BACK OF THE BOOK

Numerals scare people. If scientists are so fond of them, it's because they're so useful. And they've played such a big role in turning the world so smart-if that's an achievement. But otherwise, they arouse fear and suspicion. Pictures, in contrast, have charm. Even oomph. Envision Venn diagrams. And the curves of the 'intersection' space between two part-overlapping circles.

The creativity in that overlap is The Medici Effect. As elaborated by the subtitle of this book by Frans Johansson, a business consultant, this is about 'Breakthrough Insights at the Intersection of Ideas, Concepts and Cultures'. Ant-watching, for example, can enhance communication efficiency, once the link is made.

Nothing awfully new in that, of course; this sort of thing has been going on for centuries. Take the Medici family of Florence. Once it gave up its Roman numerals hang-up, it started fostering Renaissance art under its patronage dome. Think da Vinci. And what he did. Thoughts started being rethought. Numerals started inspiring pictures, pictures began stimulating ideas, ideas got rocking... and that was nearly half a millennium ago.

THE MEDICI EFFECT By Frans Johansson Harvard Business School Press PP: 207 Price: Rs 1,125

Intersection ideas are often the result of connections between elements that seem to have nothing in common. "Everything connects in one way or another," writes Johansson, "The trick is seeing how things connect and then knowing how to use those connections."

Ever wonder why the numerals '1,2,3' in Hindi script look like those in English? Because they're conceptually the same. Just loopier. And more artistic, you might add. The Hindi '4' looks all the more nice and open-ended.

Know why the 'Sounds of Shakira' and 'Emotions of Shrek' (chapter 2) make for so much fanfare across the world? They play in the intersection of diverse influences, blending varied sounds and human feelings, laying bare the stuff they're made of.

Discerning the relevant links, though, is no child's play. One must bust the barriers put up in the brain by habitual thought patterns. Only then can the scents that ants use to coordinate activities become a model for digital signals in telecom networks, or can a healthcare question inspire a method to snuff out violence. For some handy intersectional tools to use, look up chapter 4, Heathrow Tunnel and Restaurants Without Food, which also has a few good words from creativity analyst Donald Campbell. Again: enlightening to some, common sense to others.

Clued-in readers and curious novices alike might find chapter 14 the most worthwhile. It explores attitudes to risk. What gives Virgin's Richard Branson, asks Johansson, the courage of his creativity?

More often than not, it's Kahneman & Tversky's 'Prospect Theory' (again, in the intersection of psychology and economics) that rules people's minds. "Loss is more vivid than gain," as the book explains it. The mere prospect of a loss causes enough pain to outdo the joy of a gain that's equally likely. Healthcare folk see it all the time. Asked to choose between a prophylactic that risks half a chance of doom and another option that assures half a chance of survival, people always opt for the latter, even though the difference is only in how the choice is framed.

That's how it is with intersection play as well. It's not without risk. But attitude counts. For the creative urge to surge, the wonder of what the intersection could deliver-imaginably-must outplay the fear of failure.

-Aresh Shirali

HARDBALL By George Stalk and Rob Lachenauer Harvard Business School Press PP: 175 Price: Rs 1,125

Even if you do not subscribe to the 'Nice guys finish last' school of business, curiosity could get you thumbing through this all-American book. Co-written by George Stalk, Senior Vice President at Boston Consulting Group (BCG), and Rob Lachenauer, former BCG consultant and current CEO of geo2 Technologies, Hardball: Are You Playing to Play or Playing to Win?, is not about apple pie or any other mushy objects that once symbolised America. It is about the baseball equivalent of bodyline bowling in cricket, as a metaphor for business aggression.

Ever since us monopoly-busters nailed Microsoft, such talk has been unfashionable, rue the authors. But having an edge over rivals is not enough. Their advice: don't get even, get mean. "Neutralise, marginalise and even punish rivals." Within legal constraints, of course. "Only the hardball players should survive," they announce, with a righteous air of machismo that rarely finds its way out of smoke-filled rooms.

Yet, all this tough talk is worth little more than a shrug. Fist-pounding does not win. What wins, as even hardnosed analysts of the Gaugamela and Panipat battles wouldn't deny, is the wise formulation and smooth execution of a strategy. An actual strategy. Is Hardball any good at that?

To be fair, this book tries. It lays out seven strategies. Some assume brute force as a readily available instrument, so are just repetitions of the book's theme. The rest? A schoolgirl of 13 would yawn at the steal-their-idea strategy. Breaking industry compromises is what value-for-money players have been doing all along anyway. Threatening profit sanctuaries? Big deal. The only strategy here with an element of guile: enticing the rival into a trap.

Be warned: this is not a nice book. It has nothing new either. What's more, getting mean rather than smart could make you just that-average. Maybe sore too.

TWO ALONE, TWO TOGETHER Edited by Sonia Gandhi Penguin India PP: 608 Price: Rs 595

Just how much influence does a parent exert on a child? How long into adulthood does that last? In a country so taken in by all the implications of family inheritance, genetic or otherwise, inter-generational relationships are always under watch. This book is a collection of letters exchanged by Jawaharlal Nehru and his daughter Indira Gandhi. It makes for absorbing study material to anyone intrigued by the relationship shared by the two leaders who shaped independent India's destiny with such a firm hand (for better or worse). There's not much here to play the pop-psychologist on their contrasting attitudes to dissent, but it reveals their inner thoughts in other ways.