The Race For Perfect: Inside The Quest To Design The Ultimate Portable Computer;
By Steve Hamm; Publisher: McGraw-Hill;
Pages: 312; Price: $27.95
Those of us who attended primary and middle school in the 1970s in rural India, particularly in the north, would remember using takhti, a wooden tablet with a small handle to hold it from the top. On it students would write with black ink made from charcoal using a cane pen, the tip sharpened by a knife.
It was balanced on the lap to write and read. And outside the classroom, it also doubled as a cricket bat. Though it did not weigh more than 200 gm, to carry it back and forth — from home and school — was a challenge.
A similar challenge persists for many who use laptops today. To carry a computer on your back pocket was dream for many, for several years. Watching a damsel sashaying with a Sony Vaio P tucked in her back pocket should have fulfilled that dream. Not really.
Engineers and software programmers at various research and development units of many computer manufacturing firms are still slugging it out to develop the ultimate portable computer. Senior writer at BusinessWeek and author of Bangalore Tiger (2007) Steve Hamm takes you through the making of a portable computer in The Race For Perfect, a 40-year journey that will continue even after you have read this book.
Hamm describes this strong, compelling force among the companies, designers, entrepreneurs and engineers to develop a computer that is truly portable.
The author’s detailing of the almost fanatical approach in designing the ThinkPad X300 by a team at Lenovo indicates he had access to the whole office, each room and every individual in that company: “Peter Hortensius, the senior vice-president in charge of the laptop business, stormed through the cubicles on the fourth floor of the office shouting to his secretary, ‘Phyllis! Get one of those interoffice mail envelopes’ ...Hortensius hoisted a slim black notebook computer, the ThinkPad X300, off his desk and slipped it into the envelope. Then he shouted: ‘It fits! It fits!’ …in San Francisco that morning Jobs (Steve Jobs, CEO of Apple Inc.) had revealed McBook Air, which he proudly labelled ‘the thinnest notebook.’’
It appears as if Hamm had special permission to be there and watch as X300 happened. He almost admits as much. The author uses such dramatic scenes all through the book to project the competition among the companies in the race to develop the product that would attract both corporate executive and students.
Steve Hamm, a senior writer at BusinessWeek, writes about globalisation, innovation and leadership, and has produced more than two dozen cover stories on topics ranging from internet wunderkind Marc Andreessen to the challenges facing India. His previous book, Bangalore Tiger — about the rise of the Indian tech industry — was published in 2006.
Hamm has highlighted efforts taken (and not taken) by the companies to build the brand, which is as critical as designing the laptop. “Branding is not something you invent. It is something you uncover,” Deepak Advani, chief marketing officer at Lenovo, tells the author. The story of the sweat and toil that went into Lenovo bagging the design for the Beijing Olympic torch, the challenge for public relation managers to keep the product secret from bloggers, and how an unintended leak helped in marketing the X300 is engrossing.
HP’s acquisition of Compaq, Lenovo’s takeover of IBM, the fight to gain supremacy in the laptop and personal computer market among Dell, HP, Apple, and the Japanese and Korean makers — the book captures it all. It is a roller coaster ride through the marketing failure and successes of Xerox and Apple, the Chinese business environment for information technology products and the efficiency of interpersonal skills shown by people to acquire major players in the personal computer business.
Hamm also tells you in his inimitable style about the confusion created by the small handheld device or mobile internet devices such as the BlackBerry from Research In Motion and the iPhone from Apple, which were projected as alternatives to portable computers.
Having maintained a vice-like grip on the subject, Hamm loosens the plot in the last three chapters and lets you wander into the news reports that does not tell you anything new or interesting. The author not only meanders aimlessly, but also fails to take the debate to any logical conclusion.
But that should not take any credit away from Hamm for a well-researched and extensively interviewed book. It is a collector’s item for those who are passionate about innovation and marketing. The author’s ability to convince and secure uninhibited responses from the people interviewed is remarkable. The book provides intricate details of the challenge that companies face in designing, developing and marketing a product. Excellent index and crisp chapters provide the necessary strength to this book.
This review was published in the Businessworld issue dated Dated 06-13 April 2009
Book Reviews 
The Race For Perfect: Inside The Quest To Design The Ultimate Portable Computer;
Steve Hamm, a senior writer at BusinessWeek, writes about globalisation, innovation and leadership, and has produced more than two dozen cover stories on topics ranging from internet wunderkind Marc Andreessen to the challenges facing India. His previous book, Bangalore Tiger — about the rise of the Indian tech industry — was published in 2006.
