Book Reviews

Tien Tzuo, the CEO of Zuora, has written a powerful book that is wholeheartedly and unabashedly about subscription monetization. Brilliantly structured and extremely well researched and written, it makes for a compelling read. Of course, the author was at Salesforce.com before he founded the company, Zuora which specializes in the subscription economy. It is hard to argue with the points made by the author and the book is undoubtedly thought-provoking. As he asks repeatedly in the book, “what product or service do you have, that cannot be moved to a subscription model?” It is difficult to find an answer to that question. A few did come to my mind – something like a TV or a Washing Machine – surely, these cannot be on a subscription model. But, I am wrong, of course. There are any number of online sites that nowadays rent TVs. A simple Google search for “TV on rent” threw up 4 advertised results, followed by numerous

read more Subscribed – Must read

The first impression from the book is the incredible amount of research that has gone into making a book on a person that lived in the late 1400s through till the first quarter of the 16th century. Helped, undoubtedly, by the voluminous notes left behind by Leonardo, Walter Isaacson has weaved a wonderfully chronological and detailed story around the life and times of the arguably one of the greatest geniuses that the world has ever known. Starting from his ancestry, tracing the story of his birth and childhood, through the multiple cities and works of the man leading up to his demise in 1519, it is truly a testament to the work that the author has put in to bring Leonardo’s story to us. For me, what stands out from the entire book is the pure obsession that Leonardo had with whatever interested him. Like the author suggests, even if Leonardo had chosen to write a book or had been

read more Leonardo Da Vinci – Case Study of a Genius