I'll say this till my throat gets hoarse! We must look up to the local stories of success (and failure) more than the ones coming from the west, or anywhere else for that matter. This is because in addition to teaching us the "first principles", they also teach us "context". Which in my opinion is the secret ingredient of most things that become great.
So, I picked up The Inheritors. The book has short (but comprehensive) stories on many Indian businesses and their founding families. From Dabur to Marico, Motilal Oswal to Berger Paints, Luxor to Keventers, and even Select Citywalk...the book offers "diversity" in the true sense of the word. In just 250 pages, you could learn from 9 families who've built businesses in the course of the last 100 years in India. Infinite wisdom! The stories are bizarre and legendary in their own right and portray the Indian idiosyncrasies quite well. I'm just surprised that anyone could get that sort of honesty out of otherwise occult Indian families. Infinite respect to Ms. Sonu Bhasin.
While I found the writing a bit bland at some instances, I'd recommend everyone to give this book an honest try. I'm very sure that while you might find the book a bit hard to complete, these kind of terrific historical insights are simply not available in the Indian business ecosystem.
The Inheritors is an extremely important book which should not be missed, but just don't quit on it too soon.
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