Review of Guns, Germs & Steel by Jared Diamond

When I first heard the title of the book, for me it is a very unlikely name for a history book. At end of the read, I am now fully convinced about the importance of these to civilization's natural history. This is one of the best books on natural history. Most history books are on political history and some ( like the Empires of Indus) touch natural history tangently while speaking about political history. The amount of research the author did is quite evident from the book. But it's just not research, giving a scientific approach in reducing conclusions from the facts is what makes the author differ from other. The presentation style is also pretty interesting. In most history books,  there are two parameters to be discussed: Timeline and place (and sometime different personalities). I have read books which go back and forth to cover both timeline activities and place activities. Else they will not be able to give a complete picture. However Jared has taken a unique way of circumventing this problem. (and prob that made the read more interesting!!). First he dwells upon the timeline activities. He speaks about people's early movements, evolution of farming, evolution of germs, evolution of technology and so on. Once he has traversed the timeline path (comparing different regions), he then dwelt upon the region-specific activities. The last few chapters cover the summary of different regions. This is the best solution for the conundrum of writing easier history books. 

Here is the summary of the book giving a quick insight (without being a spoil sport). The book highlights on the early movements of man-kind. The humans after evolving in Africa has spread across the land-masses of the globe by 40,000 BC. After the Ice-Age, the different continents evolved different eco-systems which acted as a catalyst for evolution of different cultures/habits/perspectives/technology. Food production almost evolved across different continents independently (except Australia) by choosing and cultivating plants from wild forests. This has slowly started inculcating farming as a practice. For making farming easy, they need more muscle power. Also once farming was established, societies got settled. This also called for alternate food source as they no longer were nomadic hunters and warriors. This led to domestication of wild animals for farming and for alternate food source. (except for dog which was domesticated way back in stone age all other domestic animals like cow, goat, hen, pig were domesticated in this age). Both these were the root cause of all our illnesses (literally). They brought in germs. Over centuries, some groups started developing immunity over these germs. As farming progressed and domestication improved, people had spare food and spare time (they were no longer roaming). So other inventions like tools, technology, arts came into existence. This include farming tools and techniques, musical instruments, writing, using copper, bronze and iron. Iron/steel led to creation of better armory. Then as people started living in groups and growing, they formed bigger societies. Some societies which started as bands moved to tribes which meta-morphed to chieftain and then to states at different points of time. The farming, technology and germs moved easily across Eurasia because of longer spread and almost similar climate. The societies which were isolated to these developments include Americas, Africa and Australia. Though some of the societies have independently developed a few of these , they did not mature as it did in Eurasia because of the lack of conducive factors. (like North to South climatic differences, or geographical restrictions including deserts, mountains, islands). All these factors gave an edge for the Eurasian societies to have an upper hand over other societies. And they have ended up occupying most parts of the world.

Book Link: http://www.amazon.in/Guns-Germs-And-Steel-Everbody-ebook/dp/B00DQ8GDV8/ref=dp_kinw_strp_1

Negotiation or Bad Qualification?

 Most people claim a sale as badly qualified, but works behind the scenes is something entirely different. From what I have seen, in retrospection it is easy to say the failure is because of improper qualification/quantification. Except for few out-liers, most people will never disclose the budget and so the sales person has to go with guesstimates or gut-feel numbers. There is no way to get a number to qualify/quantify. This makes it look improper qualification in hindsight where-as it will not appear so in day-to-day scenarios. With no knowledge on numbers and mounted with pressure to close the deal, the only window left is to show the money-advantage to customer. I would believe that if a sales person is negotiating then it shows the product is not highly rated by the customer and alternatives are available for customer. If the product is the best, any sales person would stick to his stance on price and would not start negotiation.

Difference between Marketing and Sales

Time and again, I get this questions. So thought will create a blog post around it.

Marketing is a “Pull”. It helps in reaching out to prospects, showcasing the product/service, capturing his attention and bringing him to an Interaction Point (Outlet, Incoming Inquiry platform including website, call center, email). Some alternate goals of marketing include brand awareness, increasing brand/product recognition, educating the customer of the new product/service. 

Sales is a “Push”. The Sales function starts when the prospect comes to an interaction point. The prospect can come either from Marketing or by a Sales person digging out a hidden prospect (through networking, references, cold-calling). Sales functions include: understanding the customer needs, mapping the product/service features to his needs, agree on format of delivery, timeline and price, close deal by signing agreement or getting Work Order. Sometimes additional functions might include: keeping customer in good humor post sale (for references/positive feedback), seeking references/feedback, ensuring delivery of goods/services in agreed terms, payment collections.