Advice on business literature from Helen Edwards

A new selection of business literature from SKOLKOVO Library Project Manager Helen Edwards will help you know better BRIC countries. Read about what is in store for India, why Chinese consumers are worth special attention, what N-11 is and how global energy is forecast to develop.

1. India inside: the emerging innovation challenge to the west
Nirmalya Kumar and Phanish Puranam
Harvard Business Review Press, 2012.
xv, 177 pages
ISBN: 9781422158753

This book asks the question: can India transition from "outsourced and made in India" to "imagined and owned in India". Despite India's success at becoming the back office of the world, there are not yet Indian innovations to match Google, iPods and Viagra. But there is much invisible innovation including R&D centres for multinationals and for outsourcing; process innovation especially the injection of intelligence to how routine operations are carried out; and management innovation in global service delivery. Using comprehensive research into data and interviews with Indian managers, the authors show how these strengths, and the focus on frugal engineering and making affordable products, constitutes very real innovation with much more to come.

2. As China goes so goes the world: how Chinese consumers are transforming everything
Karl Gerth
Hill and Wang, 2010.
vii, 258 pages
ISBN: 9780809034291

At the time of writing Chinese consumer spending was less than half of that of the United States, but already more than Japan and are closing in on the European Union. Chinese consumers are rapidly acquiring western tastes from eating meat in fast food outlets to luxury vacations. This book explores the collective implications of individual consumer choice for China and the rest of the world. Chapters cover the new car culture, wealth and inequality, modern retailing, the rise of brands and the parallel industry of fakes and counterfeits, extreme market such as endangered species and foreign adoptions, and the environmental implications.

3. The growth map: economic opportunity in the BRICs and beyond
Jim O'Neill
Portfolio Penquin,2011.
vii, 254 pages
ISBN: 9780670921263

Jim O'Neill, the rock star of Goldman Sachs as described by Business Week, was amongst the first, 10 years ago, to predict the importance of the BRICs. This book updates his thinking and now includes the N-11, the other fastest growing countries Bangladesh, Egypt, Indonesia, Iran, Mexico, Nigeria, Pakistan, the Philippines, South Korea, Turkey and Vietnam. Chapters address issues such as the finite nature of natural resources and new patterns of consumption. The author concludes that for the indebted nations of the west also, their future must be selling to these new consumers.

4. The Quest: energy, security, and the remaking of the modern world
Daniel Yergin
Allen Lane, 2011
ix, 804
ISBN: 9781846145421

This is the story of the quest to meet the world's energy needs and how it shapes world politics. Sections cover the new world of oil, securing the supply, the electric age, climate and carbon, new energies and the road to the future. The book starts by discussing two key events in 2011: the Japanese tsunami and its impact on nuclear reactors and the spring protests in several Arab states. Both delivered shocks to global markets as the price of oil shot up and underlined the fundamental importance of energy to the world.

5. Prices or knowledge: what drives demand for financial services in emerging markets
Shawn Cole, Thomas Sampson and Bilal Zia
Journal of Finance, December 2011, 66:6 1933-1967

This article describes work in India and Indonesia to test how demand for financial services can be stimulated. The study finds that education has only a modest effect but that even small subsidies greatly increase demand. What is more two years after opening most of these new accounts are still in use. PDF version of the article you can find here.