3/19/10
Winter Quarter Book Review
Tarun Khanna: “Billions of Entrepreneurs"
ISBN # 978-1-4224-0383-8
OVERVIEW
Tarun Khanna’s book, “Billions of Entrepreneurs” is a great resource for facts relating to many of our world’s industries. Each of his fourteen chapters highlights a different realm, from medicine, to entertainment, to science and finance. He makes strong comparisons between India and China and carefully illustrates how they fill in the holes of each others’ societies. He explains how they serve as the yin and yang to each other in today’s developing world. I find his writing style easy to read and he has a plethora of real-life examples. The topics are so varied and thorough, it is obvious that he put much time into research for this book.
TARGET AUDIENCE
Anyone looking to learn more about the history and current status of India and China world would be fascinated by the varied topics Khanna covers in this book. I was very impressed by the wide array of topics that he covered and will highlight a few of the topics in the paragraphs below.
On the medical side of things, he has great hopes for China and India’s abilities to contribute to cures and new ways of handling patient care. His expectations for new developments in service innovations stem from the sheer volume of people in these countries. He envisions a future world, in 2030 to be exact, with 300 million diabetics. 100 million (roughly a third) will be inhabitants of China or India – these societies will have to develop streamlined care to manage this type of volume.
A similar hope for streamlined care in a growing society was discussed in the chapter about Dr. Devi Shetty. His virtual cardio-care hospitals are doing wonders for a society with patients located in remote regions. I think that the US could learn a lot from these low-cost, high-tech ideas and further develop our patient care standards.
I found the development and marketing of India’s new tractors, M&M, very intriguing. Their “Deere John” ad parodying the phrase and their major competitor’s brand name fascinated me. I was shocked to learn that the female segment of the tractor market is so big.
STRENGTHS
Khanna is very clever with his metaphors. I especially liked his phrasing relating to Jawaharlal Nehru’s reign as India’s first prime minister. The statement that Nehru “acted as midwife to India’s birth” creates an image of the newness of India’s statehood and Nehru’s commitment to that rebirth.
Khanna also did an excellent job of portraying controversial issues in a very neutral light. It is hard to imagine living with the internet censorship in China; his description of the internet-police cartoon characters that are visible on-screen during internet surfing, “Jing” and “Cha,” was delivered in an almost natural and playful way. He did not insult China’s censorship policy and spoke of their practices in a very matter-of-fact manner.
His description of the bay of Mumbai was great. It excited me to read about such a place and know that I will be visiting there soon. The juxtaposition of the wealthy and the poor fisherman in such a compact area intrigues me. Ramnath, a member of the informal sector whom Khanna interviewed, described the region as having “the best view in the city.” It is difficult to imagine the severe poverty of the fishing village surrounded by premiere real estate – I will have to see it to believe it! The root of the name of this fishing tribe, the Koli, is very interesting to me as well. Developed from the Marathi word for spider and fisherman, it is interesting to acknowledge that they both capture their prey with nets.
The innovation for allowing Indian citizens to make donations via ATM was very entrepreneurial. The “Anytime Blessings” seem to be a novel way to donate money. For those who are unable to make the pilgrimage to Vaishno Devi to make their donations, the ATM access to Manoraths or Rajbhogs allows for virtual hundis. The technological advances in society make these old-time habits more accessible in a modern culture.
After learning about accounting and the GAAP this year in my accounting course, I found it very interesting that Infosys was the first Indian company to adopt GAAP accounting practices. This standardization has served them well, making their financial statements more transparent and accessible to American and other international investors.
Khanna did an excellent job of incorporating relevant quotes into chapter headings. These delightful snippets helped to set the stage as an introduction of new topics. I especially like the Wu Kegang quote found in the chapter on Infosys. “As entrepreneurs we are condemned either to being the concubines of state enterprises or the mistresses of multinationals,” is an excellent lead-in to Chinese government business oversight and intervention. This quote, along with the traditional Chinese saying, “To steal a book is an elegant offense,” really help to illustrate the issues the Bill Gates had with the Chinese government relating to his Windows and Microsoft software.
The terms “soft power” and “hard power” are used quite often in today’s global society. His explanation of soft power as "the ability to get what you want through attraction rather than coercion or payments" was one of the clearest definitions I have ever read. His explanation of societies’ use of soft power was also excellent.
Khanna is bold with his choice of examples. I truly enjoyed the section on Cobra Beer. It helped to illustrate the issues of bureaucracy that an entrepreneur in India faces. The fact that he was better able to develop his business in the UK shows the struggle that an entrepreneur faces in India. I find it ironic that he now brews in the UK and exports to India, which is a complete 180 from his original starting point of brewing in India for export to the UK.
WEAKNESSES
I was disappointed in the limited scope of entrepreneurship that Khanna covered. The title gives you the impression that this is a book about entrepreneurs. In reality, this book seems to focus on the social and existing business aspects of India and China’s societies. He does speak of successful business models developed in these countries, but he seems to focus more on the government policies, the hardships and futures we can expect to see in these two countries.
Throughout the book, Khanna discusses various themes. I found the ending of the book very abrupt. The last chapter just kind of ended, with no conclusion tying the previous chapters together. He had a very well developed introduction and I was surprised to see his book lacking a similar conclusion
Khanna’s thesis statement is very clearly positioned early on in his book, though I did not see it very thoroughly developed in his book. He states that “entrepreneurship in developing countries occurs in far more encompassing and far-reaching ways that in more developed settings.” I find this perspective to be very interesting, but his chapters to do not always help to solidify his stated main point.
One complaint I have for his writing style is the repetitive nature of certain metaphors. There were multiple references to being as “rich as Croesus” – could he not conjure up any other descriptions of wealth?
I also feel that the book was poorly edited. There were a number of glaring errors – shouldn’t these typos be found before the book hits the press? Hopefully they will be caught and fixed before prior editions are published.
I also feel that this book was a little lengthy and seemed to try to address too many issues. The large volume of topics could have easily been into split two books. Some of the topics didn’t seem to flow together well, and it was a weird shift to be discussing entertainment and Bollywood in Chapter 12 just moments after discussing medicine and medical tourism in Chapter 10.
SUMMARY
Overall, I enjoyed the book. I found it to be a quick read with lots of great facts and figures. There was nothing earth-shatteringly new presented in the book, but it was a great collection of anecdotes and stories that Khanna obviously spent years collecting.
Khanna did a great job of exposing strengths and weaknesses in both cultures. Fortunately, he did not try to mirror one country after another and spoke of specifics relating to each culture’s individual position. He presented an unbiased perspective of these two cultures in an educated and entertaining fashion. This objective book introduces a variety of topics that serve as a springboard for anyone looking to learn more about the growth we have seen, and can expect to continue to see, in China and India.
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