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You can win

D. Murali

SHIV Khera's You can win is a step-by-step tool for `top achievers'. The secret is out on the cover page of the book: ``Winners don't do different things. They do things differently.'' Here are more tips from Khera:

* We are born with five senses. Successful people have a sixth sense -- common sense.

* Ability without dependability, responsibility and flexibility is a liability.

* Failure is a detour, not a dead end. It is a delay, not a defeat.

* Commitment says, ``I am predictable in the unpredictable future.''

* Sincerity is no measure of good judgment. Someone could be sincere, yet wrong.

* Sympathy is, ``I understand how you feel.'' Empathy is, ``I feel how you feel.''

* Auto-suggestions are like writing a commercial to yourself about yourself, for yourself.

A must-read for those who can read!

Job study

WHY are there good jobs and bad jobs in the economy? This is the question that Peter Cappelli seeks to answer in Employment practices and business strategy. The book assembles a set of studies of high-performance workplace practices in a diverse set of i ndustries. Here are a few of the findings:

* Business strategies drive the choice of HR practices in steel industry. Where they don't coincide, the culprit is prior capital investment that dictates business strategy.

* The new `quick response' production systems represent an important alternative to the traditional `progressive bundle' system in the apparel industry. The number of styles produced by a company is not a good predictor of innovative HR practices.

* Disruptions in a plant's experience, such as shutdowns, help speed innovations in the auto industry.

* In the telecom industry, HR practices vary within companies -- across the different segments of business.

* The US uses less flexible employment systems because the larger scale of production `runs' accommodates less-flexible manufacturing systems.

A book that may not help you get more pay, but explain why you are getting less.

Seven habits

STEPHEN R. Covey is a man of `seven' habits. His book, The 7 habits of highly effective families (similarly titled as the `effective people' one) is about ``building a beautiful family culture in a turbulent world''. Read on:

* Good families -- even great families -- are off track 90 per cent of the time. So what? But vision is greater than baggage.

* Top disciplinary problems according to public school teachers, in 1940: talking out of turn, chewing gum, making noise, running in the halls, cutting in line, dress code infractions and littering. In 1990: drug abuse, alcohol abuse, pregnancy, suicide, rape, robbery and assault.

* Parents need to give trust, but they also need to verify competence.

* One of the worst feelings in the world is when you realise that the ``first things'' in your life -- including your family -- are getting pushed into second or third place, or even further down the list. And it becomes worse when you realise what's hap pening as a result.

* One of the best parts of being a family is that you can encourage one another. You can believe in one another. You can affirm one another.

And Covey acknowledges in the book his dear children -- not seven but nine. That could be difficult to emulate as a habit.

Risky business

MANAGING project risk, by Yen Yee Chong and Evelyn May Brown, is about business risk management for project leaders. ``The fine dividing line between adventure and folly'', the authors explain, ``rests on the understanding of the potential losses arising from the project, and the definition of acceptable risk.''

The notable difference between a business investor and a gambler is that the latter exercises very little control over his destiny. ``Few who do good market research end up poor,'' assures the book but the emphasis could be on `good'. A few one-liners:

* Running a business is partly surprise management.

* Life is ultimately lethal in the long run.

* In American football, ``you get paid for scoring points, not yardage.''

* ``They can't shoot straight.'' (President de Gaulle of France after yet another failed assassination attempt on him.

Reading the book could be a worthwhile risk.

(Books courtesy: Word Power, Chennai. www.wppublishers.com)

(Book courtesy: The British Council Library, Chennai. e-mail: contact.chennai@in.britishcouncil.org)

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Tailpiece

``If there is a fire, would you try to salvage your own books first, or the borrowed ones?''

``Both. I treat them alike.''

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