FACTFULNESS by Hans Rosling

FACTFULNESS: Ten Reasons We're wrong about the world - and why things are better than you think by Hans Rosling (2018) with Ola Rosling and Anna Rosling Ronnlund, Hachette - Sceptre, UK, p 342.

Some fifteen years ago a renowned practicing psychologist in Philadelphia was interacting with me and I asked him about his experience of India and to my utter surprise he shared some of the bad memories he had while he visited Bombay (Mumbai).  He told me it is overcrowded, beggars all over the places, corruption, poor law and order etc., etc. I didn't want him to continue further, so I intervened and inquired when was it, I mean the year, he tried to figure out the year but unable to recall he said it was sometime in early 80s.  I just told him, things have changed a lot in India and in Mumbai.  India is not same as before.  As world has changed, India has changed positively too.

But at the back of my head, I got into thinking as to how we tend to form our opinion about places and people and what drives our bias towards what we think. We see things from the experiences we have and get so possessed that we forget transitions overtime and our perspective lands into narrowness.  Most of us commit this error unknowingly and accordingly our perceptions and decisions are affected.  Many a times they are far from reality.

It is in this background when I read a brief about Factfulness and saw TED talk by Hans Rosling, I was driven to go through the book.  Bill Gates has been a great admirer of Hans Rosling and his way of looking at future on the basis of facts.  He states that it is one of the most important books he has ever read and that's why his charity is giving a free eCopy of this volume to all graduating Americans this year.

Factfulness is based on some of the most interesting questions each one of us should have and try to find answers of when we are interacting with the new world. Most of us tend to believe that the world is getting worse year after year.  We have heard lot of stories from our elders that their days were better.  Media keeps writing fascinating stories about the dark days we are living and going to face in the future.  Most politicians capitalize on our ignorance and preposterously play with our emotions. The policy makers get myopic while designing policies. So we form our perception on the basis of what gets written about, what people around us talk about and what was told to us long back or we saw long back.

Interestingly, most of the times we do not dig into data and try to know whether what is being served to us is correct or not, or what is the reality behind.  Hans Rosling along with Ola Rosling (son) and Anna Rosling Ronnlund (daughter-in-law) provide us guided tour through an unusual quiz and provocative puzzles which make one realize number of times that chimpanzees think better than a human being.  His arguments are exemplary and as a physician and expert on global health, his grip on health issues and defense that we are in much better condition as compared to the past, assures that things are not bad but perceptions are.  So better if we try finding facts and data and use some little analysis to form an opinion which can help us think better and make better policies. Though there are only 13 questions as such which are the basis of the whole argument that the world is getting better, there are many other questions which the book answers through the narratives to the social milieu.

Like many of my generation people, I grew up with the binary classification of the world - developed and less developed or poor.  Later the World Bank started classifying the world in four categories, viz., Low income, Lower middle income, Upper middle income, and High income and we began to see the world in different way.  Never knew that it was Hans who was trying hard to break the binary and could successfully convince the World Bank to expand in four categories.  In this book all the questions are answered from the perspective of four categories as Level 1, Level 2, Level 3 and Level 4.  Countries are moving from Level 1 to Level 4 exponentially (Soon, most people on Level 4 will be non-westerners) and this volume is an exceptional tribute to the changing world where we see lot of improvement in health indicators (88% immunization, 70 yrs of Life Expectancy) globally. It might sound unbelievable but it is heartening to know that 90% girls go to school globally.

Personal experiences are beautifully corroborated by the author and the way the whole book is written shows the passion of the team towards the cause of providing clarity based on facts which otherwise get maimed. As individuals and institutions we need to draw policies and strategies, design products and services, provide solutions and make systems for the organisations and market of tomorrow and if they are based on the facts which could be extrapolated for the future, we shall be preparing for better future, mind it, Societies and cultures are not like rocks, unchanging and unchangeable.

We can not use old glasses for new challenges and very strongly we need to come out of archaic thinking based on mere observations or hearsay, we need to get to look for reality through data so that we see the future more clearly.  Though Hans Rosling could not see the release of the book as he left us in Feb 2017, the kind of awareness he has created and legacy he has left, I am sure it shall go a long way in helping all of us to understand the world better. It shall be a true tribute to him if we all become possibilists as he used to call himself.  I wish the person I met in Philadelphia shall appreciate the changes that and amend his opinion about India which was nothing but a crude generalization.

The book is written in a very reader friendly manner.  The visuals are unique and never-before type and are simple to understand.  It diagnoses problem, prescribes solutions and cautions the reader to not get carried away with the crowd.  The book is very prescriptive and that is the best part of this book.

Factfulness is an insigthful sojourn into the world of optimism, possibility and positivity. The passion Hans Rosling has reflected in writing this book makes it an interesting read for everyone. For policy makers, students, academics, business community, civil society, challengers, complainers, politicians - for almost everybody, this volume tries to explore and provide an answer to use better informed, fact based yardsticks. All who are interested in the future, more than the present and past, shall enjoy it thoroughly.

THE DIGITAL TSUNAMI by Abhijit Bhaduri

THE DIGITAL TSUNAMI - Succeeding in a world turned upside-down by Abhijit Bhaduri (2016), Rupa, New Delhi p 187

Change is the only constant and for business organizations it is much greater a challenge to respond to changing dynamics of market, business, polity and people. Technology has driven the change much faster in the 21st century. Last two decades have witnessed much visible transformations in business and society than any two decades in the last two centuries. It has been phenomenal and exponential in scale and speed.  The emergence of social media has redefined the nature of conversation and communication and has replaced normal bar for millennials in much of their expectations, attitude and assertiveness. Millennials are writing history every day.

In these times Abhijit Bhaduri (HR expert and blogger, consultant and coach) introduces us to the Digital Tsunami through his own style of narrative and experiences. Abhijit weaves an excellent story around contemporary corporations thriving on disruption through technology and drives the reader to understand the pulls and pressures though entrepreneurial successes of some the highly valued corporations of today.  As I write this review, I learn Google has surpassed Apple in market valuation as a brand and has become world's most valuable brand according to Brand Finance.

The book begins with the science of developing a habit and takes the reader along with propriety of reference, posterity of thought and prominence of learning mindset. On one side digitalization is creating opportunities, on the other it is leading the process of automation and robotics is subject to pose a challenge for HR. The mindset has to bridge that gap through exploring new areas of innovation and entrepreneurship to be relevant and responsive.  The escapists are going to suffer the most until some unexpected disruption finds its way.  The book has lot of academic merit (as it derives strength from the contribution of popular researchers in the domain of Digital networks) and provides rich practical lessons (with corporate examples of practices and transformation).

The researches quoted in the text develop a defense for the prepositions Abhijit is putting before the readers. The ownership of ideas and practice is well explained through an excellent example of Drew Manning (of fit2fat2fit fame), Byju Raveendran (of byju.com) and many others. Technology driven companies are going to lead in almost all spheres of business which was unheard in major part of the 20th century. Taxi services (uber), hotel rooms (aibnb), retailing (walmart/amazon), education (byju/coursera/moocs etc), reading (kindle), social connections (facebook/linkedin/twitter) etc are heading towards much greater valuations than the hard core traditional brick and mortar companies. The trend is going to further continue for few more decades and in order to imbibe this change the firms would have to create facilitating physical and virtual environment. It was surprising to note through the book that between 2008 and 2010, eBook sales grew by 1260 per cent. This is something which is unbelievable. Transformation is exponential whereas change is linear.  Digital world is much more inclusive than the analog world.

Companies will have to go digital not to keep up with the competitive forces but simply to keep up with customers (p 45). This is an apt observation by the author. Customers are getting engaged with the products and producers and helping co-creating products and services, hence the competition lies much around customer and his/her experiences rather than the competitor or if we put it differently the customer is the competitor. Digital responsibility needs to be carried out in such a way that it allows customers to help organizations to design appropriate products/services and to have engaging relationship with them.

The world is going to be led by digital leaders of the market to whom Abhijit gives an acronym as FAANG (Facebook, Apple, Amazon, Netflix & Google) and he offers suggestion to build a digital organizational culture through transdisciplinary collaboration, employee branding, innovation, managing workforce diversity effectively, creating digital communication infrastructure, responding through speed and scale, embracing failure, preferring fluid structures and learning to become resilient.

The author suggests to follow five behaviours to develop a mindset towards responding to the Digital Tsunami. They are:

1. Wear someone else's shoes
2. From internal to external focus
3. Design, strategy and technology
4. Rapid prototyping and rapid growth
5. Insights allow for individualization.

Apart from this I appreciate his advice at individual level to go for some MOOCs, listen to something inspiring, and leveraging social media for one's advantage. I personally feel that the workforce has to follow a mix of traditional and pragmatic ways of learning.  May be fully moving away from traditional methods would be too early step.  The doodles given throughout the text makes the book engaging as the summaries explained through them create effective recall in the mind of the reader. He proves to be a digital artist who can draw essence of the narrative in an excellent manner. His understanding of issues is sharp, his language is simple, his articulation looks real, his ability to respond to the call of time is praise worthy, his approach towards future is optimist and his lessons are practical.

The book provides rich information from different sources and much of it is left to the reader to convert it positively into knowledge base according to one's ability. The book is small and could be finished in two sittings. But if one really wants to have some key takeaways it might take little more time.  Overall it is an excellent treat to all the young students of today who are interested in the study of organizations, technology, business, entrepreneurship, strategy and future.  I strongly recommend this title to all who believe in the power of technology and are passionate about future.