Business Lessons Kiran Mazumdar Shaw Adopted From Books 

A mix of oncology and business seems an obvious choice of themes for an entrepreneur who built a bio-pharmaceutical company from scratch.

Kiran Mazumdar-Shaw, chairperson and managing director at Biocon Ltd., spoke to BloombergQuint about why the books in these genres have made such an impact on her, and the lessons she imbibed from these.

Here’s a list of Mazumdar-Shaw’s favourite books that she has enjoyed reading over the years...

Emperor of Maladies, By Siddhartha Mukherjee

“I was really impressed by this book. He writes eloquently and effectively,” Mazumdar-Shaw said.

Sapiens, A Brief History Of Humankind, By Yuval Noah Harari

This is a fantastic book. Yuval writes beautifully. “I like these kind of genres.”

The First Cell: And The Human Costs Of Pursuing Cancer To The Last, By Azra Raza

This book talks of how there should be a focus on the early detection of cancer rather than treating patients in the end stage, according to Mazumdar-Shaw. This has a bunch of stories about cancer patients. It speaks of how patients have to go through aggressive treatment just to be kept alive. The question that the author asks is, is it worth it?

Jack Welch And The GE Way, Management Insights And Leadership Insights Of The Legendary CEO, By Robert Slater

“This book made a big impression on me,” said Mazumdar-Shaw. “This is the first time someone talked about a border-less organisation, the importance of collaboration, need to do away with silos. It talks of the importance of a porous organisation to stay agile. It resonated with what I was trying to achieve with my company. His book was far sighted.”

Future Shock, By Alvin Toffler

This book talks about how an organisation can become obsolete if it doesn’t “future proof” itself. “If you don’t future proof yourself as an organisation then you will be in for a shock. It talks of the need to anticipate change.”

Fortune At The Bottom Of The Pyramid, By CK Prahalad

CK Prahalad talks of how the global economy works, and “I subscribe to this a lot”. It shifts the focus away from the affluent tip to the bigger part of the economy where business opportunities lie. Even when people talk of markets, they say the U.S., Europe and the rest of the world or emerging markets, according to Mazumdar-Shaw.

“I would call it ‘most of the world markets’ because this is where the business opportunities are. Developed countries have a population of only a billion. The developing countries comprise 7 billion people. This is the market that I focus on for healthcare. For instance, we at Biocon are able to offer insulin prices at 10 cents. These are the markets where I believe healthcare can be improved in a significant way. This is a very important book for me.”

Leapfrogging To Pole-Vaulting, Creating The Magic Of Radical Yet Sustainable Transformation, By Raghunath Mashelkar & Ravi Pandit

This book talks of how you can use technology to leap frog and jump ahead. Digital learning is a great way of pole vaulting, according to Mazumdar-Shaw. “It speaks of how technology can be used to ‘fast forward’ certain other processes.”

The Age Of Living Machines, By Susan Hockfield

This book talks of how biology will build the next technology revolution.

The Immortal Life Of Henrietta Lacks, By Rebecca Skloot

“This is a powerful story of how cancer cells of a poor black woman being treated at John’s Hopkins became the most widely used tools in medical research from vaccines to cancer Biologics,” Mazumdar-Shaw said. “These are referred to as HeLa cells.”