Reading ‘the Four’ by Scott Galloway
Disclaimer: I generally don’t devour non fiction books cover to cover, in fact I have mostly read fiction my whole life which makes me new to this. Being a computer engineer arms me with a healthy skepticism of ‘hot takes’ in the tech industry. These were my thoughts as I read ‘the Four’ by Scott Galloway.
FIRST IMPRESSIONS
To provide a gist, this book is essentially about the four major companies of our current age, Amazon, Apple, Facebook and Google. It talks about their history in a nutshell as well as the different business philosophies and how these companies affect our lives. It talks about their future as well as about potential usurpers.
The book seems incredibly well researched. And I mean incredibly well. The chapters have references that are listed at the back for news articles and press reports that they were taken from. There are easy to understand graphics littered around the book that provide information in a succinct manner. The point to be made comes through clearly without much effort through those graphics. In an age where facts seem to be less relevant, and I’ve become used to double checking almost every outlandish fact I read, it’s a relief to read this kind of a book.
THE FIRST PART
The book is obviously divided into two parts, a first part where the author goes into some detail about each of the four companies. This is the strongest part of the book. While its common to know a few basic facts about what happened with tech companies like Apple and Google in history its not something we associate with these companies as we think about them now. Its intriguing as the author goes into their business decisions and their ruthlessness which got them where they are now. In fact this part is so compelling, I found myself wishing he would go into even more detail here. The author is clearly in his element in this section and is able to compare and contrast different attributes of the companies quite well.
THE SECOND PART
This would be the rest of the book, which talks in detail at first about the typical characteristics that these four companies have in common. It also contains details of the contenders that didn’t make it to the top four, like IBM and Microsoft which is fascinating. The part that interests me as a millennial in the tech industry are the up and coming contenders who seek to replace any one of the top four.
Then the book veers into an unexpected chapter in which the author proceeds to give somewhat pedestrian advice which isn’t aimed at anyone in particular, its more generic advice. This is the weakest part of the book and doesn’t match the tone of the rest of the book.
The book ends on a strong note about the four companies’ relevance to our lives and some helpful pointers about how to navigate the current world where they reign supreme.
FINAL THOUGHTS
Strictly on the basis of the book and the way its presented, Apple comes off looking a tad better than the others. However the author doesn’t go easy on any of the four and talks about their collective moral failings. Facebook comes off looking worse than the others, both in terms of the product and future prospects. They are less likely to be able to reinvent themselves and are currently more disliked than the other three. This is emphasized even further by their reluctance to take ownership as a media company. A more unsympathetic perspective on this book would be to say that these companies are within their rights to make such decisions as they are only subject to their stakeholders. It seems to be fair game and a part of regular business. The book does a good job of highlighting how that affects the users of the products and services these companies provide. If things continue the way they have been in the past, our society may change adversely with long lasting effects and the book talks about this in detail.
I would recommend this book to anyone who isn’t consistently mindful of the products and services we use and the way they manipulate us, which is pretty much all of us. It is a good read for a big picture perspective of the history of these companies and what drives them to do what they do.
