A powerlisters' guide to success

According to digital marketing platform Mondovo, the top four business-related keyword searches globally are “how to start a business”, “how to write a business plan”, “how to start your own business” and “how to start a small business”, in that order.

Of course, it has never been easier to make that dream a reality — theoretically at least: Today, you can work from anywhere, interview candidates via your smartphone and zero in on the right candidate with the help of data analytics and deploy social media to spread the word about your business at a fraction of the cost you would have incurred in the earlier scheme of things.

The hubbub around the virtues of starting up will likely remind you of the California Gold Rush (1848-55) when people from across the US loaded up their wagons with shovels, augurs and other tools and headed to California to sieve for the yellow metal. All they hoped was to strike it rich, but the people who actually made the most money at that time were the ones selling those augurs and shovels.
 

The same thing is happening today with the modern-day version of the gold rush playing out in the form of new business launches — the flip side of the “demigodification” of entrepreneurship. The first thing a large majority of people do once they have made up their minds that they want is to be their own bosses is search Google for those golden nuggets of information. That explains the search stats also. So they dig around until they find that what they believe is a paradigm-shifting idea and then the formula to write the perfect business plan to woo a potential investor. Let’s say they find another tool but where is the gold?

The next best option: You learn from people who not only have been there and done that but are still at it. That’s the starting point of Karen Lam’s book, Power Talk: Insights from Asia’s Leading Entrepreneurs.

Ms Lam starts by stating the obvious: That there is no formula for success. But of course, there are lessons to be learned from failures and hardships of others who have gone down the same path. She has interviewed hundreds of incredibly successful people in different walks of life for her book — we should have said “project” because, as she explains right in the beginning, the whole thing started much earlier as a television project. Power Talk is based on six seasons of Channel NewsAsia’s Power List Asia, which had 73 episodes featuring high-powered guests. Some of them are household names (such as Anand Mahindra and Kumar Mangalam Birla), while others are big in the business world (such as MakeMyTrip founder Deep Kalra and AirAsia founder Tony Fernandes).

The sheer number of interviews make the book a little overwhelming, to begin with, but it’s well worth ploughing through. Ms Lam has distilled these conversations into themes and it is interesting to note that successful people across the globe have some common concerns that shape their projects and, to an extent, the viability of their plans. In the end what you have in Power Talk are 20-plus “powerlisters” who talk on a range of topics such as crisis management, brand building, expansion beyond one's borders and succession planning.

The best part is the book’s focus on Asia. A huge majority of the books on entrepreneurship available currently are written by western authors and there’s only a smattering of offerings from our friends on this side of the globe. Since this book is based on conversations with Asia’s successful entrepreneurs, the advice is relevant for Indian businessmen. The author’s style is relatable and it’s refreshing to find a read with no fancy business jargon in sight. This one doesn’t fall in the how-to or motivational genre but offers a much-needed reality check. Rather than simply encouraging you to take the plunge, it provides a vital framework to judge whether your business model is viable — and, importantly, if you’re the right person for it — before you go ahead.

Also interesting is the way the book has been conceptualised. There are eight sections and the headers tell you exactly what that section is all about (for instance, East Goes West, Growing Local Brands). And in those 200-odd pages, Ms Lam manages to pack in quite a lot. But in the end, the book is appropriate only for those in the starting stages of their businesses.