3 Review(s)

The last 20 years have seen one management fad after another.  At the behest of consultants and gurus, businesses have re-engineered, downsized, learnt excellence, developed competencies and created customer-focused strategies. But to what avail?  Despite all these fads and improvements we still find bad management, unhappy customers and companies that are extolled as excellent one day and go bust the next. There is a huge gulf between the excellence industry that is touted by the gurus and the real world of business. Hard-Core Management bridges that gap.  It exposes all the core assumptions made by managers and their gurus by stripping them of their fancy garb and forcing us to confront the stark, wart-and-all reality.  More than 100 overdressed assumptions are presented for frank examination, such as: we know our customers; we know our competition; we have a strategy; our leader knows the way; we have a vision; we are in control; we can change This is management without its clothes on.  This is the hard core of management. You might not like what you see, but at least you can now do something about it. About the Author Jo Owen has over 20 years’ experience with some of the best (and a few of the worst) companies in the world.  These include Andersen Consulting (now Accenture), Apple Computers, Cap Gemini, BT, Barclays Bank, Halifax and Merrill Lynch.  He has lived in the United States, the United Kingdom, Europe and Japan, and worked with some of the leading business school professors in the world.  His experience crosses industries and continents, taking him from the post room to the boardroom.  A serial entrepreneur in banking, consulting and the not-for-profit sectors, he is one of the founding directors of Teach First.  Jo is the author of the bestselling Management Stripped Bare: What they don’t teach you at business school