The book provides a well balanced [criticism/praise] review of management theory. Easy and enjoyable read on a subject that produced a lot of barely comprehensible literature.
I read the previous edition of this book - titled the Witch Doctors - too, and there is some difference between the two editions (something that the author acknowledges himself too). This edition is not as head-bushing as the previous one (something I liked more in the previous edition), but it also has more information on different business trends more generally (sometimes making me feel I am just reading another Schumpeter section of the Economist magazine - which I understand is written by the same author).
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Masters of Management: How the Business Gurus and Their Ideas Have Changed the World—for Better and for Worse: How the Business Gurus and Their ... Changed the World―for Better and for Worse Hardcover – 15 Dec. 2011
by
Adrian Wooldridge
(Author)
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Purchase options and add-ons
“Read it before buying any other business book.”—Rosabeth Moss Kanter
In this newly renamed and completely updated edition ofthe BusinessWeek bestseller The Witch Doctors with a new Forewordfrom John Micklethwait, Adrian Wooldridgedeftly sifts the real wisdom from the dross about management theory, sortingthe sages from the charlatans and distilling the true means of success from themany ways to fail. A penetrating and engaging history of management theory,often regarded as one of the most vital and accessible business booksavailable, Masters of Management delivers, in the words of the NewYork Times Book Review, “at last some common sense in the arena dominatedby shark-swimming, chaos-seeking, megatrending,one-minute managing, highly effective people.” This updated classic isessential reading for anyone seeking to forge a path ahead in business and inlife.
- Print length464 pages
- LanguageEnglish
- PublisherHarperBusiness
- Publication date15 Dec. 2011
- Dimensions15.24 x 3.58 x 22.86 cm
- ISBN-100061771139
- ISBN-13978-0061771132
Product description
Review
“At last some common sense in the arena dominated by shark-swimming, chaos-seeking, megatrending, one-minute managing, highly effective people.” (New York Times Book Review)
“At last some common sense in the arena dominated by shark-swimming, chaos-seeking, megatrending, one-minute managing, highly effective people.” (Chicago Tribune)
“Brings clarity, humor, and historical perspective to a field that rewards gibberish, pomposity, and revolutionaries who want to throw away the pase (and the people that go with it).” (Wall Street Journal)
“Micklethwait and Wooldridge have done the near impossible: written a book about management—management—that is lively, engrossing, skeptical, fair-minded, and steeped in a rich sense of history.” (Joseph Nocera)
“Read it before buying any other business book.” (Rosabeth Moss Kanter)
“A gem of debunking.” (The Times (London))
“Simultaneously smart, insightful, terrifying and humorous… this revised incarnation should overtake its predecessor as the most bracing and relevant discussion of the world created by MBAs.” (Kirkus Reviews)
“This excellent book encourages thoughtful analysis of the growing management revolution; the combining of knowledge, learning, and innovation; the real meaning of globalization; and boardroom implications.” (Booklist)
“Without some failures, companies can’t ride the crest of the next wave of innovation. If you don’t seize opportunity, someone else will....Wooldridge uses the stories of small and large companies to drive home his “how to make it work” advice.” (Biz Books)
“Skillfully written and sprinkled with interesting observations.” (Wall Street Journal)
“At last some common sense in the arena dominated by shark-swimming, chaos-seeking, megatrending, one-minute managing, highly effective people.” (Chicago Tribune)
“Brings clarity, humor, and historical perspective to a field that rewards gibberish, pomposity, and revolutionaries who want to throw away the pase (and the people that go with it).” (Wall Street Journal)
“Micklethwait and Wooldridge have done the near impossible: written a book about management—management—that is lively, engrossing, skeptical, fair-minded, and steeped in a rich sense of history.” (Joseph Nocera)
“Read it before buying any other business book.” (Rosabeth Moss Kanter)
“A gem of debunking.” (The Times (London))
“Simultaneously smart, insightful, terrifying and humorous… this revised incarnation should overtake its predecessor as the most bracing and relevant discussion of the world created by MBAs.” (Kirkus Reviews)
“This excellent book encourages thoughtful analysis of the growing management revolution; the combining of knowledge, learning, and innovation; the real meaning of globalization; and boardroom implications.” (Booklist)
“Without some failures, companies can’t ride the crest of the next wave of innovation. If you don’t seize opportunity, someone else will....Wooldridge uses the stories of small and large companies to drive home his “how to make it work” advice.” (Biz Books)
“Skillfully written and sprinkled with interesting observations.” (Wall Street Journal)
From the Back Cover
In 1996, having completed a two-year research study, longtime Economist journalists and editors John Micklethwait and Adrian Wooldridge published The Witch Doctors, an explosive critique of management theory and its legions of evangelists and followers. The book became a bestseller, widely praised by reviewers and devoured by readers confused by the buzzwords and concepts the management “industry” creates. At the time, ideas about “reengineering,” “the search for excellence,” “quality,” and “chaos” both energized and haunted the world of business, just as “the long tail,” “black swans,” “the tipping point,” “the war for talent,” and “corporate responsibility” do today.
For decades, since the rise of MBA programs on campuses across the country, the field of management has operated in a dubious space. Many of its framers clamor for respect within the academy while making millions of dollars pedaling ideas, some brilliant and some nonsensical, in speeches, consulting arrangements, and books.
Although The Witch Doctors was a damning critique (“a scalpel job,” according to the Wall Street Journal), it also argued that much of management theory is valuable—making companies more effi-cient and productive, improving organizational life for workers, and providing sound ways for companies to innovate while defending more entrenched plans. Building upon all that made the original such a phenomenal success, this fully revised and updated edition, Masters of Management, takes into account the rise of the Internet, the growing power of emerging markets, the Great Recession of 2008, and the more recent developments in management theory. The result is an indispensable volume for any manager.
About the Author
Adrian Wooldridge is the management editor and “Schumpeter” columnist of The Economist. He was educated at Balliol College, Oxford, and All Souls College, Oxford, where he held a Prize Fellowship. He was formerly The Economist’s Washington bureau chief and “Lexington” columnist. He is the coauthor, with John Micklethwait, of five books—including The Witch Doctors: Making Sense of the Management Gurus; A Future Perfect: The Challenge and Hidden Promise of Globalization; The Company: A Short History of a Revolutionary Idea; and The Right Nation: Conservative Power in America—and the author of Measuring the Mind: Education and Psychology in England c.1860-1990.
Product details
- Publisher : HarperBusiness; Updated edition (15 Dec. 2011)
- Language : English
- Hardcover : 464 pages
- ISBN-10 : 0061771139
- ISBN-13 : 978-0061771132
- Dimensions : 15.24 x 3.58 x 22.86 cm
- Best Sellers Rank: 1,766,762 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- 576 in Business Process Reengineering
- 2,518 in Business Time Management Skills
- 6,110 in Management Science
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Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 20 October 2012
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 26 April 2013
I originally read "Witch Doctors" by Wooldridge and thus wanted to find out how this book compares with it. I was not disappointed. Lots of up-to-date examples and analysis on the latest research on management development is reviewed here.
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 2 May 2012
If you look around for books on management, you will find a lot of rubbish. Vast majority of authors and publishers make grand claims on thin data, exagerate the novelty of their work and its potential impact on business. Masters of Management will give you a balanced view on the evolution of management as a science and the individuals who drove this. It closely examines insitutions (e.g. Harvard) and thought-leaders (e.g. Tom Peters), subtly exploses those without substance and rightly credits the real masters of management thinking (e.g. Peter Drucker).
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 22 June 2013
"Masters of Management" is "a revised and expanded edition of the witch doctors" (1996). In his "Acknowledgements" the author confirms "my debt to the dozens of people whose brains I have picked during the writing of this book". Comment: of these 37 people only Rosabeth Moss Kanter and C.K. Prahalad belong to the "Best Business Books" community.
John Micklewait (co-author of The Witch Doctors) quotes in his Foreword Jeff Skilling as Enron's CEO. Kenneth Lay was the CEO and chairman of Enron from 1985 until his resignation on January 23, 2002, except for a few months in 2000 when he was chairman and Jeffrey Skilling was CEO. Jeff Skilling was Enron's President and COO; Skilling was CEO in the period of February to August 2001. Lay deceased in 2006, Skilling went to jail in 2006 scheduled for release in February 2028. Yesterday his sentence has been reduced to 14 years only. Micklewait closes his Foreword: "But if you don't like what is written here, complain to Adrian, not me. It is now his book. And I think it is a good one."
In his Introduction (26 pages!) the author claims: "The rise of management theory is one of the most striking-and one of the least analyzed-developments of the past hundred years (Pg.3). ... The problem is that in order to extract that nugget, you have to dig through an enormous amount of waffle. This book is an attempt to extract those nuggets. ... I try to separate the good (or, at any rate, the influential) from the bad and the irrelevant. ... If ideas or thinkers fail the test completely, I have usually left them out, rather than wasting ink on people who have already spilt too much of it. Pg. 23) My aim has been to challenge the specialist readers without confusing generalists." (Pg. 26)
The following sources are very good benchmarks to demonstrate that the author failed meeting his goals and that the book is NOT a good one:
Urwick and Wolf: The Golden Book of Management, New and expanded edition (1956, 1984);
Henry M. Strage (editor): Milestones in Management - an essential reader (1992);
Hermann Simon: Hidden Champions (1997)
Wolfgang H. Staehle: Management, 8. Auflage, 1098 pages (1999);
Daniel A. Wren: The History of Management Thought, 5th edition (2005);
Bloomsbury (publisher): BUSINESS - The Ultimate Resource, 43 main contributors, 2172 pages (2002);
Bloomsbury (publisher): The 100 most influential management books you'll never have time to read 202 pages (2003); as well as all these 100 most influential management books;
Campus Verlag(publisher): Management (German version of "BUSINESS..."), 2160 pages, (2003),
Rüegg-Stürm: Das neue St. Galler Management-Modell, 103 pages (2003);
Carol Kennedy: Guide to the Management Gurus, 340 pages (2007);
Hermann Simon: Hidden Champions of the 21st Century (2009);
Jack Covert, Todd Sattersten: The 100 Best Business Books of All Time, 335 pages (2009); as well as many of these books;
A & C Black Publishers Ltd. (publisher): BUSINESS - The Ultimate Resource, 3rd edition, contributors include 25 famous management experts, 1607 pages (2011);
Basic Books (publisher): The Best Business Books Ever, 269 pages (2011); as well as most of these books;
Müller-Stewens, Lechner: Strategisches Management, 4. Auflage, 692 pages (2011);
all books of Peter Drucker starting with "The End of Economic Man" (1939) to "Management - Revised and updated" by Joseph A. Maciariello (published in 2008 after Ducker's decease in 2005);
all important essays of Peter Drucker and all important books about him;
The following definition of "management theory" from a business dictionary: "A collection of ideas which set forth general rules on how to manage a business or organization. Management theory addresses how managers and supervisors relate to their organizations in the knowledge of its goals, the implementation of effective means to get the goals accomplished and how to motivate employees to perform to the highest standard" ([...]).
Applying my benchmarks "Masters of Management" deserves one star. A lot of analyses exist; the author failed to extract the positive nuggets; his overall focus - with a few exceptions - is bashing of what he considers as "management theory" without providing a clear definition of the subject; he sheepishly equals it with what he calls "management industry" consisting of "consultancies, business schools and management gurus".
He ignores Peter Ducker's view of "Management as a Practice" (1954) as well as many of the important books of entrepreneurs and top executives representing the community of practitioners and doers e.g. Fayol, Carnegie, Flint, Cyrus McCormick (about the reaper), Watson Sen., Watson Jr., Sloan, Kroc, Getty, Bower, Townsend, Grove, Morita, Carlzon, Hawken, Matsushita, Walton, Packard, Inamori, Mohn, Schultz, Marriott, Iverson, Würth, Plattner, Piech, Bossidy, Bill George, Porsche, Hayek, Wozniak, Maucher, O'Kelly, Turner etc.).
In his effort to challenge the specialist without confusing the generalist he fails. His book is misleading and confusing.
Masters of Management has no bibliography (The Witch Doctors had one), which makes it very difficult to keep an overview of his sources; many books mentioned in the text are not referenced in detail in the Notes section, which comprises 240 sources out of which only 25 are ranked in the more than 150 books identified as "Best Business Books", 83 books in Notes are less or not important, 72 notes are reports in media publications, 60 Notes are references to these same sources, which does not speak for a high quality of his efforts to find the nuggets. The index is a name dropping box without covering all references in the text. I do not know why he does not mention anywhere the oldest Noble Prize Winner alive - Coase - with his very important contribution "The Nature of the Firm" (1937).
Chapter 1: Fad in Progress: From Reengineering to CSR
The author qualifies reengineering as a fad without explaining that economics and information technology triggered the efforts; he does not explain that despite of all the troubles with reengineering, downsizing, rightsizing etc. all corporations since the 90s until today have been transformed from functionally structured into process structured operations. Reengineering was the concept to execute this unavoidable transformation (Japanese competition - see "the Machine that changed the world"). Reengineering processes will stay with us combined with technological changes and requirements.
He does not explain correctly the instrument "Balanced Scorecard".
He criticizes the Shareholder Value approach as well as Corporate Social Responsibility which is in fact a Stakeholder approach and as such not new. What does he want? Criticizing whatever it is!
Chapter 2: Management Theory Industry (an oxymoron - how can a theory be an industry?)
He writes "some 98 percent of corporate employers report that they are satisfied with their MBA hires, a figure that has not changed since 1998" ... followed by "The schools have proved strikingly adept at adjusting to criticism ... from the business world about the practical relevance of their courses." (Pg. 61). On page 70 he calls Kenichi Ohmae and Rosabeth Moss Kanter snake charmers (compare with Kanter in his acknowledgements which I do not take serious).
Chapter 3: Peter Drucker: The Guru's Guru
in his introduction on page 9 the author quotes the well-known phrase of the late Peter Drucker who liked to quip that people use the word "guru" only because they cannot spell "charlatan". Now he calls him the Guru's Guru, the alpha male of the management world.
On Page 78 he writes "Taylor was as starry-eyed about mangers as he was cynical about workers."
Taylor's first sentence in Chapter 1 (Fundamentals of Scientific Management): "The principal object of management should be to secure the maximum prosperity for the employer, coupled with the maximum prosperity for each employee." (1911).
Drucker about Taylor: It is fashionable today to look down on Taylor and to decry his outmoded psychology, but Taylor was the first man in the known history of mankind who did not take work for granted, but looked at it and studied it. ....On Taylor's `scientific management' rests, above all, the tremendous surge of affluence in the last seventy-five years which has lifted the working masses in the developed countries well above any level recorded before, even for the well-to-do...Not much has been added to them since - even though he has been dead all of sixty years." (1975).
On Page 81 the author argues "The Concept of the Corporation ... immediately became a best-seller, in Japan as well as in America and has been in print ever since." Peter Drucker in his preface to the 1983 edition: "But it has not become a `classic' - that is, a book of which everybody knows but which no one reads. ... When this book first appeared reviewers did not know what to make of it."
On page 92: "Arguably, Drucker was not a management theorist at all, but a cosmopolitan intellectual in the great European tradition." Then on page 94 he writes "Moss Kanter classifies Drucker as `a management utopian.' Perhaps he is, but then there are worse sorts of dreamers." He should have better quoted Gary Hamel in "The Best Business Books ever" (2003): "I'd like to set a challenge for would-be management gurus: try to find something to say that Peter Drucker has not said first, and has not said well. This high hurdle should substantially reduce the number of business books clogging the bookshelves of booksellers, and offer managers the hope of gaining some truly fresh insights."
Chapter 4: Tom Peters: Management for the Masses
the author does not quote Tom Peter's True Confessions about "In Search of Excellence" published in November 2001 which clarifies much more than is written in this book.
Chapter 5: Flat Worlds, Tipping Points, and Long Tails
The author is no match for Thomas Friedman (The World is Flat). The Tipping Points by Gladwell is ranked as a Best Business Book (2011) but it does not fit well into this category.
Chapter 6: Rethinking the Company
subchapter "the End of certainty": there was never such a thing. Subchapter "Who killed Sloan?": I refer to Bill Gates ("I think Alfred Sloan's My Years with General Motors is probably the best book to read if you want to read only one book about business.") and Peter Drucker ("Why My Years with General Motors is Must Reading: It is, I still maintain, the best management book.") in the 1990 edition.
Chapter 7: Entrepreneurs Unbound
"Jesus Christ tried 12," Macrae argued in one of the telltale phrases that made his work so readable, "and that proved one too many". This is a total misunderstanding of the New Testament, without the one too many Jesus would not have achieved his mission! Page 173 subchapter The United States of Entrepreneurs: the figures are contradicting with those on page 39 which are wrong. The reference to the annual World Bank Report Doing Business is interesting and positive. In the subchapter The Secrets of Success the author attributes animal spirits to entrepreneurs.
Chapter 8: The World Turned Upside Down
as mentioned before, I recommend to read Friedman's The World is Flat.
Chapter 9: Knowledge, Learning, and Innovation
According to the author the field is a magnet for airheads. I recommend reading "The Knowledge Creating Company" by Nonaka and Takeuchi and the books of Clayton M. Christensen about Innovation.
Chapter 10: Lords of Strategy
Mintzberg's Strategy Safari and "Strategisches Management" by Müller-Stewens and Lechner are excellent and serious sources. In the subchapter "Importance of Science Fiction" Herbert von Karajan is compared with Charlie Parker. No comment. The author repeats the wrong quotation by journalists of Gerstner's statement about "vision". His book "Who says Elephants Can't Dance" is a true Best Business Book.
Chapter 11: What Does Globalization Mean? Again, I prefer Friedman's The World is Flat.
Chapter 12: Storm in the Boardroom: if you want entertainment read it, if you want to learn skip it.
Lou Gerstner explains it much better!
Chapter 13: Managing Leviathan:
I recommend this chapter if you are interested in warnings about the dangers of employing management consultants.
Chapter 14: The Common Toad:
The author quotes The Communist Manifesto, "Marx and Engels envisioned Communist society as one where you can go hunting in the morning and be a literary critic in the afternoon." Obviously he forgot to quote them completely: "But not only has the bourgeoisie forged the weapons that bring death to itself; it has also called into existence the men who are to wield those weapons - the modern working class - the proletarians." He is jumping from topic to topic like a nervous bumble bee providing rather small talk information than nuggets of "management theories" qualified to be presented in various management philosophy forums to entertain the audience paying substantial fees for such events.
Chapter 15: The Battle for Brainpower
the author introduces Malcolm Gladwell as one of the most successful management gurus. Gladwell especially with his book "Outliers" could be considered in the segment "manage oneself" and not in the area of business management as such. I recommend "Coming Jobs War" by Jim Clifton (2011).
Chapter 16: Managing yourself:
I agree with the author about the quality of Peter Drucker and Clayton Christensen.
Conclusion: Mastering Management
Subchapter "A Bizarre Industry": from his perspective he is right, I consider his book as very bizarre; it is entertaining for those who like his style, it is not very helpful for those seeking know how and usable methods and tools. Therefore I call it a pain in the brain, knowing that from a medical point of view there is no such pain in brains as Friedman knows and admits that the World is NOT flat, it is only a metaphor.
John Micklewait (co-author of The Witch Doctors) quotes in his Foreword Jeff Skilling as Enron's CEO. Kenneth Lay was the CEO and chairman of Enron from 1985 until his resignation on January 23, 2002, except for a few months in 2000 when he was chairman and Jeffrey Skilling was CEO. Jeff Skilling was Enron's President and COO; Skilling was CEO in the period of February to August 2001. Lay deceased in 2006, Skilling went to jail in 2006 scheduled for release in February 2028. Yesterday his sentence has been reduced to 14 years only. Micklewait closes his Foreword: "But if you don't like what is written here, complain to Adrian, not me. It is now his book. And I think it is a good one."
In his Introduction (26 pages!) the author claims: "The rise of management theory is one of the most striking-and one of the least analyzed-developments of the past hundred years (Pg.3). ... The problem is that in order to extract that nugget, you have to dig through an enormous amount of waffle. This book is an attempt to extract those nuggets. ... I try to separate the good (or, at any rate, the influential) from the bad and the irrelevant. ... If ideas or thinkers fail the test completely, I have usually left them out, rather than wasting ink on people who have already spilt too much of it. Pg. 23) My aim has been to challenge the specialist readers without confusing generalists." (Pg. 26)
The following sources are very good benchmarks to demonstrate that the author failed meeting his goals and that the book is NOT a good one:
Urwick and Wolf: The Golden Book of Management, New and expanded edition (1956, 1984);
Henry M. Strage (editor): Milestones in Management - an essential reader (1992);
Hermann Simon: Hidden Champions (1997)
Wolfgang H. Staehle: Management, 8. Auflage, 1098 pages (1999);
Daniel A. Wren: The History of Management Thought, 5th edition (2005);
Bloomsbury (publisher): BUSINESS - The Ultimate Resource, 43 main contributors, 2172 pages (2002);
Bloomsbury (publisher): The 100 most influential management books you'll never have time to read 202 pages (2003); as well as all these 100 most influential management books;
Campus Verlag(publisher): Management (German version of "BUSINESS..."), 2160 pages, (2003),
Rüegg-Stürm: Das neue St. Galler Management-Modell, 103 pages (2003);
Carol Kennedy: Guide to the Management Gurus, 340 pages (2007);
Hermann Simon: Hidden Champions of the 21st Century (2009);
Jack Covert, Todd Sattersten: The 100 Best Business Books of All Time, 335 pages (2009); as well as many of these books;
A & C Black Publishers Ltd. (publisher): BUSINESS - The Ultimate Resource, 3rd edition, contributors include 25 famous management experts, 1607 pages (2011);
Basic Books (publisher): The Best Business Books Ever, 269 pages (2011); as well as most of these books;
Müller-Stewens, Lechner: Strategisches Management, 4. Auflage, 692 pages (2011);
all books of Peter Drucker starting with "The End of Economic Man" (1939) to "Management - Revised and updated" by Joseph A. Maciariello (published in 2008 after Ducker's decease in 2005);
all important essays of Peter Drucker and all important books about him;
The following definition of "management theory" from a business dictionary: "A collection of ideas which set forth general rules on how to manage a business or organization. Management theory addresses how managers and supervisors relate to their organizations in the knowledge of its goals, the implementation of effective means to get the goals accomplished and how to motivate employees to perform to the highest standard" ([...]).
Applying my benchmarks "Masters of Management" deserves one star. A lot of analyses exist; the author failed to extract the positive nuggets; his overall focus - with a few exceptions - is bashing of what he considers as "management theory" without providing a clear definition of the subject; he sheepishly equals it with what he calls "management industry" consisting of "consultancies, business schools and management gurus".
He ignores Peter Ducker's view of "Management as a Practice" (1954) as well as many of the important books of entrepreneurs and top executives representing the community of practitioners and doers e.g. Fayol, Carnegie, Flint, Cyrus McCormick (about the reaper), Watson Sen., Watson Jr., Sloan, Kroc, Getty, Bower, Townsend, Grove, Morita, Carlzon, Hawken, Matsushita, Walton, Packard, Inamori, Mohn, Schultz, Marriott, Iverson, Würth, Plattner, Piech, Bossidy, Bill George, Porsche, Hayek, Wozniak, Maucher, O'Kelly, Turner etc.).
In his effort to challenge the specialist without confusing the generalist he fails. His book is misleading and confusing.
Masters of Management has no bibliography (The Witch Doctors had one), which makes it very difficult to keep an overview of his sources; many books mentioned in the text are not referenced in detail in the Notes section, which comprises 240 sources out of which only 25 are ranked in the more than 150 books identified as "Best Business Books", 83 books in Notes are less or not important, 72 notes are reports in media publications, 60 Notes are references to these same sources, which does not speak for a high quality of his efforts to find the nuggets. The index is a name dropping box without covering all references in the text. I do not know why he does not mention anywhere the oldest Noble Prize Winner alive - Coase - with his very important contribution "The Nature of the Firm" (1937).
Chapter 1: Fad in Progress: From Reengineering to CSR
The author qualifies reengineering as a fad without explaining that economics and information technology triggered the efforts; he does not explain that despite of all the troubles with reengineering, downsizing, rightsizing etc. all corporations since the 90s until today have been transformed from functionally structured into process structured operations. Reengineering was the concept to execute this unavoidable transformation (Japanese competition - see "the Machine that changed the world"). Reengineering processes will stay with us combined with technological changes and requirements.
He does not explain correctly the instrument "Balanced Scorecard".
He criticizes the Shareholder Value approach as well as Corporate Social Responsibility which is in fact a Stakeholder approach and as such not new. What does he want? Criticizing whatever it is!
Chapter 2: Management Theory Industry (an oxymoron - how can a theory be an industry?)
He writes "some 98 percent of corporate employers report that they are satisfied with their MBA hires, a figure that has not changed since 1998" ... followed by "The schools have proved strikingly adept at adjusting to criticism ... from the business world about the practical relevance of their courses." (Pg. 61). On page 70 he calls Kenichi Ohmae and Rosabeth Moss Kanter snake charmers (compare with Kanter in his acknowledgements which I do not take serious).
Chapter 3: Peter Drucker: The Guru's Guru
in his introduction on page 9 the author quotes the well-known phrase of the late Peter Drucker who liked to quip that people use the word "guru" only because they cannot spell "charlatan". Now he calls him the Guru's Guru, the alpha male of the management world.
On Page 78 he writes "Taylor was as starry-eyed about mangers as he was cynical about workers."
Taylor's first sentence in Chapter 1 (Fundamentals of Scientific Management): "The principal object of management should be to secure the maximum prosperity for the employer, coupled with the maximum prosperity for each employee." (1911).
Drucker about Taylor: It is fashionable today to look down on Taylor and to decry his outmoded psychology, but Taylor was the first man in the known history of mankind who did not take work for granted, but looked at it and studied it. ....On Taylor's `scientific management' rests, above all, the tremendous surge of affluence in the last seventy-five years which has lifted the working masses in the developed countries well above any level recorded before, even for the well-to-do...Not much has been added to them since - even though he has been dead all of sixty years." (1975).
On Page 81 the author argues "The Concept of the Corporation ... immediately became a best-seller, in Japan as well as in America and has been in print ever since." Peter Drucker in his preface to the 1983 edition: "But it has not become a `classic' - that is, a book of which everybody knows but which no one reads. ... When this book first appeared reviewers did not know what to make of it."
On page 92: "Arguably, Drucker was not a management theorist at all, but a cosmopolitan intellectual in the great European tradition." Then on page 94 he writes "Moss Kanter classifies Drucker as `a management utopian.' Perhaps he is, but then there are worse sorts of dreamers." He should have better quoted Gary Hamel in "The Best Business Books ever" (2003): "I'd like to set a challenge for would-be management gurus: try to find something to say that Peter Drucker has not said first, and has not said well. This high hurdle should substantially reduce the number of business books clogging the bookshelves of booksellers, and offer managers the hope of gaining some truly fresh insights."
Chapter 4: Tom Peters: Management for the Masses
the author does not quote Tom Peter's True Confessions about "In Search of Excellence" published in November 2001 which clarifies much more than is written in this book.
Chapter 5: Flat Worlds, Tipping Points, and Long Tails
The author is no match for Thomas Friedman (The World is Flat). The Tipping Points by Gladwell is ranked as a Best Business Book (2011) but it does not fit well into this category.
Chapter 6: Rethinking the Company
subchapter "the End of certainty": there was never such a thing. Subchapter "Who killed Sloan?": I refer to Bill Gates ("I think Alfred Sloan's My Years with General Motors is probably the best book to read if you want to read only one book about business.") and Peter Drucker ("Why My Years with General Motors is Must Reading: It is, I still maintain, the best management book.") in the 1990 edition.
Chapter 7: Entrepreneurs Unbound
"Jesus Christ tried 12," Macrae argued in one of the telltale phrases that made his work so readable, "and that proved one too many". This is a total misunderstanding of the New Testament, without the one too many Jesus would not have achieved his mission! Page 173 subchapter The United States of Entrepreneurs: the figures are contradicting with those on page 39 which are wrong. The reference to the annual World Bank Report Doing Business is interesting and positive. In the subchapter The Secrets of Success the author attributes animal spirits to entrepreneurs.
Chapter 8: The World Turned Upside Down
as mentioned before, I recommend to read Friedman's The World is Flat.
Chapter 9: Knowledge, Learning, and Innovation
According to the author the field is a magnet for airheads. I recommend reading "The Knowledge Creating Company" by Nonaka and Takeuchi and the books of Clayton M. Christensen about Innovation.
Chapter 10: Lords of Strategy
Mintzberg's Strategy Safari and "Strategisches Management" by Müller-Stewens and Lechner are excellent and serious sources. In the subchapter "Importance of Science Fiction" Herbert von Karajan is compared with Charlie Parker. No comment. The author repeats the wrong quotation by journalists of Gerstner's statement about "vision". His book "Who says Elephants Can't Dance" is a true Best Business Book.
Chapter 11: What Does Globalization Mean? Again, I prefer Friedman's The World is Flat.
Chapter 12: Storm in the Boardroom: if you want entertainment read it, if you want to learn skip it.
Lou Gerstner explains it much better!
Chapter 13: Managing Leviathan:
I recommend this chapter if you are interested in warnings about the dangers of employing management consultants.
Chapter 14: The Common Toad:
The author quotes The Communist Manifesto, "Marx and Engels envisioned Communist society as one where you can go hunting in the morning and be a literary critic in the afternoon." Obviously he forgot to quote them completely: "But not only has the bourgeoisie forged the weapons that bring death to itself; it has also called into existence the men who are to wield those weapons - the modern working class - the proletarians." He is jumping from topic to topic like a nervous bumble bee providing rather small talk information than nuggets of "management theories" qualified to be presented in various management philosophy forums to entertain the audience paying substantial fees for such events.
Chapter 15: The Battle for Brainpower
the author introduces Malcolm Gladwell as one of the most successful management gurus. Gladwell especially with his book "Outliers" could be considered in the segment "manage oneself" and not in the area of business management as such. I recommend "Coming Jobs War" by Jim Clifton (2011).
Chapter 16: Managing yourself:
I agree with the author about the quality of Peter Drucker and Clayton Christensen.
Conclusion: Mastering Management
Subchapter "A Bizarre Industry": from his perspective he is right, I consider his book as very bizarre; it is entertaining for those who like his style, it is not very helpful for those seeking know how and usable methods and tools. Therefore I call it a pain in the brain, knowing that from a medical point of view there is no such pain in brains as Friedman knows and admits that the World is NOT flat, it is only a metaphor.
