COMPLEX ISSUES MANAGEMENT: STRATEGIES AND TACTICS By Ranjan Das with Kajari Mukherjee Tata McGraw-Hill Pp: 397 Price: Rs 450

Any manager who has ever tried selling anything globally will readily agree that the world markets today are much more complex than what they were earlier. We also know the reasons behind it: Thanks to globalisation, countries and markets are deeply integrated; thanks to the internet and satellite television, consumer behaviours and aspirations are changing in unpredictable ways; domestic political issues tend to snowball into global issues; and regulations are getting far more complicated. The field of management education has a name for this emerging phenomenon: It's called a complex system. And Ranjan Das, Professor of Strategic and International Management at IIM Calcutta, argues that complexity is here to stay. So what managers need to do is to learn how to approach complex issues in order to make sound decisions.

But first, what are the characteristics of a complex system? Typically, a complex system has many moving parts, each with a mind of its own. What makes the system so unpredictable is the fact that these "interactions can move the system towards stabilisation and orderliness, as well as push (it) towards disequilibrium, where there is a danger of the system degenerating into chaos", say the authors. That is, complex systems are one where order and chaos are forever in uneasy balance, and it is far easy for the system to tip over into chaos than to maintain its balance. To be able to manage a complex system, Das and Mukherjee argue, the manager must have a mindset that "encourages new ideas, is comfortable with improvisations, can take leaps of faith even with incomplete information...".

The authors illustrate the theory with a case study on Delhi's switchover from diesel to CNG for buses. The problems of doing so are seen through the eyes of Indraprastha Gas Ltd, a company set up by GAIL, BPCL and the Delhi government to supply clean fuel CNG in the city. Arguably, there are far more complex issues that the authors could have taken up, but "given the uniqueness of the research topic and also that complexity theory is still a growing field, the authors felt it necessary to use a single case, since the objective is to do 'theory building'". The authors' effort is laudable. Usually, Indian writers on management resort to well-known international case studies to buttress their theories. However, Das and Mukherjee have not just chosen to take on a budding field of complexity theory, but research a uniquely Indian case in the context. No doubt, more such work will add tremendously to sparse management literature on local issues.

OPTIMIZING THE ORGANIZATION By Subhash Khare Tata McGraw-Hill Pp: 194 Price: Rs 395

Perhaps one should stop complaining about a lack of published management research in India. Khare's Optimizing the Organization is based on Wipro's own struggle at striking a balance between immediate goals and future targets. Therefore, as Chairman Azim Premji points out in his foreword to the book, "the 'mezzanine' or 1,000 feet view that his book takes will be even more helpful than a look at this battle from the cockpit of a plane at 30,000 feet". The book is structured very simply, with Khare, Head of Staffing and Central Productivity at the IT giant, beginning with an explanation of optimisation, followed by more detailed how-to's on improving efficiency and productivity. As is evident, Khare takes a "process-view" of the organisation. Therefore, companies that are caught in a struggle to optimise their resources will find Khare's book useful. The author doesn't pretend to offer yet another methodology for optimisation, but only outlines some key approaches based on his own experiences at Wipro.

That also means the book is relevant for all types of organisations, and not just IT companies.