A few days ago, Suresh cheekily reminded me it’s been one year and he is still waiting for a review and needless to say I felt embarrassed and ashamed but then I have finicky ways. I don’t jump queue. I read and review the way I have queued unless something as exceptional as The Graveyard Book or as sensational as One Indian Girl comes up to break the list. Also in this particular year, I have taken a long time to read, mostly due to personal reasons. Also reviewing drains me… to come up with words which talk about author’s work yet don’t spoil the fun of reading. Finally, here I am reviewing a book which is essentially a satire on my profession.
The Author claims ‘A Dog Eat Dog Food World’ is pseudo –history of marketing management. It is his claim that it happened this way but we have no proof of it. As a marketing professional, as much as I would like to deny that this may be how it may have happened I seem to have accepted it.
A certain rich man ‘Spike Fortune’ wants to spend his wealth and his doctor who is fed up with him suggests to him to do some business. His nephew, Jerry finds him a business to spend money which is -- to make Dog Food for Dogs, but eventually the goal has changes to make more money. Slowly the goal changes from making more to making more money than Spike’s rival ‘Tom Rich’ who has not bought into ‘copycat’ marketing and has started Cat food Inc which naturally sells cat food. Technically, Tom is correct that he did not enter Dog Food market but, on the whole, it’s still a copycat business -- isn’t it?
The author comes up with the wittiest ways to ‘teach’ how modern marketing invented itself and at the same time how society bought into it. He brutally narrates a tale where we sell concepts to management and then to customers. It doesn’t really matter if it’s Dog Food or Cat Food or in the end what the companies becomes – Cat Products or Worldwide Dog Food. The latter name is invented by me, by the way. In the end, all that matters is ‘scores’ and transformation in societal outlook.
The author has doled out this 100-page power packed book dipped in a strong concoction of humor. I found myself grinning widely while reading this satire.
I can easily place the book alongside Rich Dad, Poor Dad or Who Moved My Cheese where the tale is secondary and principles are primary. I strongly feel the book should have been categorized as educational or self-help. This book can easily find an audience in aspiring managers of today and it will be certainly helpful to them.
The book can be ordered here.
PS: My three years old kid absolutely loved the cover.
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