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Book Review : Startup Secrets From The Ramayan


Startup Secrets From The Ramayan
Prachi Garg

The Ramayan is not a scripture one would normally connect with something like a Startup; sounds, well, zany, at least at first thought. Even at a second thought, the connection may not be apparent; so my advice, think a little again. For, from one POV, that is exactly what Prabhu Shri Ram did : Startup, afresh-anew, with minimal resources and an uncertain external world. Now if that isn’t the literal definition of a startup, I don’t know what is!



The Book

This is a book that certainly breaks in a style that continues to break fresh ground; representing a time-honoured scripture in a learning that is mesmerizing, and well-laid-out. The concept is similar to what is stated above: an entrepreneur decides to separate from his existing business etc, and sets up anew in a new city and a new business. He, alongwith his family – Wife, Younger Brother – sets off to build a thriving business, and expanding all over, including Lanka. The 2nd half of the book is all about how this successful new startup sets up in Lanka and thrives.

Analysis

This is a continuation in Prachi’s efforts, after The Legends of a Startup Guy;  this is a work of fiction – a superbly laid out fiction “thriller” almost, albeit a short one – intertwined with a series of Management Lessons. This makes learning much more effortless; and thus, this style has its own advantages. Further, the association with strong existing personalities also further enables easy assimilation as well as recall of the intertwined messages and learnings involved in the text of the book. This fascinating approach works bigtime in delivering a strong non-fiction genre book that gives a powerful message to all Startups.

First, the fictional aspect. It clicks, and big time. You are literally glued to the pages, and have a strong desire to pull ahead, just to see how it all turns out. This is despite knowing the entire story beforehand, thanks to the Ramayan. That is the timeless ageless pull of this magnificent scripture. That said, imaging and recreating a fictional set of characters and a plotline on such a famous story / historical is no easy task. Ms Garg has managed it with aplomb; each character stays well within the character-plot of the actual Ramayan. The story gels with the reader, and has staying power; it has a fluid easy simple narrative, and moves at an astonishingly fast pace.

I say astonishing; this is because the key reason for this book is as a management lesson for Startups and professionals. Despite this unique approach, Ms Garg has managed to ensure that the lessons being derived from the story are intact, and in fact strengthened by their association with the historical base of the story. Thus, the fictionalized version actually strengthens and reinforced learnings, aids in recall & assimilation, and proves to be a powerful tool for Learning and Development. This can for sure be used in a much wider arena to deliver complex involved layered take-aways in Training Programmes. Thus, this makes it a must-read for all L&D, HR/OD and Content professionals as well!

Through the way the Startup Kutumb is built, Startups / Sales-Marketing-Strategy professionals can learn a few ideas, draw some inspiration; this is crystal clear. L&D can learn a lot in telling an educational story, widening their skillsets. HR-OD, as they have to communicate within organisations, can also draw lessons in comprehension, thereby modulating their communiques internally. OD teams can draw a load of inspiration as Kutumb scales up and tackles newer stronger competition, causing internal stress – which is one clear aspect of OD. There is much more; my purpose here is to create a reason, a connect for the reader to the book.

Conclusion

All in all, this is a brilliant, well thought out and presented book that spans the twin domains – Fiction and Non-Fiction both. It has a great storyline that you can read as a light fiction, and it has a great set of learnings in various business domains that you pick up as you progress along the path of Kutumb, the Chitrakoot based startup and its subsequent venture into Lanka. The learnings and characters both stay with you after, long after, you put down the book – which is the hallmark of an excellently penned tome!

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