Elephants and Cheetahs: The Beauty of Operations

by Saral Mukherjee

Do systems have souls? This book, based on a popular elective at IIM Ahmedabad, looks for answers in the hard trade-offs inherent in the design of operating systems and business models. It encourages business leaders to ask two different sets of existential Does the organization that I am managing have a soul, and if so, what are the strategic choices that enable its synthesis (external orientation)? And, do I have a soul, and if so, who am I (internal orientation)? In the process, it uncovers a beauty inherent in patterns of strategic choices that enables an organizational soul to emerge, and an appreciation of the diversity of such souls.

Genres: Business, Nonfiction, Academic, Management

308 pages, Kindle Edition

Published January 25, 2021

Reviews

[Shalin Bhatt · Rating 5 out of 5]

A mortal shouldn't have the right to review a Shokunin, Prof Saral Mukherjee.

[Sohail Nijas · Rating 4 out of 5]

A book on operations strategy, the closest book I have ever read to my day-job, makes it feel more interesting than most days. Courtesy Prof. Mukherjee, whose host of interesting ideas helps one recognise the "beauty" of operations.

IMO - It needs a glossary, and explainers for the assortment of eclectic words and abbreviations used, to make grasping the beauty a little easier.

Regardless, it is paced wonderfully, and you end breezing through it with the slight speed-bumps to look things up (sometimes back in the book itself) and ends with much flourish and by then, you are attuned to his way of thinking.

[Dhruv Mittal · Rating 5 out of 5]

Truly a masterpiece. I did not like initial 30-40 pages as those were very theoretical in nature. However, after that the book is a pure joy to read. Now I realized why E&C is one of the most sought after courses at IIMA.

[Balaji Ramachandran · Rating 5 out of 5]

The book is a nice encapsulation of an interesting Operations Strategy course. It's an enjoyable read if you go in with the right expectations.

If you view it from the perspective of a textbook, I'd say it does its job in bringing out the source material for readers, albeit slowly. The examples used bring the concepts to life and act as a great refresher.

If you view it from the perspective of a business book, it'll take some time to get used to the style of narration, which is similar to a lecture. It focuses more on taking the reader through a journey of discovery. This means it's not amenable to a quick read, and requires time to reflect and absorb the contents of the book.

[Vaibhav Sarkale · Rating 5 out of 5]

Excellent book! The Metaphors of Elephant, Cheetah, Tortoise etc are so enlightening. Operations Management class back in college no bed of roses but this book did make an attempt to instill a sense of admiration about the subject. After the initial six chapters or so, it gets really good. I understand that there are good cases at the end but if relevant examples would have been provided just after the introduction of a concept, I guess this would have made the book even better. Good job professor!

[Mehul Manoharan · Rating 5 out of 5]

It’s an honour for me to have been taught by the author himself at IIMA.

Prof Saral is a magician. He enlightened us to the beauty of operations. That systems do have souls and with greater enlightenment, the beauty gets admired even more.

Brilliantly written book on operations, a subject that is the real meat of any industry.

Great insights and beyond.

[Parameshwar Ballu · Rating 4 out of 5]

That part of the book where the author categorises organisations as elephants, Cheetahs, insects, cockroaches, tortoises etc. is really fascinating!
My favourite chapter is Systems designed to fail and the line, A system designed to fail fails, if it fails to fail!

[mirra kushh · Rating 5 out of 5]

review on behalf of my dear father, who was taught by prof mukherjee as a part of the business excellency- senior executive programme, and was in fact utterly charmed enough (after the course was over, obviously) to declare him a guru rather than a mere teacher.

[kul Knight · Rating 5 out of 5]

A unparalleled personification of the animal kingdom to operations analysis, and touching upon tough topic in such a expressive way’s.

A true guide and insides to the world of systems, constraints and freedoms.

[Kushal Agarwal · Rating 5 out of 5]

381 pages of pure genius!
Closest I have got to learning from a true Shokunin! :)

[PIYUSH SINGH · Rating 5 out of 5]

One of the best books of Operations Management.

[Ravikant · Rating 5 out of 5]

Must read for the lovers of Operational Management and Systems in general. The book is a breezy read with pearls of wisdom scattered profusely and with clarity.

[प्रियंकर शिवहरे · Rating 5 out of 5]

Beauty of Elephants, Cheetahs, Insects, Artists, Designers, Tortoise, etc is used to explain foundation of operations strategy. Thanks @Saral Mukherjee for writing this book.

[Vikas Billa · Rating 5 out of 5]

Beautiful and beyond words. Made me see operations and organizations in a different way and the beauty of it

[Satvik · Rating 5 out of 5]

Brilliance! Loved it.

[Zaved Akhtar · Rating 5 out of 5]

An outstanding book! I don't thing anyone made such an intricate matter so easy to read! Absolute bliss to read!

[Bhau Goswami · Rating 5 out of 5]

The system has a soul. It will change your perspective to look at any business. This book is awesome to understand and to get a view of any business. The professor is an artist who makes the concept of different strategies that multinational and big business adopts to scale. I had an opportunity to learn these concepts from him at IIM Ahmedabad.

[Rahul · Rating 5 out of 5]

It’s rare when my IIM A friends talk about an elective course in operations with superlative enthusiasm. The professor has now packaged the course content into a book and I cannot be more thankful about it.

Elephants and Cheetahs: The Beauty of Operations” is about the beauty inherent in business models seen from an operations perspective.

It a refreshing take on the strategic choices a firm makes to compete on cost, time responsiveness, quality, flexibility etc. and the parallels drawn from animal kingdom makes it so much easier to appreciate.