A leadership book as a corporate gift
Most corporate gifts are gone within a month. The sweets are eaten, the hamper is shared, the diary is used until February. A book is the one gift that is still in the room a year later, and a book about leading is the one gift that says you see the person as a leader rather than as a line in a vendor list.
A book also fits the money. A good hardback sits comfortably under the ₹5,000 figure that most mid-level corporate gifting budgets work to, and under the limit at which a gift to an employee stays a nil perquisite under the Income-tax Rules. It travels well, it needs no refrigeration, and it can be sent to a hundred addresses as easily as to one.
What separates a book that is kept from a book that is regifted is whether it was made for gifting in the first place.
What makes a leadership book giftable
It is made to be opened often
A business paperback is read once. A book arranged as a page a day, with something to return to every morning, becomes part of a routine. That is the difference between a gift and a possession.
It looks the part
A large hardback with a jacket, a ribbon bookmark and a box reads as a considered gift the moment it is unwrapped. The printed MRP matters too; it is what the recipient sees.
It speaks to the recipient as a leader
The best leadership gifts are about the recipient’s own decisions, pressures and people, in language they would use themselves. A text that has been read by leaders for two and a half thousand years carries more weight than this quarter’s management fashion.
It can be personalised
A note or a bookplate with the recipient’s name turns a bulk order into fifty individual gifts. Ask whether the seller offers it.
It can be invoiced to the company
For an order of any size you will want an invoice in the company’s name. Printed books are nil-rated under GST, so there is no tax on the price.
The Ethical Leader’s Gita
Each of the 700 verses of the Bhagavad Gita on a page of its own, with the Sanskrit, a transliteration, the meaning in English and in Hindi, and a reflection on what the verse asks of a person who leads others. An 880-page hardback with jacket, 11 by 8.5 inches, with forewords by Prof. Dr. Sunil Maheshwari and Prof. Dr. Vishal Gupta of IIM Ahmedabad. MRP ₹4,995. On this site ₹4,295 including courier within India, and from ₹4,160 per copy for 10 copies or more.