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Summary: The business of gurudom with a naked eye
Review: The most important things I have learned from this book are:- Writing management books is a "business" (and a very lucrative one). In most cases the main driver for writing management books is not a contribution to the discipline of management but making tons of money, either by generating additional consulting revenue (in the case of consultancies), improving the school's curriculum, or making someone rich by charging exorbitant fees for lectures and workshops around the world.
- These gurus have made significant contributions to the discipline of management but in many occasions, their ideas have led to huge failures at corporations that blindly trusted them and tried to implement their new paradigms. Don't take their work for granted and look for contradictory evidence in older books or articles of the same author.
- Businesses around the world have benefited tremendously of management practices, old and new, but there is also overwhelming evidence that many companies around the world and notable business leaders have thrived without following the latest management fads The book also gives a very good overview of the management trends and theories of the last few decades and their proponents. It would be nice to see an updated edition of this book covering the new generation of "gurus/e-gurus" (Goleman, Moore, etc.), as well as a new chapter on E-Business, E-Government and other emerging trends. Read The Witch Doctors and I promise that you will never read another management book in the same way.
Rating:
Summary: An excellent analysis of "the Management Theory spectrum"
Review: This book provides a clear-thinking analysis of the wide spectrum of management theories and applications, and points to several very important limitations inherent in the modern management consultancy industry. In particular, it exposes: 1. the unnecessary promotion of business and management 'jargon'
2. the excessive tendency towards pursuing the latest 'fad'
3. the reluctance to look beneath the surface of ideas or concepts, in order to analyse them critically. Aptly titled "The Witch Doctors", this book lifts much of the
facade from the management advice industry, providing a reasoned
evaluation of 'the workability factor' underpinning key management theories. The book contains 14 very interesting chapters, but perhaps the
most insightful are the following four: Chapter 2: The Management Theory Industry
Chapter 6: Knowledge, Learning and Innovation
Chapter 9: The Future of Work
Chapter 10: What Does Globalisation Mean? Although written in 1996, this book retains much of its currency and relevancy at the beginning of the 21st century. It won the Global Business Book Award in 1996 for the best book written about strategy and leadership, and received high acclaim from the Journal of Business Strategy, arguing that it was "possibly the best-written business book of (its) decade". Even Harvard Business Review considered it "a worthy contribution" noting that "it is broad in its range of information and insights". Perhaps its highest endorsement, however, comes from Rosabeth Moss Kanter, Professor of Management at Harvard Business School, and herself the author of a number of very good management and business books. She says "Read it before buying any other book!" To the ordinary reader looking to gain relevant insights into the world of management thought, this book is an ideal tool. It is written in an easily accessible style, and doesn't necessarily require the reader to absorb it from cover to cover. Genuine insights can be gained by reviewing individual chapters in isolation. Along with "Dangerous Company" by O'Shea & Madigan, and "The Lexus & the Olive Tree" by Tom Friedman, "The Witch Doctors" is arguably one of the most insightful business books to be released in the past 20 years.
Rating:
Summary: The best management book ive read
Review: Would recommend this book strongly to two sets of people:
1. All those who feel they do not read enough about management
2. My B-school strategy professors that tried to treat books by gurus as bibles After working in companies that have consistently outperformed the market, my conclusion is that good managements are those that have the ability to learn about the environment all by their own and have the knack to apply it well bt themselves. No consultant or management guru can ever know a company's business better than its employees do. The best the gurus can ever do is mouth generalities. All of management theory is ephemral, transient. It is good to know concepts and use them sparingly and caringly. This book validates what ive been feeling for a long time.
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