What Management Is: How It Works And Why It's Everyone's Business

Joan Margretta, Nan Stone
HarperCollins £20
ISBN 0-00-713246-8

The authors suggest that this book is not just for managers and students of management - but for everyone. This is because management matters - to all. It is the driving force behind all the innovations of the last 100 years. Margretta and Stone attempt to cover and relate a number of topics from value creation through business models to competitive strategy, the 80/20 rule and decision analysis. They do this by beginning with a description of what's required to be a manager, and then explaining, in general terms, how to do it. The material is organised into two simple, main parts: Design: Why People Work Together and How, and Execution: Making it Happen. There is then a final chapter - "saving the best for last" on Managing People: Which Values Matter and Why.

Whether the basic premise - and therefore intended readership - is justified is perhaps arguable, but the authors do provide useful lessons and insights into a number of management areas. Often this is through case studies - some of which have been aired before, but many of which are new. The book aims to promote 'managerial literacy'. Certainly it does a good job of setting out many of the basic principles of management and offering advice on how they might be deployed.