About the book:
Ivy League educated management consultant, Michael Schneider, gets hired by an unlikely client. A mafia boss wants to make a last desperate bid to revive his family business that spans across gambling, drugs and porn. A reluctant Schneider takes on the challenge to give the underworld organization a makeover. Join Schneider as he takes on the most challenging management consulting job ever!- Publisher: Booksoarus (24 April 2014)
About the Author:
Sameer Kamat is among the best career counsellors in India. He also shares writing & publishing tips and ideas on getting self-published in India. The author is a multi-faceted personality. Hi earlier book Beyond The MBA Hype, published by HarperCollins, advises MBA applicants on the pitfalls and opportunities of applying to international MBA courses. Within 3 months of getting released, the first print run was sold out. He i the founder of MBA Crystal Ball, an MBA admissions consulting venture that helps Indian applications get into the top international MBA programs. He left hi Mergers & Acquisitions career and bid adieu to the corporate world in 2011 to focus full-time on the entrepreneurial aspirations. He serve on the Editorial Board of the Journal of General Management (UK), a leading UK-based academic publication that has a global readership.My Review:
This is actually a four-and-a-half star from me.This book peels its layers one after the other, and delightfully, to the readers' expectation and beyond, all layers are equally enthralling, if not more, and all of them have been woven to keep up the pace of the plot and simultaneously the intrigue and unalloyed attention of the reader.
Lets talk about the title first up. When the titles reads, "Business Doctors", it isn't just an oxymoronic play of words. It is for the reader to find out. And here begins a journey of the reader foray into the uncanny plot twists the story will take.
The story opens up with one set of characters and is carried forward by others.
Enter Stephen Woody: he makes killing look easy, he drummed his fingers to create a tapping sensation thereby building tension and suspense. In other words, he is an underworld boss.
The place he operates from is called the Dungeon.
With his foot in handful of businesses like casino, porn industry et al, his business is going through a lean patch. Scratch that. His business is on the brink of ruin. He desperately seeks some professional advice.
His wife (mafia's wife) comes into picture and changes it.
That is all that can be said without spoilers. How she changes it is for you to find. Suffice to say, the way she changes the equations is very pivotal to the plot.
Another layer to the book is the insightful management gyaan on offer. Right from the consulting expertise to the human resource management lessons in the alleyways and lanes of the plot, everything happens in an uncanny way. And why shouldn't it? This is certainly not any regular consultancy client!
Another commendable part of the novel is that the author has done justice to each character no matter how trivial or pivotal the role or however long or short the duration of that role.
Humour has taken vivid forms and shapes. The most enjoyable read is between the pages of those chapters which are a demonstration of an unusual sort of people-management.
*Spoiler alert*
The transformation of criminals and miscreants into valuable human resources( still criminals) is just hilarity in leaps and bounds.
Best Lines:
Usually I list out the quotable lines here, but this time around I shall make an exception, and state an excerpt, for the sheer wit and humor:
Woody was reputed and feared as a man who had
uncommon strength when enraged. This was not just rumor
– two of the men present in the chamber had seen their
boss twist off the arm of a rival goon - mercilessly –
agonizing screams echoing from the victim, till the arm was
just hanging off via loose tendons. Suffice to say the doctors
could not sew back Woody‟s handiwork
My Judgement:
In this era of an abundance of books, if you do have to make a choice among a plethora of books, do read this for it is worth the investment in money, efforts and time, with returns in the form of an added vocabulary, a fulfilled reading experience and insights into the forms that management consulting can take.Book Trailer:
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