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

by Adrian Wooldridge

Overview

“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.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780061771132
Publisher:	HarperCollins
Publication date:	11/29/2011
Edition description:	Updated
Pages:	464
Product dimensions:	6.40(w) x 9.10(h) x 1.70(d)

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.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgments vii

Foreword xi

Introduction: The Unacknowledged Legislators 1

Part I How it Works

Chapter 1 The Fad in Progress: From Reengineering to CSR. 29

Chapter 2 The Management Theory Industry 49

Part II The Prophet and the Evangelists

Chapter 3 Peter Drucker: The Guru's Guru 75

Chapter 4 Tom Peters: Management for the Masses 95

Chapter 5 Flat Worlds, Tipping Points, and Long Tails 111

Part III Three Management Revolutions

Chapter 6 Rethinking the Company 143

Chapter 7 Entrepreneurs Unbound 169

Chapter 8 The World Turned Upside Down 203

Part IV The Great Debates

Chapter 9 Knowledge, Learning, and Innovation 233

Chapter 10 Lords of Strategy 251

Chapter 11 What Does Globalization Mean? 269

Chapter 12 Storm in the Boardroom 291

Chapter 13 Managing Leviathan 313

Part V Workers of the World

Chapter 14 The Common Toad 337

Chapter 15 The Battle for Brainpower 363

Chapter 16 Managing Yourself 391

Conclusion: Mastering Management 409

Notes 421

Index 433

What People are Saying About This

Joseph Nocera

“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.”

Rosabeth Moss Kanter

“Read it before buying any other business book.”

Editorial Reviews

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

From the Publisher

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

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

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

A gem of debunking.

The Times (London)

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

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

At last some common sense in the arena dominated by shark-swimming, chaos-seeking, megatrending, one-minute managing, highly effective people.

Chicago Tribune

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

A welcome update of a business classic. In 1996, Wooldridge (God Is Back: How the Global Revival of Faith is Changing the World, 2010, etc.) co-authored The Witch Doctors, a brilliant analysis of the cult and culture of business management. The various global meltdowns of the 21st-century have necessitated a wholly updated edition, and this revised incarnation should overtake its predecessor as the most bracing and relevant discussion of the world created by MBAs. Today, the author is largely concerned with the ways in which a group of management mavericks—trained at some of the world's most elite institution—have been given free reign to shape the economy. While Wooldridge concedes the many positive contributions management "gurus" have had on American enterprise, he is ultimately damning. He calls the industry to task for its lack of intellectual rigor; love of novelty for novelty's sake; propensity to obfuscate through meaningless neologisms; and refusal to acknowledge criticism. In sharp, direct prose, he looks at examples in which entire industries have been reshaped—often with catastrophic results—by this coterie's theoretical whims. In an increasingly volatile world in which the public demands more for less and resources that were once plentiful have become more and more scarce, CEOs and politicians have made themselves easy targets for millionaire prophets promising salvation. Simultaneously smart, insightful, terrifying and humorous.

Kirkus Reviews