The Ultimate Book of Business Thinking: Harnessing the Power of the World's Greatest Business Ideas (The Ultimate Series) [Paperback]

Actually, the title of this volume somewhat overstates the case. There is another, Business: the Ultimate Resource (Daniel Goleman is among its 30+ editors) published by Perseus, whose scope and depth of coverage include original best-practice essays from over 150 of today's thought leaders; profiles of the 100 most influential business pioneers and management thinkers; summaries of the 70 most important business books of all time; more than 300 practical checklists which cover all areas of management and career development; a first-class world business almanac covering more than 150 countries, all 50 US states, and 24 industries; a jargon-free dictionary of 6,000 business terms; and an extensive list of 3,000 information sources (books, journals, Web sites and organizations), covering 115 topics. It is, in a word, more comprehensive than is Des Dearlove's book.

That said, I hope my personal opinion does not deter anyone from purchasing his book which also has much to commend it and for a fraction of the cost of Business: the Ultimate Resource. (Also, Dearlove's book is much easier to lift.) His focus is on "the world's greatest business ideas" which are arranged in an alphabetical sequence, beginning with "Action Learning" and concluding with "The Virtual Organization." Dearlove's criteria for selection are eminently sensible: Ideas which are timely, self-contained, have real world credibility, possess and require intellectual rigor, are simple (back to that point in a moment), and practical. There is an especially clever use of graphics to organize/present information such as two "Snapshots" on pages xvii and xix in the Introduction which identify post-war concepts during 1950-1979 and 1980-1999, respectively. Dearlove also includes an "Ideas into action" section in each chapter which provides brief explanations of key concepts as well as suggested do's and don'ts, action steps, etc. Very helpful, especially when periodically reviewing a given chapter.

In The Management Century, Stuart Crainer devotes an entire chapter to each of ten decades. Here are the subjects he covers during the 1900-1950 period:

1900-1910: Stopwatch Science [e.g. Elihu Root, Henri Fayol, and Frederick Winslow Taylor]

1911-1920: Modern Times [e.g. Henry Ford, Frank & Lilian Gilbreth]

1921-1930: Discovering the Organization [e.g. Max Weber, Chester Barnard, Billy Durant, and Alfred Pritchard Sloan Jr.]

NOTE: Throughout the book, Crainer inserts his own comments. For example: "Taylor discovered work. Ford discovered work on a massive scale. Sloan organized work. And no one discovered the people doing the work." That is, until the 1930s....

1931-1940: Discovering People [e.g. Mary Parker Follett, Bill Hewlett & David Packard]

1941-1950: Lessons in War [e.g. William S. Knudsen, Walter Shewhart, Akio Morita, Konosuke Matsushita] Note that, in 1950, Peter Drucker becomes professor of manager at New York University. "The first person anywhere in the world to have such a title and to teach such a subject," he later said.

In my opinion, Crainer's book would be an excellent companion for Dearlove's book. Although the two authors take quite different approaches as they cover different subjects, both focus primarily on the most important, hence most influential business ideas. Although Crainer limits his attention to the 20th century, he would be the first to agree with Dearlove that many of the so-called "modern ideas" were originally introduced centuries ago. With regard to the selection criterion "simplicity," I am reminded of Albert Einstein's suggestion that we develop ideas as simple as possible "but no simpler." In this volume, Dearlove makes an earnest and effective effort to follow that principle. He thereby helps his reader to grasp "the world's greatest business ideas" without, to his credit, compromising their intellectual integrity. Case in point: The Balanced Scorecard. He duly acknowledges the work of Robert Kaplan and David Norton who first introduced TBS in an article published in the Harvard Business Review in 1993. Dearlove then synthesizes several key points when suggesting that four different perspectives must be established in proper balance: those of the customer, internal, innovation and learning, and finally financial. Properly devised, Dearlove notes, TBS will reveal and support appropriate cause-and-effect relationships, possess a combination of lead and lag indicators, and be linked to financial measurement. (Please see pages 18- 21.) In this instance and throughout his book, Dearlove makes it as simple as possible "but no simpler" for his reader to grasp ideas such as The Balanced Scorecard. Well done!

Those who share my high regard for Dearlove's book are urged to check out other volumes in Capstone's "Ultimate Book' series as well as the aforementioned Business: the Ultimate Resource, Crainer's aforementioned The Management Century and his The Ultimate Business Library: The Greatest Books That Made Management, Daniel A. Wren and Ronald G. Greenwood's Management Innovators: The People and Ideas That Have Shaped Modern Business, Daniel A. Wren's The Evolution of Management Thought, (4th Edition), and The Leader's Companion: Insights on Leadership Through the Ages (Thomas Wren, (Editor).

For those dealing with change or working with people facing change this is an invaluable reference book. It's subtitled `Harnessing the Power of the World's Greatest Business Ideas' which I think over eggs the pudding a little, but in its around 300 pages it does a pretty good job of introducing most of the improvement initiatives you are likely to come across.

It is structured in alphabetical order by name of initiative and covers around 50 business ideas, tools or techniques from Action Learning to The Virtual Organisation. A quick calculation reveals that there are 5-6 pages for each topic but this is ample space to provide an overview and each is supported by a list of further reading should you wish to find out more.

What I like about the book is that it doesn't present a purely technical summary but also includes some personal perspectives and reflections on the approach, its application and the way in which it is perceived. For example the section on downsizing identifies the major problems that this approach created in companies who shed jobs and also the failed politically correct attempts to rebadge it as `rightsizing'. In addition each entry has a section called `Ideas into Action' which provides a brief example of the approach used in a real business environment. These sections provide some real insights into the application of the approaches.

I like the fact that the book doesn't set out to advocate any of the approaches, but provides a very useful introduction which can form the basis for further reading. If you find yourself in the sea of acronyms applied to the current fashions of business improvement this will help you unscramble your JIT from your BPR and your Emotional Intelligence from your Strategic Inflection Point.

Here for information is the list of business ideas covered.
Action Learning - Activity-based Costing - Adhocracy - Agility - The Balanced Scorecard - Benchmarking - Boston Matrix - Broadbanding - Channel Management - Core Competencies - Core Values - Crisis Management - Decision Theory (including Kepner-Tregoe and Ringi) - Discounted Cash Flow - Downsizing - E-Commerce (including Customer Relationship Management) - Emotional Intelligence - Employability - Empowerment - Four Ps of Marketing - Game Theory - Intellectual Capital - Interim Management - Just in Time (JIT) (Kanban) - Kaizen (Quality Circles) - Knowledge Management - Leadership - Lean Production - The Learning Organisation - The Managerial Grid (Blake Mouton) - Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs - Matrix Model - Outsourcing - Porter's Five Competitive Forces - The Psychological Contract - Re-engineering (BPR) - Relationship Marketing - Scenario Planning - Scientific Management - Seven S Framework - The Shamrock Organisation - Shareholder Value - Strategic Inflection Point - Strategic Management - Succession Planning - Supply Chain Management - Theories X and Y (and Z) - Thought Leadership - 360-degree Feedback - Time-based Competition - TQM and the Quality Movement - The Transnational Organisation - Value Innovation - The Virtual Organisation

› Go to Amazon U.S. to see both reviews  4.5 out of 5 stars