Book Review: I Too Had a Dream

I Too Had a Dream by Verghese Kurien
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

With autobiographies I sometimes don't understand how deeply you trust what you read, how you verify the facts and what alterate sources to trust. Thence I am generally not a big fan of reading autobiographies even though I love biographies. Nevertheless I am happy I picked up this book for this is an honest account on Mr Verghese Kurien. You can feel the empathy for customers in his words. You can see his intent and passion for cooperatives.

The book begins with early life of Mr Kurien and how through an accidental turn of events Mr Kurien was forced into diary engineering and then working in Kiara, how Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel and Tribhuvandas affect his life and vision and how he fought through all the politics and bureaucracies to make one of the biggest cooperatives in India. His constant emphasis on cooperative vs corporate is a food for thought. Though he blatantly criticises corporate and sometimes you tend to disagree with him this book presents a good view of the two worlds- cooperative and corporate Further, the obsession of author for the delicate balance between the benefits of both producers (farmers) and consumers of milk (or other agricultural products) is very compelling and provides for an engaging lession on marketing.

Amul and Dhara as brands stand as tall success to prove the success he achieved. The real success of Mr Kurien is way above these though. This book thus classifies as a must read for the impeccable writing plus insights on cooperative strategy and marketing.

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