An organisation is not just a coming together of competent people and state-of-the-art machinery. Rather, it is the union of company culture and work atmosphere that lends its unique qualities to the performance of an organisation.

If you’re wondering what culture has got to do with the performance of an organisation, then The 7 Mantras for Peak Performance has all the answers for you.

The book opens with an interesting fable in the prologue about the significance role organisation, culture and atmosphere play in the conduct of business. While emphasising the importance of righteousness and sound business sense in the path of success, the prologue sets the tone of the book.

Once the theme is set, the book proceeds at a comfortable pace, elaborating on the various aspects of organisation culture and its critical influence on performance. In order to make complex ideas easily deducible, the author has coined seven mantras that read like: The Atmosphere Surrounding an Organisation— Key to Business, The Foundation, Strength in Unison, and so on.

The descriptive diagrams that accompany every idea proposed make the book interesting. The salient points discussed and the summary of action suggested, given at the end of every chapter, add to the uniqueness of the book.

While stressing the importance of good leadership and team work in the laying of a strong foundation of culture in an organisation, the book differentiates between commitment and ownership. Peppered by real-life instances to make ideas easily comprehensible, the book makes interesting reading for people in every rung of an organisation.

The author, backed with his rich and varied experience in fields ranging from the defence forces to the corporate world, gives a quick peek into Army culture as well. Fundamentals of Army culture are not very different from that of the business world, the book stresses, lending credence to the fact that historically, business and the Army have always been learning from each other.

The elaboration of the spirit of the 7 mantras, that culminates in the epilogue, only goes to underline the fact that culture has the potential of giving a marked edge to an organisation over others.

The 7 Mantras for Peak Performance; How to Achieve Competitive Lead Through Culture - The Leadership Challenge - Maj Gen Virinder Uberoy
USHUS, 2007, pp 284, Rs 250