all of which is extremely useful. For someone who is aspiring to be an MC, these turn out to be something which is pragmatic in everyday work-life. The book then proceeds to the do’s and don’ts at work and will probably act as a guide for a novice. The book also tells some of the secrets(:=D) like waterfall charts in presentations. Turns out that I was already aware of things like 80/20, waterfall charts before reading the book, but I am pretty sure it will be interesting to someone who is new to MC.

The book also mentions how Mckinsey-ites give importance to Clients, The Firm, Me – in that order as well as recruiting, mentoring – something which is essential for its functioning. The book ends with some interesting insights from ex-Mckinseyites about what they have learnt from the firm.

Verdict: The book gives a general idea on how management consulting works. Interesting read while travelling.

Rating: 4/5

Book Review : Chetan Bhagat’s One Night At The Call Centre

Original post in my blogspot on January 8, 2011

My Rating

After almost 6 months of not reading any book , I read this book a few days back . I had earlier read Chetan Bhagat’s Five Point Someone which was indeed good .

              I must say comparing this to Five point someone is not cool , as this book does not deal with the students , although it represents the youth of the country . This book is about 6 call centre employees – Shyam , Priyanka , Esha , Vroom , Radhika & “military uncle” . Just like Five point someone was adapted in a movie , the bollywood movie -“Hello” (2008) starring Salman Khan was adapted from this story . Turns out that this book has twist through the literal  “deus ex machina ” – a plot device where a complicated problem is abruptly solved by an unexpected intervention of a new character. The new character in this story is none other than God.

            The preface includes a train journey by Chetan Bhagat from IIT Kanpur to Delhi where he meets a beautiful girl who narrates him this story provided he makes the story , his second book . The book then starts with the Shyam , as first person – who tells the readers about his misfortunes as a call centre employees . Turns out that each one of his colleagues had their own woes to share . As it said – every head has its own head ache , Shyam also shares the woes of the other 5 . The 6 of them had their own American names , as the callers from the US could pronounce their Indian names . They had to deal with all kind of meaningless calls , regarding every silly problem that could occur after purchasing a product and they had answer all of their callers patiently .

            Three-Fourth of the book goes at a good pace describing the lives of the 6 people . Apart from the problems with the callers , they also had a terrible boss – Bakshi . Shyam and Vroom had designed a new website for the firm and they submitted the report to Bakshi . Shyam was expecting to be promoted as the team leader while Bakshi submitted the report to Boston with his name in it . Thus , Bakshi not only affected the Shyam’s work life but that had impact on his personal life as well . The 6 of them had a terrible personal life as well .

              The twist comes when the lives of the 6 people dramatically gets affected on the same day and they leave in a Qualis at 2 am . They end up in getting the Qualis skid of the road into a construction site where they battle for life. It turns out that Shyam gets a phone call then , a phone call from God . The call is also heard by the others and God tells them the reason for their misery and how they can overcome it .

              The story then speeds up with Shyam & Vroom threatening Bakshi ,  saving the jobs of the colleagues and then improving their own lives as well . They have plans of starting their own web designing firm , and Shyam get backs his love- Priyanka . The story makes an abrupt change after the phone call of God . I was expecting a good twist in this story but turns out that this wasnt upto the expectations . But the book is definitely worth a read . Turns out that the girl who narrates the story turns out to be Goddess Shakti , herself or was it Chetan Bhagat’s dream ?

              Well , inclusion of the new character – God was a good idea but turns out that it didnt fit the storyline very well . The post-phone-call story isnt that good . One thing why I like Chetan Bhagat’s books is that he describes the characters in the story really well . He does the same here – may it be the mysterious story teller girl or Shyam . The pace of the book is really good till the phone call from God & I was drowned into the story . I feel that the post phone call story could have been better. Thats it for now , I had a nice time reading the book while travelling in the bus . Hope you readers have a nice time too  🙂  .