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July 25, 2004
In brief
The Lake House
By James Patterson
Headline. Available with
Liberty Books (Pvt) Ltd, 3 Rafiq Plaza, M.R. Kayani Road, Saddar, Karachi. Tel: 021-5683026
Email: libooks@cyber.net.pk Website: www.libertybooks.com
ISBN 0-7553-0028-9
401pp. Rs425
JAMES Patterson has finally released The Lake House, his long-awaited sequel to his best-selling and most successful novel When the Wind Blows. A story revolving around children genetically engineered to fly, the earlier novel thrilled readers, and its follow-up immediately topped bestselling lists based on that credential alone. For television fans, the concept of wing children is very similar to the genetically altered super children concept at the heart of James Cameron’s ‘‘Dark angel’’ television series.
Unfortunately, part two of Patterson’s story falls far short of expectations. Its weak plot, hyperbolic language and drawn out story, do not make for fine reading and in fact, The Lake House can be rather tedious at times. In the first tale, wing girl Max and her “siblings” were pursued by evil scientists but were rescued by narrator veterinarian Frannie O’Neill and FBI agent Kit Brennan. In this continuation, not much happens. There is a new and cooler villain, Dr Ethan Kane, who’s addicted to M&Ms, but his chase of the bird children is pedantic and quite unbelievable. Furthermore, Patterson continually uses italics and explanation marks to insert emotions in otherwise bland language and overall it feels like he is simply trying too hard.
The Lake House is not bad, but it’s far from Patterson’s best. Personally, I enjoy most his pure action thrillers such as Along Came The Spider, Kiss The Girls and Jack and Jill, rather than the scientific and almost futuristic style of When The Wind Blows and The Lake House. However, When The Wind Blows struck a chord with many readers and it’s not surprising that Patterson chose to write a follow-up. Unfortunately, this sequel does not sufficiently reflect the talented writer’s narrative skills. Unless you are a diehard fan of the author or of When The Wind Blows, this is one sequel that deserves a pass.— Hameeda Dawood
Lessons in Six Sigma — 72 Must-Know Truths for Managers
By Debashis Sarkar
Response/Sage Publications,
B-42, Panchsheel Enclave,
Post Box 4109, New
Delhi-110017, India
Tel: 91-11-2649 1290-7.
Email: marketing@indiasage.com Website: www.indiasage.com
ISBN 0-7619-9843-8
244pp. Indian Rs240
THIS book comprising 72 small chapters aims to communicate the art of organizational management through the principles of Six Sigma. To the unwitting reader, the title appears to be alien, perhaps containing a piece of exotic text. However, a specialist of even basic managerial practices can easily note that the content largely depicts well-known basic managerial principles. However, credit indubitably goes to certain new concepts, and the author removes any related contentions in his preface by admitting, It is quite possible you may not agree with some of them.
Six Sigma is a data-driven methodology for solving chronic issues facing businesses, big or small, manufacturing or services, encompassing breaking down customers requirements to pinpoint process difficulties. This reduces defects and improves processes. It employs narrowing down high-priority tasks and using statistically validated variables to reduce chances of erroneous decision-making. Six Sigma lays great stress on defining customer satisfaction, teamwork and strategic management.
An observer of cross-cultural managerial practices will discover that typical of Asian cultures, management is ideally top-down and the organization is a vertical hierarchy. Strict administration inculcates positive punishment to any defaulting employee. However, alongside runs a strong trilateral communication system, keeping all levels of management in touch with the essence of all operations. Particularly the higher management must be well versed and coordinated with ongoing front-line processes. The HR departments role in creating company culture is immense and marketing plays an important role in creating awareness. Six Sigma projects aim for efficiency as well as long term benefits.
The book delineates age-old gadgets to gauge customer satisfaction and lays stress on Core Business Processes, another well-known concept. One finds a great redundancy of common notions including new idea generation, conflict resolution, proactive operation, continuous improvement, striving for zero-defects, keeping customer needs first and countless others that one would just feel like skimming through. DMAIC are five essential steps, namely define, measure, analyze, improve and control. Whereas Debashis has portrayed DMAIC as a rather new concept, the reader with a basic background will find even this concept to be trite, tried and true.
Nevertheless, the book does not do injustice to the new principles it introduces. For instance for teamwork, details of the Champions Workshop are explained. Certain reviews such as Tollgate Review check progress and ascertain the state of quality of the organization. Other concepts include the Book of Knowledge (BOK), ISO 9001: 2000 certification, statistical methods to reduce defects/improve performance and numerous others. A positive aspect of the book is that it lays stress on flexibility and does not force managers to fixate themselves on only one managerial method.
Whosoever reads the book need not establish a bitter frame of mind about the seemingly trite concepts depicted here. For as Debashis states, the small things make a large difference The lessons may be common and mundane but are quite uncommon in workplaces. It is one more effort for managers to actually implement what they have studied in theory at business schools or elsewhere. — Mehreen F. Ali
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