There are multiple facets to this unorthodox book.

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This is an unusual story of a Russian-born Israeli expat in India, who spent 18 years in Bangalore. It is an account of a bumpy corporate journey – from a software engineer to a VP and General manager of a development centre that he had founded and expanded to almost 2,500 employees. This is also a tale of a very personal journey – from denial to understanding,  acceptance, and (tough) love of India. 

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For Western readers, especially engineers and managers, this is a light colourful introduction to the Indian corporate culture, and its deep roots in the realities of Indian day-to-day life. These realities define how engineers write and maintain software. Recognizing them makes cooperation with Indian developers more productive and enjoyable. 

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For Indian readers, this is a (deliberately?) crooked mirror – a primer on Western stereotypes and prejudices towards India. Knowing (and disagreeing with) them, would help Indian techies and managers work better with the West. 

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The first part of this book illustrates how Indian stereotyped “drawbacks” can turn into competitive advantages. How traditional Indian values – blended with practices of product management and refactoring – can accelerate business growth. And how India could remould itself from a “software Varanasi” and a “retirement home” where systems are sent to sunset – into an ultra-modern software rejuvenation clinic.  

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The second half of the book is a radical transformation story: to survive the corporate axe, a division of 1,200 engineers had to cut costs and double (!) its efficiency. For that, they had to change everything: metrics, Agile frameworks, delivery pipelines, and – most importantly – the org structure, which was the key impediment for agility. To build a truly adaptive organisation, both an operating model and corporate culture had to go through a paradigm shift. 

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To awaken engineers’ minds from a corporate hibernation, a radically new approach to management was required. “Meta-management”, influenced by Eastern thought and practices, became an alternative to the Western leadership-obsessed approaches. 

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What happened to real people during the difficult times of change? Was a radical adaptive transformation even possible in a hierarchical and traditional India? Was all that sweat, blood, and tears worth it? 

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And finally, could a legacy product successfully compete with a new one, built to replace it?

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This book mentions Scrum, DevOps, feature teams, Agile mindset, refactoring and other best practices. It also vouches for certain transformation approaches - surprisingly, influenced by Jewish tradition!. Still, it is not a set of instructions, but a patchy Rajasthani rug of ideas, stories, and metaphors. And as a funny and honest quest for a meaning of management.