Guide to Management Ideas

by Tim Hindle

This lively and authoritative guide explores the 100 ideas that have most influenced approaches to business management during the past 100 years--and which are likely to continue to do so long into this century. Each idea is covered in a standard comprehensive way, with an explanation, a brief history of its development, and recommended further reading. For anyone who wants a good grasp of the concepts that lie behind business success, there is no better or more accessible guide than this.

Genres: Business

Hardcover

First published January 1, 2003

Reviews

[Abd-ulaziz · Rating 4 out of 5]

The book outlines the most important concepts in the business world such as six sigma,Tipping point,zero based budgeting, SWOT, just in-time, disruptive innovation..etc. The book fits for people like me who reads disruptively, so if you are not interested about one concept you can jump easily to the next topic without losing your own pace. The book also shade light on Management Gurus. One important note about the the book , it does not provide any insights or reflections on the presented concepts. It gives you just a glimpse into what the concept is and it’s your decision to go further to explore it through other resources.In general, the book is easy to read and well-written, however I was expecting it to be more focused on management as the title says!

[Jan Spörer · Rating 4 out of 5]

Here are my key take-aways:

Activity-based costing (ABC):
-Important if customized products are produced alongside standardized products.
-Overhead costs are not attributed to direct costs but to process steps.

Balanced scorecard:
-You get what you measure.
-Customer perspective, internal perspective, innovative/improvement perspective.

C-curve:
-Developed by BCG.
-Restructuring cases often show an initial downfall before being able to take extensive measures to boost profitability again.
-x-axis: time, y-axis: ROA

Double loop learning:
-Question your orders/the objectives you get.

Enterprise resource planning (ERP):
-Information sharing of distinct corporate departments.

Hawthorne effect:
-Counter concept to Frederick Taylor's scientific management.
-Social aspects of production processes; communicate changes.
-Ask employees how they want to work - performance will improve just by asking, even without doing anything.

Kaizen:Authoritarian
-Continuous improvement.
-3 pillars: HR as biggest asset, incremental improvement, quantification.

Convergence:
-Banking & insurance, utilities.
-Competencies in some industries are so similar that companies used deregulation to tap into related markets.

Span of control:
-Number of subordinates of a supervisor.
-Can be increased with autonomy or with less autonomy (clear rules).

Management by walking around (related to open door policy)
-Provide employees with access to financial accounting and with knowledge about it.

Seven-s-model:
-Strategy, structure (organizational), systems, skills, shared values and goals, staff, style.

Theories X and Y:
-Authoritarian management style and little empowerment/trust vs. the opposite.

Total quality management:
-Ensure quality at every step.

[j j · Rating 4 out of 5]

It is a well-written refresher of management ideas. Each idea is discussed briefly with not just their success story as most writers do, but also lists some failures and drawbacks. I did find some books to add to my TBR list from the further readings that are listed at the end of the chapters.

I do not know how effective it would be for someone who does not have the faintest clue about these concepts. However, if you do have some idea about them, then this would definitely be an excellent read.

[Hector Moreno · Rating 5 out of 5]

En el libro hay grandes ideas que son buenas saberlas. Para los que estamos comenzando en el mundo del MANAGEMENT, es una gran guia y para los mas avanzado, quizas sirva para refrescar conceptos.

[Blake · Rating 3 out of 5]

The Economist's Guide to Management Ideas is a reference book which details the 100 most influential management ideas. Each management idea is devoted roughly two pages for a concise explanation of the concept, its history, and recommendations for further reading. Switching from the public to private sector I thought it wise to begin sharpening n my business knowledge and picked up this and a host of other books in the Economist Guide series. I was not impressed with many entries which I consider basic concepts from economics. However, once I finished the book I had gained a fairly broad understanding of various management concepts, as well as a handle on some of the nomenclature and buzz words that are batted about in the corporate environment (lean, total quality management, etc. etc.). I venture to say that this book would do little good for someone with a solid business background either with years of experience or academic training. Overall, I dog-eared six or seven entries for further reading and considered close to one third of the ideas to be very basic economic concepts as applied to business (i.e. satisfaction, barriers to entry/exit)