Disruptive Solutions for Pokes in Business

Disruptive Solutions for Pokes in Business

Mumbai, Wednesday 26 March 2014: Unpredictable twists and turns that get in the way of doing business are pokes that find a disruptive solution in Shombit Sengupta’s Strategic Pokes – the Business Jalebi. This new book was launched by Jacques Vincent, Board Director and former Vice Chairman & COO of $28 billion French global giant, Groupe Danone in Mumbai today.

“I went through different stages in reading Strategic Pokes; it challenged me, made me feel enthusiastic, bitter, seduced, moved, but never indifferent,” said Mr Vincent who was especially invited from Paris to be Chief Guest Since the mid-1980s he had appointed and worked with author and international business strategy consultant to top management, Shombit Sengupta, on several Groupe Danone brands in different countries.

Speaking on the occasion as guest of honour, Harsh Mariwala, Chairman Marico Ltd. said, “Like the first book in his Jalebi Trilogy, Shombit has very beautifully synthesized perspectives from management, history, travels and the creative arts in this second book Strategic Pokes. I believe this book will be as just as relevant to the Indian manager and as valuable a contribution to India’s business literature.”

Author and Executive Director R Gopalakrishnan of Tata Sons said as guest of honour, “Shombit has provided yet another delightful read. What sounds profouind in normal business talk is explained with utter simplicity by a top class professional.”

Strategic Pokes extracts the googly aspect of the jalebi while making it analogous to business. The jalebi’s crookedness gives the strategic pokes. Why jalebi? According to Shombit Sengupta, it’s perhaps the only sweet connecting poor and rich, old and young across heterogeneous India. His book sensitizes readers on the unsavoury pokes in business they are already experiencing implicitly. These pokes are varied, increasing every day and becoming sharper, both globally and locally.

“This sequel to Sengupta’s Jalebi Management book has very truly taken me on that same breathtaking journey of social insights he has picked up from around the world,” continued Mr Vincent who is among the world’s most admired corporate transformers, having co-disrupted the French conglomerate BSN from being 18 different industries to converge into single focus Groupe Danone, now a world leader in dairy, spring water and baby nutrition present in over 140 countries.

Vivek Mehra, President, Sage Publications, while welcoming the large gathering said comparing Indian industry to a jalebi was so totally a disruptive idea that the first Jalebi book was extremely well received by the market. He was confident Strategic Pokes which rides through the Indian and European landscape, spanning across history, to explore the perceptible, exciting distinction that customers value would do just as well.

Prince Augustin, Executive Vice President in Mahindra and Mahindra was the MC who acknowledged that the book responds to today’s generation that’s always short on time and patience. Each of the book’s 5 major chapters reveals several disruptive pokes on different business subjects.

Professor of International Business at HEC Paris School of Management Jean-Paul Larçon said in the book’s introduction, “The book is about entrepreneurship, innovation, creative solutions and the art of building or renewing the brand image of the firm and its corporate value. It offers a very clear answer to the question of how to unleash the potential of Indian companies. Certainly not by imitating the West, but on the contrary by developing creative strategies based on Indian-specific character, skills, and entrepreneurial talent.”

.Published by Sage Publications, Response Business Books, Strategic Pokes – the Business Jalebi shows you how to disruptively change the paradigm, get rid of pokes. This 307-page, 5-chapters book is priced at Rs 425.