Saturday, October 8, 2011

Best Sellers (Books) in India in 2011 and Publishing Trends



Which books are best sellers in India? I couldn't find any best sellers list in India substantiated with data such as number of books sold.

Every book website or book store develops its own list without any data points. I decided to check out four leading sources ( 2 websites and 2 book stores) and tried to develop a common list.

The sources I referred to are Flipkart, Infibeam, Crossword and Landmark bestsellers list. (Data retrieved on Oct 5).

My hypothesis is that if a book appears in more than one bestseller list then it is likely to be a best seller. Out of 200 + book list with this criteria , I narrowed down to 56 best sellers book list. ( excluding academics books )

I further classified these 56 best sellers among 3 categories -

Gold Best Sellers - Books which are present in all 4 lists
Silver Best Sellers - Books which are present in any 3 lists
Bronze Best Sellers - Books which are present in any 2 lists

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Before best seller list, little bit of information of my new book:

"WHO IS THAT LADY?




Website/ Where to buyhttp://www.whoisthatlady.com

Facebook Pagehttp://www.facebook.com/WhoIsThatLady

A Business Fiction book - "Who is that lady?"


The book is about an idea that is converted into a billion dollar business, about a belief that an idea can be implemented and about formulating right strategy for converting an idea into a business. The plot harmoniously weaves around complex business fundamentals, required to set up, run and make a business successful, presented in lucid, easy to understand style. The novel is about implementation, about challenges that can be overcome, about success, about friendship, about passion, and about fun above all! All in all a hilarious and inspiring story on entrepreneurship and idea possibilities!

The book has got good and encouraging reviews from readers so far.

Dr. T. R. Madanmohan ( Ex Associate Professor IIM Bangalore ) says, “Reading ‘Who is that lady?’ brought vividly the moments of celebration and anguish of "identification of business opportunity", validation and construction of business model and implementation. A wonderful, written as a novel, that should be read by all current and future business leaders. Wish the book was available around 2005 for my class of Managing Technology led business at IIM Bangalore. I am sure the class would have devoured and gained much more from the book.” 

Sathish Sheshadri ( Management Consultant at IBM) says, “India is renowned for using stories to convey great life lessons. Who is that Lady could well become such a legendary story on the topic of innovation and entrepreneurship. Everyone from students to CEOs will find a lot to reflect on, from the pearls of wisdom that the authors have shared through the protagonist, Pratik.”

Major Pooja Gupta says, “The book makes you think... if there is anything in this world which is impossible.”

Subir Dhar (Principal Consultant at Infosys) says, “This book will inspire India’s restless youth to take up entrepreneurship.”

Neerav Nimesh (Entrepreneur) says, “An entertaining book, which is not only a good novel but also a very good book on management. The author has been able to explain the fundamentals of every aspect of business whether marketing, planning, strategy, organizational structure, H.R., lines of communication, team work, goal setting etc and has done so without appearing to dispense "gyan".


Website/ Where to buy - http://www.whoisthatlady.com

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Continuing Best Sellers List ...

There are 5 Books in Gold Best Sellers

2 States by Chetan Bhagat
Connect The Dots by Rashmi Bansal
Jaya by Devdutt Pattanaik
Rich Dad Poor Dad by Robert T. Kiyosaki
Women & The Weight Loss Tamasha byRujuta Diwekar

There are 15 Books in Silver Best Sellers

Don't Lose Your Mind Lose Your Weight by Rujuta Diwekar
Fault Lines by Raghuram G Rajan
Highway On My Plate by Rocky Singh, Mayur Sharma
I Have A Dream by Rashmi Bansal
Life Is What You Make It by Preeti Shenoy
River Of Smoke by Amitav Ghosh
Stay Hungry Stay Foolish by Rashmi Bansal
The 3 Mistakes Of My Life by Chetan Bhagat
The 7 Habits of Highly Effective by Stephen R Covey
The Emperor Of All Maladies by Siddhartha Mukherjee
The Fountainhead by Ayn Rand
The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo by Stieg Larsson
The Lost Symbol by Dan Brown
The Power by Rhonda Byrne
Theodore Boone: The Abduction by John Grisham




There are 36 Books in Bronze Best Sellers List

Aleph by Paulo Coelho
Big Girl by Danielle Steel
Bombay Duck is a fish by Kanika Dhillon
Chanakya's Chant by Ashwin Sanghi
Corporate Chanakya by Radhakrishnan Pallai
Diary Of A Wimpy Kid: The Ugly Truth by Jeff Kinney
Dork by Sidin Vadukut
Empire of the Moghul: Ruler of the World by Alex Rutherford
Employees First, Customers Second by Vineet Nayar
Five Point Someone by Chetan Bhagat
Geek Nation by Angela Saini
Good to Great by Jim Collins
Growing Up Bin Laden by Jean P Sasson
India : A Portrait by Patrick French
India After Gandhi by Ramachandra Guha
Johnny Gone Down by Karan Bajaj
Mafia Queens Of Mumbai by Hussain Zaidi
Mini Shopoholic by Sophie Kinsella
Mother Pious Lady by Santosh Desai
Ohh Yes, I Am Single by Durjoy Datta, Neeti Rustagi
One Night At The Call Centre by Chetan Bhagat
Only Time Will Tell by Jeffrey Archer
Sachin: 501 Things You Didn’t know by Suvam Pal
Superfreakonomics by Levitt Steven
The Alchemist by Paulo Coelho
The Facebook Effect by David Kirkpatrick
The Finkler Question by Howard Jacobson
The Girl who kicked the hornets nest by Stieg Larsson
The Immortals Of Meluha by Amish Tripathi
The Kane Chronicles: The Throne of Fire by Rick Riordan
The Secret by Rhonda Byrne
The Sixth Man by David Baldacci
The Steve Jobs Way by Jay Elliot, William Simon
The Winning Way by Harsha Bhogle, Anita Bhogle
Those in Peril by Wilbur Smith
Tinderbox by M J Akbar




Since I had the best sellers data, the Analyst in me couldn't stop analyzing Publishing Trends

Authors

Indian Authors are more than foreign authors in the best sellers list, though difference is narrower than I expected...

Publishers

Leading Publishers for Indian Authors are Westland, Harpercollins, Rupa, Penguin, Shristi and Random House which all have more than one publication in best seller list. The list was on expected lines but I am surprised by the relative ranking.

Pricing

Contrary to my earlier perception that success of best sellers is because of low pricing , the two third of best sellers are not low priced.


Pages

Contrary to my earlier perception, in the twitter age, the necessary condition for best seller is not crisp content or less pages. The two thirds of best sellers are with heavy content.



Popular vs Classics

Any book which is among best sellers list even after 5 years of its publication is more than popular and can be called as classic ( irrespective of the critique) . I found 6 books in the list which are published before 2006

The Fountainhead
Good to Great
Rich Dad Poor Dad
The 7 Habits of Highly Effective
Five Point Someone
The Alchemist

Next few years will tell whether few of the popular books will move to classic status ( Contender are books by Rashmi Bansal, Rujuta Diwekar and Stieg Larsson among others)

For 2012 Best Sellers List

Sunday, October 2, 2011

Telecom Strategy: Sourcing as a Differentiator



Can Sourcing Strategy be a competitive advantage for Telecom Operators?


Bharti Airtel has build its leadership position in India with innovating sourcing approach. First with IT and Network Outsourcing and later with Tower Outsourcing. They were among first few operators in Asia to debundle the products sourcing for eg. first debundle Power system from BTS and then debundle Battery from Power Systems to avoid vendor markups. Now Bharti is following similar approach in Africa too!

Will other operators follow the suit?

Telenor Group has learned a trick or two from Bharti in India to concentrate on sourcing.

What about Customer Service as a differentiator?


As Telecom sector is consolidating and approaching "Rule of Three", the customer satisfaction is becoming less as a differentiator ( Subscribers are finding that all operators are equally pathetic!). In one of research, I observed Churn correlated to number of players in the country !

What about innovation?

Innovation in pricing, services , marketing can easily be copied in Telecom. So not a differentiator.


Sourcing Strategy even if not a major differentiator it is necessary for survival. "Survival of Cheapest !"


Related articles:



50 Energy Opex Saving Strategies for Telecom Operators