Masters of Management: How the Business Gurus and Their Ideas Have Changed the World--For Better and for Worse [Hardcover]

Author Wooldridge, editor at the Economist, profiles a number of management thinkers and wonders whether the variation between their thinking is a sign of management theory's 'immaturity.' Eventually, however, he concludes that this variation is a sign of 'the profession's vitality' and openness to outside ideas. He should have stuck with his first inclination - as a result, he unwittingly ends up adding to the pile of management theory sophistry that confuses readers and that he previously decried in 'The Witch Doctors.'

I seriously began studying management theory in the early 1970s at Arizona State University (ASU) - an entity unfortunately trapped in the 1930s and the 'Human Relations' school of thought. (Remember the experiments at Western Electric's plant - varying lighting, etc., and observing the impact on productivity? Surprisingly, productivity continually rose - hence, the conclusion that interest in workers was the key. It was named the 'Hawthorne Effect.') While ASU (and presumably others) pursued this and other 'warm feelings,' Japan instead developed 'The Toyota Production System' that simultaneously provided significant and sustained improvements in quality, productivity, and response time, and used it to decimate first American auto firms, then steel producers, etc. Amazingly, at the same time Toyota was also successfully pursuing Christensen's 'Disruptive Innovation' theory - again, a key development that management theorists at ASU were also oblivious to, and probably prior to even Harvard Business School even having recognized what was occuring.

Meanwhile, more and more books were also published that summarized 'leadership/management' secrets of successful sports coaches - the most prominent being John Wooden, head basketball coach at UCLA. However, anyone with a warm body should have immediately wondered about the relevance between motivating/leading young men 'working' unpaid 3-5 years in pursuit of a lucrative NBA career to managing career scientists, sewer-cleaners, hospital-workers, etc.

The REAL REASONS for inconsistencies in 'management theories' are several: 1)Incompetent commentators - Malcolm Gladwell's name immediately comes to mind, and was referenced by Wooldridge. He and others maximize the extrapolation of conclusions from minimal, uncontrolled, and often self-selected data. Richard Florida and Stephen Covey are others guilty of the same, and referenced by Wooldridge as well. (Wooldridge, however, seems oblivious to this.) 2)Varying organizational situations - leading a firm away from near bankruptcy in a near commodity marketplace requires much different skills than leading a firm into successful innovation that avoids intense cost pressures. Steve Jobs, in his second-coming at Apple, displayed both skill sets, and is one of the few able to do so. In fact, you can almost guarantee that skills that birth a successful new firm will eventually become a hindrance after the pace of innovation slows and competition focuses more on costs. 3)Varying economic situations - decades ago jobs were easy to obtain and cost competition was minimal - managers needed to focus on pacifying workers. Hence, the automakers' and airlines' bloated labor contracts. Today, its the opposite, and new hard-nosed managment skills are required - eg. union-busting via bankruptcy and outsourcing. Again, Wooldridge fails to clearly see the issue and offer a framework. 4)Varying personnel situations - obviously one does not manage M.D.s the same way as truck drivers. Abraham Maslow's 'Needs Hierarchy' provides a good structure for understanding why. 5)Important 'other' factors such as strategy (good or bad), use of financial and operational leverage, and over-emphasis on volume instead of market share,

Wooldridge also waffles on the credibility of economic theorists - incredible, given their failure to forecast the 'Great Recession' and the outcome of minimal government regulation of the finance industry. In fact, some of these 'great economists' help create the problem - eg. the Black-Scholes model for bond pricing, and Long Term Capital Management - a highly-leveraged trading system. Both incorporated strong Nobel prize-winning individuals.

My suggestion - instead read materials by Larry Bossidy (former Allied-Signal CEO), Michael Porter (Harvard professor of strategy), Tachii Ohno and Shigeo Shingo (developers of the Toyota Production System), Clayton Christensen (Harvard professor), and Louis Gerstner (former IBM CEO). Shorter, but equally valuable, inputs can be obtained from C. Northcotte Parkinson (Parkinson's Law), and Edwin Locke (professor of psychology at Univ. of Md.).

Business books are published at such a pace that it's impossible to keep
up with the latest ideas trumpeted by multitudes of gurus, professors,
and CEOs all contradicting each other and all insisting their one idea
is the only one you'll ever need. Different business schools embrace
different experts, preferably those on staff. Walk into any manager's
office and scan the bookshelves. You'll find more books on business than
Amazon has on advice for personal relationships. How can you find your
way through the maze of advice?

Easy--Adrian Wooldridge's book Masters of Management is a guide through
every aspect of management theories, strategies, gurus' credibility, and
CEO reminiscences. He has the uncanny ability to bring clarity to the
ideas floating in the vast ocean of business ideas, advice, and their
history, and future. The book contains more useful information than most
MBA programs, albeit in bite-sized pieces. Bibliographies for each
chapter refer you to more detailed information about the topics covered.

The Masters of Management is dense with information. Complex topics are
broken into two to four main points, making it easy to manage the load.
Ideas like globalization, business process redesign, or frugal
innovation are explained as inevitable, a fad, or a brilliant concept.
As the CEO of a start-up, all the information is timely and helpful.
Ideas that we are not ready to implement provide food for thought; his
opinions on globalization and Corporate Social Responsibility help us
with our current direction.

Wooldridge writes for The Economist, a periodical that produces the best
English-language journalism in the world. It shows. I found it impossible to scan
or dip because as soon as I start reading, I'm lost in interesting
tales, superbly written with clarity and wit. For example, this quote
creates very entertaining mental visions: "Christians and Hindus might
worship different gods, but they still have to wash their hair."

It's rare to find a book so comprehensive and useful. If you buy one
business book this year, you'll be doing yourself a favor by making it
Adrian Wooldridge's Masters of Management.

Priscilla Burgess is CEO, Co-founder, and Co-inventor of Bellwether Materials, an award-winning, triple-bottom line company that manufactures deep green building insulation made from an agricultural by-product.

Wooldridge not only explores the world of management theory, he also extraordinarily well describes how emerging markets are changing the western approach to management and growth. I particularly encourage everyone to read chapter 8 about "The World turned upside down". There are some important lessons to be learned, particularly for all of us in the West stuck in an age of austerity. Well researched and a gripping read. I highly reccomend it.