Welcome to the latest section of Alma Matters “Bookshelf” - a platform where people can share their comments, feelings and thoughts about various books they read. From business and economics to SCI-FI, thriller and comedy…please feel free to contribute to this section by writing to us at alumni_relations@isb.edu

Recommended Readings by Abhishek Ahuja

Abhishek is from the PGP Class of 2015. He specialises in Finance and Operations, and is headed to the world of management consulting. When he is not out playing Diablo, he loves reading, playing table tennis and watching anime.

“Soccernomics: Why England Loses, Why Spain, Germany, and Brazil Win, and Why the U.S., Japan, Australia—and Even Iraq—Are Destined to Become the Kings of the World’s Most Popular Sport", by Simon Kuper & Stefan Szymanski

This book documents the systematic application of analytics, statistics, economics and psychology to the huge world of Football/Soccer. Starting from the AC Milan Lab, which really started the trend of applying the sciences to the game, all the way to the spread of this trend all around, the book presents some really surprising findings (for example, the dismal performance of England is actually pretty good for a team of that caliber, why Robinho couldn't perform for Manchester and the fact that the country that loves football the most is actually Norway!). It's a light read; it is essentially Moneyball for Football. Highly recommended for anyone who loves both Football and books like Freakonomics!


“The CPO - Transforming Procurement in the Real World", by
Christian Schuh , Michael F. Strohmer , Stephen Easton , Armin Scharlach & Peter Scharbert

This is an engaging story of a fictional , who is offered a top procurement job - CPO (Central Procurement Officer), at Heartland Consolidated Industries, to try to get their procurement function up to speed with the industry best practices. Sutter’s decision to accept this job starts him off on a journey full of challenges, setbacks, uncertainties, and successes that make perfectly clear just what is required to pull off an actual procurement transformation. Written in a style reminiscent of Eliyahu Goldratt's "The Goal", one of the big components of this book, apart from Procurement best practices, is how to effect changes in a huge organization (Change Management) and this makes it a very powerful tool in understanding and propagating learning. All the five authors come from a consulting background (three Partners, one Vice President, and one Director) from a major firm, so expect the insights present in this book to have been derived from a wealth of experience in real life. A must-read for all people involved with procurement in any manner whatsoever!

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