Saturday, October 20, 2012

STOP ME IF YOU CAN - An IIM Grad's tryst with sales

Author: Mayank Jain
Publication: Alchemy Publishers
Price: INR 175

A young man graduates from IIM-C, one of the premier most MBA institutes of India, and lands a job of a Sales Management Trainee at ABC, a leading FMCG company. Lakhs of people can only dream of being in a similar position.

A dream stage is set and now it is expected that this person will also grow up to be one among the rest. Slowly, he would also become what most of the other people like him eventually become - ordinary people, only that they have a supposedly extra-ordinary educational qualification. But not Rohit Salaria, our hero. He would set the stage on fire instead. He is sure that the world has never seen and shall never see another Rohit Salaria.

Our over-enthusiastic and supernaturally talented hero gives his bosses (far too many for such a short span of time) the time of their lives till he finally ends up in a situation where he has pratically lost his job as well as the love of his life.

It is interesting how he eventually makes things go the right way, though it would have been a lot better had the story ended in a different way.

Being a management student myself, it is easy to analyse the thoughts of a fresh management graduate. To think of oneself as a God personified - best manager ever, to apply the principles of management and to think of them as the supreme guidelines - yes, an incredibly typical 'B-school grad' mindset.

There are a lot of interesting characters that are introduced at different places in the book - Priya, Loser, Sucker, Barua, Boro, the three bosses and so many more. All appear like different colours deliberately and wonderfully scattered to dipict variety and prevent the story from losing itself.

Through the story, one thing is evident. The very fact that not working up the ladder the right way is not easy and is full of uncertainties, even though it might just somehow, bring success. Also, self-belief and confidence are the tools that help in growth and with the help of these, any thing can be achieved, at least it did in the world of Rohit Salaria!

The best thing about this book is that it is not very far from reality and is really easy to understand and relates to the situations actually faced by companies, and fresh B-school graduates, as well!

Indeed a humour packed, racy and exuberant peek into the corporate world drama, one can't just overlook. A must read for all, especially young management students, executives and employees of the corporate world!

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