Jeremy Hope

Jeremy Hope and Steve Player provide a critique of modern business management tools and how we use them. For example, "key performance indicators", "balanced score card", "customer relation dynamics", and resource management. They flatly state that business tools are rarely used effectively, rarely yielding results more than 30% of the time, and sometimes taking companies into reverse. Most companies simply fail to recognize what their most valuable resources are. Invariably, "budget controls" reinforce bureaucracy at the expense of flexibility. The CFO and corporate finance department become siloed and isolated from the rest of the business.

In this book, Hope and Player look at 40 of the most familiar management tools, and carefully examine their origins and purpose. And the heart of this examination are notes on how each can best be used in practice. The orientation turns on people-centered approach: "who is using the tool"?

So often, when a tool is not working, a manager will blame the tool. However, the authors suggest that it is often the case that the tool is simply not pushed or applied. For example, "open book management" relies on transparency, and its adoption across the company. It is easy to pay lip service to "sharing of knowledge". In practice, however, key managers may seek out and cling to a bottle-neck, preserving a fiefdom for themselves under the illusion of attaining privilege and security. Similarly, many managers reinforce a command-and-control mentality, which remains the dominant ethos in many workplaces in spite of talk about the benefits of a "free market". Managers seem to hold a belief about the robust productivity of individual freedom in a governmental setting, without seeing that the benefits accrue in any "corporate" setting. The authors note that "courage is in short supply".

The authors providing an unsparing critique of American business managers. The failure of executives and directors to appreciate the value of their own personnel is fatal to growth and business health. To this day, most businesses continue to sacrifice long-term profits for short-term cost-cutting without careful examination of the skills and relationships of the people--the power of a focused work force is etiolated by misdirected and blind greed in the Executive Suite.… (plus d'informations)

A Must for ANY Leader!

Authors, Jeremy Hope, Peter Bunce and Franz Röösli take us through how we can achieve an empowered and adaptive organization based on 12 management principles. Think of the organisation as an obedient machine (where the assumption is everything is controllable) and compare it to the adaptive systems view in this book where the leadership style is more flexible, creative and empowering. But still in control.

Each principle is first summarised and then given its own chapter in which there are detailed lessons and case studies to learn from. I really like how, at the end of every chapter they highlight key points to consider for your organisation and provide suggestions for caring and ethical leadership styles that govern, not dictate. Something
many organisations should consider incorporating into their own management styles. In fact, it's a must for any leader!… (plus d'informations)