strategy on S Anand

strategy on S Anand https://www.s-anand.net/blog/tag/strategy/ Recent content in strategy on S Anand Hugo -- 0.164.0 en-us Wed, 04 Mar 2026 22:23:29 +0800 White Pebble Black Pebble https://www.s-anand.net/blog/white-pebble-black-pebble/ Wed, 04 Mar 2026 22:23:29 +0800 https://www.s-anand.net/blog/white-pebble-black-pebble/ <p>When I was in class 8 or 9, our English teacher told us a story I’ll never forget.</p> <p><img loading="lazy" src="https://files.s-anand.net/images/2026-03-05-white-pebble-black-pebble.avif"> </p> <blockquote> <p>There was a poor farmer who lived in a village. He owed the zamindar (landlord) of the village a lot of money.</p> <p>The zamindar had an eye on his daughter. “Marry your daughter to me, and I’ll forgive your debt,” he said.</p> <p>The farmer was reluctant. “Please, sir, what will the village say about your marrying such a young girl?” he asked.</p> <p>The wily zamindar said, “They cannot argue with God’s will. Let fate decide.”</p> <p>The zamindar gathered the villagers near the river, picked up pebbles of white and black from the riverbed, and told the farmer, “I will put a white and black pebble in this bag. If your daughter picks the black pebble, fate wills that she marry me. If she picks the white pebble, she needn’t. Your debt will be forgiven.”</p> <p>But without the villager’s knowledge, the zamindar put two black pebbles in the bag.</p> <p>The farmer’s daughter saw this, and was in a dilemma. Exposing the zamindar force them back into debt.</p> <p>Instead, she picked a pebble from the bag dropped it “by accident” among other pebbles. “Sorry!” she said. “But let me see which pebble is left in the bag.”</p> <p>She showed the remaining black pebble from the bag. “I must have picked the white. Fate forgives our debt without marriage, sir.”</p> </blockquote> <hr> <p>I remember this story is because it converts a “no-win” situation into a “no-lose” one – just by reframing the problem.</p> <p>Whenever I think, “Damn! What a mess!” I hope I have enough wits to remember this story. There are many more black-pebble problems in life than we realize. We just need to be creative enough to drop the pebble and reframe the problem.</p> The Personal MBA https://www.s-anand.net/blog/the-personal-mba/ Fri, 07 Apr 2006 12:00:00 +0000 https://www.s-anand.net/blog/the-personal-mba/ <p><a href="http://www.joshkaufman.net/personalmba/">The Personal MBA</a>. John Kaufman says reading (<strong>and practicing</strong>) these 42 books should be as good as any MBA (and that an MBA is, perhaps excessively, expensive). Some of these books are worth a read in any case.</p> <p><strong>Master Yourself</strong></p> <ul> <li><a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0452267560/?tag=sanand-20">Mastery</a> by George Leonard</li> <li><a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0743201140/?tag=sanand-20">Now, Discover Your Strengths</a> by Marcus Buckingham & Donald O. Clifton</li> </ul> <p><strong>Manage Your Life and Work</strong></p> <ul> <li><a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0142000280/?tag=sanand-20">Getting Things Done</a> by David Allen</li> <li><a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0743269519/?tag=sanand-20">The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People</a> by Stephen Covey</li> </ul> <p><strong>Learn the Fundamentals</strong></p> <ul> <li><a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0609608398/?tag=sanand-20">What the CEO Wants You to Know</a> by Ram Charan</li> <li><a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1400051525/?tag=sanand-20">Profitable Growth Is Everyone’s Business</a> by Ram Charan</li> </ul> <p><strong>Strategic Thinking</strong></p> <ul> <li><a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0875847951/?tag=sanand-20">On Competition</a> by Michael Porter</li> <li><a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1591396190/?tag=sanand-20">Blue Ocean Strategy</a> by W. Chan Kim, Renee Mauborgne</li> </ul> <p><strong>The Only Thing Constant is Change</strong></p> <ul> <li><a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1591391857/?tag=sanand-20">Seeing What’s Next</a> by Clayton M. Christensen, Erik A. Roth, Scott D. Anthony</li> <li><a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/078949647X/?tag=sanand-20">Re-imagine</a> by Tom Peters</li> </ul> <p><strong>Masters of Management</strong></p> <ul> <li><a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/006093574X/?tag=sanand-20">The Essential Drucker</a> by Peter Drucker</li> <li><a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0684852861/?tag=sanand-20">First, Break All the Rules</a> by Marcus Buckingham & Curt Coffman</li> </ul> <p><strong>The Finest Minds in Business</strong></p> <ul> <li><a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0966446119/?tag=sanand-20">The Essays of Warren Buffett</a> by Warren Buffett & Lawrence Cunningham</li> <li><a href="http://www.poorcharliesalmanack.com/">Poor Charlie’s Almanack</a> by Charlie Munger & Peter Kaufman</li> </ul> <p><strong>Dollars on the Books</strong></p> <ul> <li><a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0071425462/?tag=sanand-20">The McGraw-Hill 36-Hour Course in Finance for Nonfinancial Managers</a> by Robert A. Cooke</li> <li><a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0131025716/?tag=sanand-20">Essentials of Accounting, 8th edition</a> by Robert Anthony, Leslie Pearlman</li> </ul> <p><strong>Numbers and Negotiations</strong></p> <ul> <li><a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0471478679/?tag=sanand-20">How to Read a Financial Report</a> by John A. Tracy</li> <li><a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0140157352/?tag=sanand-20">Getting To Yes</a> by Roger Fisher, William Ury, and Bruce Patton</li> </ul> <p><strong>Operational Effectiveness</strong></p> <ul> <li><a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0884271781/?tag=sanand-20">The Goal</a> by Eliyahu Goldratt & Jeff Cox</li> <li><a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0743249275/?tag=sanand-20">Lean Thinking</a> by James Womack & Daniel Jones</li> </ul> <p><strong>Form and Function</strong></p> <ul> <li><a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0060186321/?tag=sanand-20">The Substance of Style</a> by Virginia Postrel</li> <li><a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0465067107/?tag=sanand-20">The Design of Everyday Things</a> by Donald A. Norman</li> </ul> <p><strong>Project Management and Marketing</strong></p> <ul> <li><a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0596007868/?tag=sanand-20">The Art of Project Management</a> by Scott Berkun</li> <li><a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1591840384/?tag=sanand-20">The Marketing Playbook</a> by John Zagula & Richard Tong</li> </ul> <p><strong>Do Your Own Thing</strong></p> <ul> <li><a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1591840562/?tag=sanand-20">The Art of the Start</a> by Guy Kawasaki</li> <li><a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00005R2F8/?tag=sanand-20">The Bootstrapper’s Bible</a> by Seth Godin</li> </ul> <p><strong>Speak Your Mind</strong></p> <ul> <li><a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0060006641/?tag=sanand-20">On Writing Well</a> by William Zinsser</li> <li><a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0787948039/?tag=sanand-20">Flawless Consulting</a> by Peter Block</li> </ul> <p><strong>The Delicate Art of Human Relations</strong></p> <ul> <li><a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0671723650/?tag=sanand-20">How To Win Friends and Influence People</a> by Dale Carnegie</li> <li><a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0071401946/?tag=sanand-20">Crucial Conversations</a> by Kerry Patterson, Joseph Grenny, Ron McMillan, and Al Switzler</li> </ul> <p><strong>Sell, Sell, Sell!</strong></p> <ul> <li><a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1885167601/?tag=sanand-20">The Little Red Book of Selling</a> by Jeffrey Gitomer</li> <li><a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0688128165/?tag=sanand-20">Influence: The Psychology of Persuasion</a> by Robert B. Cialdini</li> </ul> <p><strong>Economics and Worldviews</strong></p> <ul> <li><a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0517548232/?tag=sanand-20">Economics in One Lesson</a> by Henry Hazlitt</li> <li><a href="http://www.economist.com/">The Economist</a></li> </ul> <p><strong>Businesses, Past and Present</strong></p> <ul> <li><a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0882959859/?tag=sanand-20">American Business, 1920-2000</a> by Thomas McCraw, John Franklin, A. S. Eisenstadt</li> <li><a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1578512212/?tag=sanand-20">Brand New</a> by Nancy F. Koehn</li> </ul> <p><strong>Rules and Morals</strong></p> <ul> <li><a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0195132653/?tag=sanand-20">Law 101</a> by Jay M. Feinman</li> <li><a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0742513890/?tag=sanand-20">A Primer on Business Ethics</a> by Tibor Machan & James Chesher</li> </ul> <p><strong>Analyze This</strong></p> <ul> <li><a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0385491743/?tag=sanand-20">The 80/20 Principle</a> by Richard Koch</li> <li><a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0486637603/?tag=sanand-20">Principles of Statistics</a> by M.G. Bulmer</li> </ul> <p><strong>Voices of Experience</strong></p> <ul> <li><a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0471369799/?tag=sanand-20">The Little Book of Business Wisdom</a> by Peter Krass (Editor)</li> <li><a href="http://wwwxt.raytheon.com/communications/whs_rules/">Swanson’s Unwritten Rules of Management</a> by Bill Swanson</li> </ul> What consultants must do https://www.s-anand.net/blog/what-consultants-must-do/ Sun, 28 Jan 2001 12:00:00 +0000 https://www.s-anand.net/blog/what-consultants-must-do/ <p>Consultants’ role this year will be to <a href="http://www.consultingcentral.com/features/mag20001112cover.html">convert old economy</a> companies into new economy ones. Old economy strategy consultants will gain.</p> Oxford school of learning https://www.s-anand.net/blog/oxford-school-of-learning/ Mon, 18 Dec 2000 12:00:00 +0000 https://www.s-anand.net/blog/oxford-school-of-learning/ <p><a href="http://www.osl-ltd.co.uk/netmain.htm">Oxford School of Learning</a> is a free online B-school of sorts. Lots of <a href="http://www.osl-ltd.co.uk/netfreecasestudies.htm">case studies</a> (with answers), <a href="http://www.osl-ltd.co.uk/netreviews.htm">reviews</a>, etc.</p>