Management Stripped Bare narrows the gulf between theoretical solutions and workable practices, providing a bevy of real solutions for novice managers and seasoned veterans alike. Management Stripped Bare takes a serious look at business issues large and small, from leadership to accounting practices, performance appraisals to sexual harassment policy, mergers and acquisitions to project management, and much more. With a bracing, take-no-prisoners tone and more than 150 examples, author Jo Owen leads you through cubicles, corner offices, and boardrooms, deflating hype and exposing hypocrisy in pursuit of more enlightened and practical management solutions. The author has spent 20 years working with some of the world's best (and worst) companies. Management Stripped Bare lays out his experience in one essential round-up of those strategies that work and those that don't.

Jo Owen

Kogan Page Ltd

United Kingdom and Ireland, United Kingdom

Acknowledgements vii Introduction 1 A 3 An age of ambiguity 3 Agreement and argument 4 Altitude sickness 5 Annual evaluations 6 Association with success 8 Averages and the drunkard 9 B 11 Baselines 11 Battles 13 Boundaries 14 Budgets 15 Budget codes 16 Business schools 16 C 18 Calculators 18 Call centres and contempt for the customer 19 Claims to fame 20 Cock-ups and blame 22 Commercial confidentiality 23 Committees 23 Compounding 24 Computer abuse 25 Conferences: the survival guide 26 Consultants 27 Control, compliance and commitment 30 Corruption, bribery and skulduggery 32 Cost cutting: the soldier's boots 32 Cost saving: the red dollar syndrome 34 Courtesy 36 Culture, crabs andthe death of the tea lady 37 Customer loyalty and the moment of truth 39 Customer research: lies and statistics 41 Customer service: living with reality 43 D 44 Delegation, empowerment and deception 44 Democracy and dictatorship at work 45 Diversity 46 Dress, schizophrenia and the caste system 47 Due diligence 49 E 50 Easy does it 50 Enthusiasm 51 Entrepreneurs, business and the pact with the devil 53 Entropy and excellence 54 Excess capacity 55 Excuses 56 Eyes of management 56 F 58 Financial accounting: the road to irrelevance 58 Flat organizations, flat results 60 Forecasting and experts 62 Frequent flyers 63 G 65 Glory and lies: the annual report 65 Grass is greener on the other side of the hill 67 Guarantees: promises and lies 68 H 71 Headhunters 71 Head office: the beauty and the beast 72 Herd instincts 73 Honest feedback 74 Honesty, not morality 75 How to kill a lion 76 Humour and the sense of humour test 77 Hustle: controlling your destiny 78 I 80 Information inflation: back to the future 80 IT consultants: the builder's brick 81 IT: Intermediate Technology 82 Innovation: winning without fighting 83 Investing to lose 85 '-ists' 85 J 87 Japan: learning to eat sushi and conquer the world 87 Job descriptions versus the psychological contract 88 K 90 Killing ideas 90 Knowledge management 92 L 94 Language 94 Lawyers and the revolution 95 Leaders and the led 96 Leadership heaven and hell 97 Learning, mistakes and the shit detector 98 Luck 98 M 100 Management 100 Management by walking away 101 Mars Bars, utility and the salesperson 101 Meetings: the good, the bad and the ugly 102 Mergers and acquisitions 105 The Midas touch 107 Monkey business 108 Myths of management 109 N 111 Negotiate to win 111 New economy blues 112 O 113 Offices 113 Organization charts 116 Overpay people 118 P 119 Pareto principle 119 Parkinson's Law 120 Perfect predators 121 Political correctness 122 Power games 123 Pricing 126 Professionals and pyramids 128 Professors and the one-night stand 129 Project management 130 Punks, hippies, experts and the future 131 Q 133 Quality zealots 133 Quick fix fixation 134 R 138 Rational, political and emotional management 138 Resisting insanity 139 Respect for the individual 139 Reviewing documents: the art of reading 140 Rushing and relaxing 142 S 143 Salaries and secrets 143 Seagull management 144 Secretaries 145 Sell-by dates: when to move on 146 Sex and drugs and rock and roll 147 Shakespeare and management 148 Sheriffs and cowboys 148 Skills: stuff and people 149 Sorry and sympathy 150 Spend, spend, spend 150 Staff and the masters of the universe 151 Stewardship and values 152 Strategy: war and peace 153 Stress is good 155 T 157 Team players 157 Teflon-coated management: turning losses into investment 158 Teleworking: myth and reality 159 Thank you 160 Thinking and writing 161 Time: activity, efficiency and effectiveness 161 Titles 163 U 165 Understanding and paraphrasing 165 Unreasonable management 166 V 168 Venting: the art of getting the shits out 168 Victimless crimes 169 Vision statements 170 W 172 What do you do? 172 Why work? 173 Working hours 174 Writing skills 174 X 176 Theories X, Y and Z 176 Y 178 Ygwyd 178 The yogi and the commissar 178 Z 180 Zones of comfort and discomfort 180 Summary 182 About the Author 184

This is a book about business as it is - not as it should be. Managers face the same problems the world over - bad meetings, boring presentations, unreasonable expectations, difficult bosses - and somehow they are meant to make sense of it all. But this isn't taught in business school. In Management Stripped Bare Jo Owen draws on his vast experience to present real-life solutions and observations on common management challenges. Each challenge is described, and successful and unsuccessful responses are illustrated with case studies. Punchy, edgy and refreshingly honest, it is entertaining and witty as well as informative. Irreverent and incisive, Management Stripped Bare cuts through the usual management hype and rhetoric to reveal what business is really about. It is not a grand theory of management but a practical guide to survival in the real world

"Irreverent and incisive, Management Stripped Bare deals with over 130 everyday management challenges. Each challenge is honestly assessed, and successful and unsuccessful responses are illustrated with real-life examples. Short on theory and long on experience, this book cuts through the usual hype and rhetoric to reveal what management is really about."--BOOK JACKET

2023-06-28