THE CASE OF THE BONSAI MANAGER By R. Gopalakrishnan Penguin Pp: 263 Price: Rs 450

Peter Drucker, reputed to be the greatest thought leader in management in the last century, was also a consultant to CEOs of large corporations. Drucker would never ask any executive for facts first, but always begin by asking for his opinion. The reason: Any executive worth his salt could find facts to support his opinions, he would say. Beliefs, as also the opinions based on those beliefs, were primal in the way human minds work, Drucker suggested.

Talking to business graduates recently, Jack Welch, considered to be amongst the best CEOs of the 20th century, said that their schooling in management would actually begin when they leave school and enter the real world. This is so because management as taught at business schools, with its overemphasis on facts and their analysis, has become increasingly divorced from the practice of management in the real world. Jeffrey Pfeffer of Stanford University points out that the curricula of business schools narrow the thinking process of students rather than broaden it as good education should.

R. Gopalakrishnan explains in his mind-opening book that a bonsai is a stunted tree whose natural processes have been curbed. Managers who rely only on analysis and facts, and suppress intuition (which flows into beliefs and opinions) are like bonsais. Business schools all over the world are beginning to recognise the limitations in their curricula, and many are seeking ways to develop the social skills of their students and teach them ethics and values-based management-the 'soft' skills that matter more in real life than the analysis of hard numbers. For these business schools and for business managers everywhere, Gopalakrishnan's book is very timely.

Gopalakrishnan makes the case for intuition. More importantly, he eloquently explains how intuition is developed. He uses analogies with animals and birds to explain insights into intuitive intelligence. His language is evocative and jargon-free and his images, memorable. What's more, he grounds all his insights in real life managerial situations, many of which are from his own rich and successful career with Lever and Tatas. Amongst other managerial situations that he recounts, one that I found particularly insightful is B. Muthuraman's account from his own diaries of decision-making processes and churning emotions when he was immersed in Tata Steel's Gopalpur steel project that never took off.

Ratan Tata's foreword and Gopalakrishnan's concluding paragraphs of the book are a ringing endorsement of values-based management. The Case of the Bonsai Manager is one of the most refreshing and useful books on management that I have read in many years. I hope many managers will read it and that it will be taught in business schools.

(Arun Maira is Chairman, Boston Consulting Group India)

BOTTLED FOR BUSINESS By Karan Bilimoria with Steve Coomber Wiley India Pp: 169 Price: Rs 299

What do you do after you have built a £100-million beer empire from scratch? Of course, tell the world how you did it and how other entrepreneur wannabes could do it, too. Bottled for Business takes readers inside the business philosophy that helped turn Karan Bilimoria from a freshly-minted law grad with £20,000 in student debt to a high-profile entrepreneur in the UK. So what in Bilimoria's opinion makes a good entrepreneur? A handful of qualities, says the son of an officer in the Indian Army. The ability to be creative and to go the extra mile, self-confidence, hard work, foresight, discipline, and (here's a tricky one) luck. But, then, you wouldn't be a very smart entrepreneur if you waited around for luck to come along, would you? Bilimoria, who went to the UK in the early 80s for studies, says business owners ought to 'get lucky'-"you have got to be out there looking for the luck". By way of advice, there's nothing in the book that you won't find in any other book on the subject. But the fact that the author is one of those who have successfully put the principles to work makes the work interesting and inspiring.