How: Why How We Do Anything Means Everything…in Business (and in Life)
by Dov Seidman
The book is about ethics and reputation, value-based cultures vs. rule-based cultures, and as the author likes to say, “getting your hows right.” There are some valuable messages in the book.
Continue reading “How: Why How We Do Anything Means Everything…in Business (and in Life)”
Management Rewired: Why feedback doesn’t work and other surprising lessons from the latest brain science
by Charles S. Jacobs
This book is applies neuroscience research to the field of management.
The trend in business has been toward making data-driven decisions, but Charles Jacobs explains why using only the logical side of our brain would lead to myopic decisions. Fortunately, the prefrontal cortex is connected to the amygdala, the portion of the brain which deals with emotion and memory, and this helps us make judgments based on previous experience. This reminded me of what Jack Welch has written about managing from the gut, which Welch says is basically pattern recognition.
Continue reading “Management Rewired”
The Toyota Way
by Jeffrey Liker
The Toyota Way provides an excellent introduction of the Toyota Production System and insights into the company culture.
Toyota is the leader of lean production. In contrast to batch and queue systems, lean focuses on one-piece flow. The customer is the next process and the ideal batch size is one, so the source of defects can be discovered before thousands of defective parts are made.
Continue reading “The Toyota Way”
Data Driven: Profiting from your most important business asset
by Thomas C. Redman
Written for business managers, this book is about managing data as an asset. As with any asset, data only create value when used, as opposed to merely being stored. Data can support internal processes and decisions or it can be sold to external customers.
Continue reading “Data Driven”
What Management Is: How it works and why it’s everyone’s business
by Joan Magretta
The author says this book is about the basics of management, but she adds, “the basics aren’t always obvious.” Topics include: value creation, business models, competitive strategy, organization, numbers, innovation, and managing people.
Continue reading “What Management Is”
Winning
by Jack Welch with Suzi Welch
Winning is a book about management by Jack Welch, CEO of General Electric from 1981-2001. There is a theme of cutting through the clutter. An entire chapter is devoted to the importance of candor. On strategy, he writes “the scientific approach to strategy… peddled by countless consulting firms” is unproductive.
Continue reading “Winning”
Execution: The Discipline of Getting Things Done
by Larry Bossidy and Ram Charan
Execution is about linking people, strategy, and operations. “Execution is not just tactics—it is a discipline and a system. It has to be built into a company’s strategy, its goals, and its culture. And the leader of the organization must be deeply engaged in it.” A significant portion of this book deals with managing people, including recognizing and developing future leaders.
Continue reading “Execution”
The Checklist Manifesto: How to Get Things Right
by Atul Gawande
Routine errors are frequently caused by little things that slip through the cracks due to poor communication and distractions. A simple checklist can eliminate these oversights. This book explores how checklists can improve quality and efficiency—and even save lives—in a wide range of industries. Given the crisis with health care affordability in the United States, I am impressed with the dramatic cost savings in the medical examples.
Continue reading “The Checklist Manifesto”
The New Economics for Industry, Government, Education
by W. Edwards Deming (1900-1993)
Deming is a legendary name in quality management, especially in Japan through his consulting work with Japanese industry from 1950 onward. He died in 1993 at age 93 before the second edition of this book went to press.
“This book is for people who are living under the tyranny of the prevailing style of management,” writes Deming in the preface. He has strong convictions, many of which are counter to conventional management thinking.
Continue reading “The New Economics”
Good to Great: Why Some Companies Make the Leap… and Others Don’t
by Jim Collins
Jim Collins previously co-authored Built to Last, which studied common attributes of enduringly great companies. Good to Great studies companies which made a transition to greatness: 15 years of lagging stock performance followed by 15 years of cumulative stock returns 3 times the overall market.
Continue reading “Good to Great”
The Key Point 