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2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
An excellent, down-to-earth guide for corporate managers, 30 Oct 1998
By A Customer
A lot of books have been published on value based management, or managing to maximize shareholder value, but this is the best I've seen on several counts. First, it emphasizes process throughout: taking the corporate manager from governing objective to the nitty-gritty of individual business units, and showing at each step how decisions should be made to produce the best possible return."Value Imperative" addresses some issues I haven't seen discussed sufficiently in other books of this genre: most specifically, how to produce top value when you're operating in a low-growth or no-growth industry, and precisely what sort of managerial compensation structure fits best into a VBM framework. In every case, the authors' prescriptions are logical and understandable. Most importantly, they encourage the reader to believe that their solutions and disciplines are doable - challenging, but achievable. Some management books strangle on theory and mathematical analysis, but this one doesn't - another reason I liked it. The authors keep the math - solid and useful analytics - in the appendices, while, again, the main text emphasizes process at the human level. What one sees mainly by way of illustration are flow charts which help make the VBM approach clear. Encouragingly, nothing they write here seems dated -- although it originally apeared in 1994, "Value Imperative's" lessons apply to companies facing a slower-growing economy (as we may be now)as well as those in a fast-growing environment. This book would seem best for large companies in mature industries, rather than start-ups, although some of its lessons may be good for the latter as well. It contains a lot of good case study material, and should be especially useful to companies that are reevaluating their commitment to some lines of business, looking atpotential acquisitions or divestments, revamping their compensation policy, or considering pouring a lot of resources into aggressively growing a particular sector (it's especially critical of "patient money" and "economy of scale" arguments for growth). Managers who want to read something about their practice that's solid, practical, and not faddish should take a look.
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by Laura P. Hartman
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