Cold Steel (Book)

Perhaps.., just perhaps, the publishers of this book would have managed to sell a couple of thousand more copies of this.., if only they'd given its title a dash of pepper wid something like "How to bluff your way through that coveted M & A job interview".

Quite honestly, the book is a good read - and not in the least as drowsy as most of the books about business quite inadvertently manage to become. Set in the jet setting quarters of the global steel industry and unraveling for the most part in exotic locales of Europe- the pace of the book is fast enough to keep you well engrossed- page after page and day after day :) (In case you are a snail at reading, which yours truly quite effectively is).

Always over a cup of hot coffee or hot chocolate accompanied by rains outside, the Oxford at Churchgate presents the perfect setting to set on a journey witnessing the father and son duo of Lakshmi and Aditya Mittal courting for the European jewel Arcellor with a passion and fervor intense enough to rival the knights of yonder years.

The authors in their approach to M&A tactics and other business strategies and concepts have quite remarkably managed to keep it all plain and simple. As said earlier, the book comes well bundled with "white knights", "steel industry business cycles", the who’s who of global Investment banking, takeover specialists, M&A lawyers armed with poison pills and other similar tools and tales from the awe-inspiring world of corporate finance.

Lakshmi Mittals journey from rustic Rajasthan to the most coveted addresses in London is downrightly mesmerizing and the writer manages to cover it rather quickly within the first few pages, managing to keep the book - more about THE DEAL rather then The Men.

The bitter takeover battle that covered all corners of the world - and which pole-vaulted an Indian, (no not India yet, it took Tata Steel's takeover of Corus to do that, a few months later!) to the very pinnacle of an industry which in many ways is the backbone of everything that is modern day living. Clandestine lobbying, golden handshakes, and a intercontinental PR exercise the book has all the ingredients of a slick flick and inspite of being factual - the book manages to capture a Jeffry Archerish fictional pace at times- a commendable feat indeed. 

In all it’s a good read- whether to bluff your way through that interview or just for some informative fun- the choice is all yours.