The Snowball - Warren Buffet and the Business of Life

Miss Alice Schroeder, a former managing director at Morgan Stanley- an insurance analyst - and hand picked by Buffet to be his biographer - strips away the mystery that has long cloaked the world's richest man to reveal a life of fortune erected around lucid and inspired business vision and unimaginable personal complexity.

The Snowball is the much anticipated book recounting with intimate detail the life experiences and life-wisdom of the man known as " The Oracle of Omaha": Warren Buffet.

Being human, Buffet's own life, like most lives, has been a mix of strengths and frailties. Yet notable though his wealth may be, Buffet's legacy will not be his ranking on the scorecard of wealth, it will be his principles and ideas that have enriched people's lives. This book tells you why Warren Buffet is the most fascinating American success story of our time.

Professor John Allen Paulos and his books

John Allen Paulos is a professor of mathematics at Temple University in Philadelphia, who has gained fame as a writer and speaker. His book "Innumeracy" was an influential bestseller and "A Mathematician Reads the Newspaper" extended the critique.

The following are the abstracts of some of the books written by him.

Innumeracy - Mathematical Illiteracy and its Consequences : Innumeracy is an examination of some of the consequences in every day life of mathematical illiteracy. Topics addressed include stock scams, para psychological claims, medical testing & etc.

A Mathematician Reads the Newspaper : The book, structured like the morning paper, investigates the mathematical angles of stories in the news and offers novel perspectives, questions, and ideas to coffer-drinkers, policy-makers, gossip-mongers and others who can't get along without their daily paper.

Mathematics and Humor : In the book, he (i) explores the operations and structures common to humor and the formal sciences. (ii) shows how various notions from these sciences provide formal analogues for different sorts of jokes and joke schema and (iii) develops a mathematical model of jokes using ideas from "catastrophe theory".

A Mathematician Plays the Stock Market : The book primary purpose is to lay out, elucidate, and explore the basic conceptual mathematics of the market.

Economic Recovery & Share Markets

There are a number of articles on websites and newspapers about the economic recovery and share markets.

Some economists focus on the following three numbers to determine the confidence of the world economy.

1. Rate of economic growth ( higher than 3%);
2. Unemployment rate ( lower than 4.5%) and
3. The rate of inflation. (less than 3%)

There are other positive factors that should be looking at are:

• A slowing rate of decline in US housing prices
• US consumers spending to slow but not collapse
• A stabilisation in consumer confidence in key countries
• An easing in bank lending standards
• An improvement in money markets
• A fall in private sectors borrowing rates
• A stabilisation in global trade indicators &
• A stabilisation/improvement in China's growth.

Regarding the share markets, analysts are having different views of the market related to the economic recovery. Some predicted that the markets would be moving up before the end of the recession but others oppose this view. However they have listed two important factors to watch for the possibility of the end of the bear market.

Capitulation is the first factor to look at. Capitulation is when investors give up on stocks. Stocks are a bad investment and there is mass selling over a short period of time. When real capitulation arrives, few will recognise it and ring the bell. It's when there are no sellers left in the market and only exhaustion. The only problem is that it is very hard to pick the bottom. One fact is that prices are at a very low P/E so perhaps for the very brave it's time to start accumulating. Just don't expect the bumpy road to be over.

Volatility is another indicator of the end of bear market. Extreme levels of volatility are usually associated with turning points in the markets and not in trend continuation.

So it may be wise to stay out of the market until the economy is starting to move up or perhaps at end of next year.

Marketing Genius by Peter Fisk

This is another book written by Peter Fisk.

Marketing Genius is about achieving genius in your business and its markets , through your everyday decisions and actions.
It combines the deep intelligence and radical creativity required to make sense of, and stand out in today's markets.
Connections lie at the heart of marketing, bringing together customers and business, strategy and delivery, brands and relationships, loyalty and growth.
The real innovation challenge is in the market - to create new ways of working or living, satisfying needs and wants in better ways, changing behaviours and attitudes.
The author divides five parts of his studies as follows:

A. Ingenuity - The making of a marketing genius :- This is the starting point because it is about seeing things differently, from the outside rather than the inside, from the future rather than the present, then you can describe a bigger space in which you can compete, innovate and grow.

B. Thinking - The mind of a marketing genius :- We need to think, particularly if we are to do somethings different and better than before. Learn more deeply what really matters to customers. Go talk to them, and those of your competitors. It doesn't cost you a penny.
We need to build brand like nobody else. People trust and engage with fewer brands, the ones that means most to them. Start doing business on customer's terms - where, when and how they want. Put an end to mass campaigns and cost-plus pricing. Start engaging customers where and when it matters most to them.

C. Competing -The touch of a marketing genius :- Define a clear proposition for your business. This consists of who are you here for, what benefits do you offer.
To target the best opportunities before others, to beat competitors in smarter way.
We must learn to work with the incredible power of virtual and physical networks, finding ways to work alongside user-driven communities, content and control.

D. Leading - The impact of a marketing genius :- Brands, ideas and relationships are the most valuable business assets and are the keys to future profit and growth. Marketers are the guardians of these assets, bringing new power, influence and responsibility.
Marketing not only tell you how to delight your customers, but also tell you how to make money at the same time. Research shows that marketing is the most significant driver of value creation - of economic value, of share price - in the business.
Be a inspiring leader - with your staff and colleagues and the general public. Leaders inspire followers, partners and customers.

E. The Genie - Becoming a marketing genius :- The 'genie' is the practical lab where marketers can start to evaluate themselves, play to develop themselves, and how they will achieve 'genius' in a way that is appropriate for them.

Intuition - Its Powers and Perils

This is a book written by Professor David G. Myers.

How reliable is our intuition? How much should we depend on gut-level instinct rather than rational analysis when we play the stock market, hire an employee and others?

The Professor shows us that while intuition can provide us with useful and often amusing insights, it can also dangerously mislead us.

This is a highly entertaining.exceedingly well-written book, which represents a powerful introduction into the scientific study of intuition, and to the scientist serves as inspiration to see connections between seemingly disparate phenomena that are kept neat by apart in the daily business of cognitive science.

The author reviews but rejects evidence for a psychic component of intuition; nevertheless he has many stories and accounts of research experiments that will be of interest to us. The section of his website devoted to this book contains chapter extracts as well as many links to other sites of interest for each chapter.

The website is as follows:- http://www.davidmyers.com/intuition

Business Genius by Peter Fisk

Business Genius is a book that help you to drive business more profitable, sustainable growth in today's markets. It explores the challenges of strategy and innovation leadership and change as you grow your business and yourself in order to achieve high performance.

The author defines 'genius' as 'intelligence' + 'imagination' = 'extraordinary results'. The combination of intelligence and imagination, the connection of opposites, is the source of new insights, of unusual ideas, and of extraordinary results.

Genius is about fusion. In his book, the author has delivered four fusions as follows:

1st fusion: Right brain, Left brain-This requires you to take a more creative approach to your challenges and to focus your imagination on what matters most.

2nd fusion: Future back, Now forward - This means seeing opportunities and creating tomorrow while also delivering today.

3rd fusion: Outside in, Inside out - This requires you to do business based on the customers' needs, rather than on your own needs or on what you have always done.

4th fusion: Radical ideas, Practical action - This means making every action count, ensuring that radical ideas deliver more significant impact.

The Post-American World

The Post-American World
by Fareed Zakaria

This is not a book about decline of America, but rather about the rise of everyone else.
He sees the "rise of the rest" - the growth of countries like China, India, Brazil, Russia and many others - as the great story of our time, an one that will reshape the world.
Mr Zakaria argues that we are now in the midst of the third great tectonic power shift to occur over the last 500 years. The first was the rise of the West, the second was the rise of the United States and this the third is what he calls "the rise of the rest".
The role of the United States will be diminished, but not irrelevant. Economic, diplomatic and social power is rising in the rest of the world. Although the United States remains the supreme military power, the spread of capital,labour, innovation, ideas and information continues to bring down the level of influence the United States once had in world affairs.
For 60 years, the United States has pushed countries to open their markets, free up their politics and embrace trade and technology. Yet just as the world is opening up, the United States is closing down. Americans forgot to globalise themselves.
How should the United States understand and thrive in this rapidly changing international climate? Mr Zakaria answers these questions with his customary, lucidity, insight and imagination.