Give and Take: Kind Acts Can Fetch Corporate Success

Helping others is not only productive but it can almost guarantee you corporate success. In Give and Take: A Revolutionary Approach to Success, Adam Grant highlights three kinds of workers: Givers (they help), matchmakers (they figure out the cost-benefit of helping) and takers (they take help).

Now, everybody knows that an act of kindness will take you a long way, or one good turn deserves another. But how does it really work? Grant looks at various fields—from technology to venture capitalists—and talks about the power of selfless networks, and how they often rescue people.

The book begins with the story of David Hornik, a venture capitalist, and Danny Shader who needs funding for a great idea. Hornik—a giver—likes Shader’s idea but Shader feels Hornik is soft, and not challenging him enough. Will Shader go for Hornik? Then there is Adam Rifkin, addicted to helping. He helps a small band create their website. In a few years the band becomes really big, and everyone knows them as Green Day.

If you like Gladwell, you will love Grant.
 

Give and Take
By Adam Grant,
Viking,
305 pages,
Rs 499