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60 July/August 2014 BizEd bookshelf I N NOVATI NG FOR TH E G LOBAL SOUTH EDITED BY: Dilip Soma, Janice Gross Stein, and Joseph Wong PUBLISHER: University of Toronto Press, US$22.95 WHEN DEVELOPING LIFE-CHANGING inventions for base-of-the-pyramid consumers, innova- tors must consider the barriers that might prevent intended consumers from adopting the new products. These include transactional costs (such as lost wages if an individual must take a day to travel to a free clinic) and cultural norms (such as gender dynamics that keep women from participating in microloan programs). For instance, writes Soman in a chapter he contributed to the book, a no- frills air-conditioned train car launched by Indian Rail didn't appeal to low-income customers because its name, Garib Rath, translated to Chariot of the Poor—and the poor aspire to join the middle class. The book, written by University of Toronto professors from a variety of disciplines, offers fascinating insights into its central premise: that innovating for the Global South requires "finding ways to bridge the gap between supply and demand so that simple fixes to simple problems are in fact adopted, used and sustained by those who could benefit from them." QU E ST: LEAD I NG G LOBAL TRAN S FOR MATION S AUTHORS: N. Anand and Jean-Louis Barsoux PUBLISHER: IMD, US$19.20 TODAY'S GLOBAL corporations are setting out on seven separate but deeply interconnected quests as they seek to create global presence, gen- erate value, develop leaders, devise global solutions, maintain agility, co-innovate products, and pro- mote sustainability. The authors, both of IMD, gather insights from many of their colleagues to prepare executives to embark on these journeys. Every page is packed with timely observations and brief anecdotes about companies that have struggled to carry out their own quests, sometimes succeed- ing and sometimes failing. Yet the payoff is worth it, they reason: "In the future, great changes to society will most probably be pioneered by corporations. They are not going to come about because of acts of genius alone, but because of incremental advances at epochal scale happening within companies all the time." B EAUTY QU E E N AUTHOR: Deborrah Himsel PUBLISHER: Palgrave MacMillan, US$26 ANDREA JUNG'S tenure as CEO of Avon is the heart of this book, but Himsel uses the story of Jung's rise and fall as a case study to explore universal themes of leadership. Himsel, a former Avon executive who now teaches at Thunderbird and Aalto University, describes how the confident and glamorous Jung revitalized an aging company. But as the company expanded globally, acquired other firms, and dealt with allegations of ethical violations, problems arose that were beyond Jung's scope. "How can companies find their perfect lead- ers? And how can they make sure that this perfect leader remains well-suited to the top job as strategies, com- petitors, and other factors change?" Himsel asks. She considers the value of a strong COO, the importance of culture, and the effects of gender pol- itics before looking at common traps that CEOs can fall into. The book is both a business biography and a col- lection of key leadership lessons. TH E R I S K-D R IVE N B US I N E SS MOD E L AUTHORS: Karan Girotra and Serguei Netessine PUBLISHER: Harvard Business Review Press, US$30 TO AVOID INVESTING money in making pieces that consumers might not want to buy, online furniture maker MyFab displayed a range of possible designs and asked custom- ers to vote for their favorites; only the popular designs were manufac- tured. According to INSEAD profes- sors Girotra and Netessine, this was a "business model innovation"—it reduced risk by changing the when of decision making. "Every business model, without exception, imposes a number of key decisions on the busi- ness," they write. Business leaders erate value, develop leaders, devise global