How to join us
What Management Is, by Joan Magretta
From Issue Two of our newsletter.
Explains the underlying "why" of both the theory and practice of management.
The subtitle is "How it Works and Why it’s Everyone’s Business", and that gives some indication of the book’s wide-ranging scope. What is presented here is not simply a guide to one particular methodology or perspective, and, as the introduction says, “this book is for everyone”, because ultimately everyone depends on and uses management.
Joan Magretta makes the point that the innovations of the last century largely depended on the development of the discipline of management – a discipline often misunderstood and derided as meaning bureaucracy, supervision, control, “something to be tolerated”. In fact, management is “a liberal art, drawing freely from all the disciplines that help us make sense of ourselves and our world”. It enables organisations to achieve more than we could achieve on our own, for “management’s real genius is turning complexity and specialization into performance”.
The book provides abundant concrete examples to illustrate these points, using a range of both businesses and non-profit organisations such as the Averind Eye Hospital. Its explanation of "the why" (the underlying purpose and practice of management) is divided into two main sections, design – the conceptual core of management – and execution. In the process it takes in such topics as value creation, business models, strategy and people management. An inspirational and encouraging read for those who believe that developing managerial excellence delivers success.