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The Open-Book Management Field Book
A hands-on guide to unleashing the power of Open-Book Management(OBM).
The authors of the acclaimed The Power of Open-Book Management nowbring you their essential nuts-and-bolts guide to creating andimplementing an OBM strategy tailored to the specific needs of yourcompany. Sample dialogues, training exercises, tips, and techniquesprovide the tools you need to successfully meet the challenge ofintroducing OBM into your company.
"Open-book management is here to stay, and this OBM field bookexplains the why, the what, and the how. If you want to create acompany of business thinkers, this is the book that will tell youhow others are doing it, and how you can do it, too." -- JeromeHarris, Senior Managing Director, American Express Tax &Business Services, Inc.
"If you want your firm's profits to leap ahead, open-bookmanagement is for you. This book not only tells you exactly how toimplement OBM successfully, but also makes such good reading thatyou won't want to put it down." -- Willard I. Zangwill, Ph.D.,Professor, Graduate School of Business, University ofChicago.
"This is a must read for leaders considering open-book management.The book is a roadmap that presents proven methods and realresults. It details what is required to successfully implement thisnew way of doing business." -- Robert S. Argabright II, Argabright& Associates.
"This book offers the principles of OBM from the masters andtechniques from the trenches. It is a rare offering as it is notredundant for readers of the first book nor is it sequential,making the first a prerequisite. It makes the principles of OBMclear to all readers and plumbs the depth of the practice bytapping the experiences of practitioners." -- Tim O'Donnell,Publisher, The Olathe Daily News.
"The Open-Book Management Field Book is a practical resource forcompanies both new to and experienced with OBM. This book certainlywould have accelerated the open-book process in our company when webegan. But it's also a wonderful tool for reassessing ourselves nowthat we are years into the process." -- Steve Sheppard, CEO,Foldcraft Co.
The authors of the acclaimed The Power of Open-Book Management nowbring you their essential nuts-and-bolts guide to creating andimplementing an OBM strategy tailored to the specific needs of yourcompany. Sample dialogues, training exercises, tips, and techniquesprovide the tools you need to successfully meet the challenge ofintroducing OBM into your company.
"Open-book management is here to stay, and this OBM field bookexplains the why, the what, and the how. If you want to create acompany of business thinkers, this is the book that will tell youhow others are doing it, and how you can do it, too." -- JeromeHarris, Senior Managing Director, American Express Tax &Business Services, Inc.
"If you want your firm's profits to leap ahead, open-bookmanagement is for you. This book not only tells you exactly how toimplement OBM successfully, but also makes such good reading thatyou won't want to put it down." -- Willard I. Zangwill, Ph.D.,Professor, Graduate School of Business, University ofChicago.
"This is a must read for leaders considering open-book management.The book is a roadmap that presents proven methods and realresults. It details what is required to successfully implement thisnew way of doing business." -- Robert S. Argabright II, Argabright& Associates.
"This book offers the principles of OBM from the masters andtechniques from the trenches. It is a rare offering as it is notredundant for readers of the first book nor is it sequential,making the first a prerequisite. It makes the principles of OBMclear to all readers and plumbs the depth of the practice bytapping the experiences of practitioners." -- Tim O'Donnell,Publisher, The Olathe Daily News.
"The Open-Book Management Field Book is a practical resource forcompanies both new to and experienced with OBM. This book certainlywould have accelerated the open-book process in our company when webegan. But it's also a wonderful tool for reassessing ourselves nowthat we are years into the process." -- Steve Sheppard, CEO,Foldcraft Co.
256 pages, Paperback
First published November 10, 1997
5 people want to read
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December 31, 2024
Since Peter Drucker first wrote his how to guide for managers, theories of how to best manage an organization have proliferated. The cynical among us see a definite pattern among all of these theories: research, analysis, plan, implement, monitor, review, research, analysis, plan, monitor, rinse, repeat. Often theories overlay this cycle with a human resource management component that requires “buy-in,” loosely defined as convincing employees that they should want to do what management wants them to do. “Buy-in” is essential to these theories since if an employee buys in it will unleash the creativity and productivity lying dormant in the workforce. Buy-in can come from the esprit de corps of working in teams, it can come from the corporate mission and participating in a cause bigger than any one individual, it can come from the powerful executive whose vision drives the organization, or it can come from unleashing the creative potential or the new creative class of workers graduating from MBA programs, all of whom have been trained to think in the same narrowly conceived little box of research, analysis, plan, implement, monitor, review, research, analysis, plan, implement, monitor, review, rinse, repeat, in the infinite feedback loop that is business methodology.
The Field book’s first half consists largely in developing an extended sales pitch about the revolutionary potential of OBM, and the case studies that make up the second half of the book are largely testimonials to how great OBM is. This approach to introducing OBM does not really make for a strong argument for or against adopting this particular management style since it does not weigh the costs or benefits of adapting OBM methodologies to the internal and external exigencies that drive an individual business. Moreover, the methodology of an OBM management model as presented in the Field book remains relatively elusive, obscured by the buzzwords and concepts that are broadly defined throughout the text. The evidence of how this specific methodological approach can be implemented and whether it is scalable to a broad array of organizations is simply not presented in the text. Nonetheless, the core principle of pay your employees and train your employees to think about the core purpose of making money for the business should not be dismissed out of hand. The task, therefore, is to glean what one can from the information presented and supplement that with other source materials.
Ultimately here is what is valuable in this book: understanding the costs and benefits to the organization’s bottom line is meaningless if the organization does not treat employees as essential stakeholders in the company’s health and provide employees with a sufficient financial incentive necessary for them to tangibly experience benefits of belonging to a successful company. In other words: OBM costs money because quality employees who are skilled decision-makers are a rare enough part of the workforce that they need to be recruited, trained and reimbursed for the value they bring to the company. Take it this way: a top-down management approach does not expect top performance from employees. Top performers in top-down organizations are either executives or they are employees who just happen to possess a self-motivated work ethic. Without a tangible benefit that appeals to the employee’s interested behavior, the top-down organization has to rely on lucking out in acquiring employees. Moreover, even if the organization does luck out, employees feel no loyalty to the organization nor do they feel any benefit will accrue to them if the company does well, just as they feel there will be no costs if they only meet baseline expectations. From OBM’s point of view, a top-down company can try to motivate its employees by creating team esprit des corps, managers can explain the mission and vision that sets the organization apart, or managers can corral employees to become compliant with the performance expectations. Indeed, it is clear from the OBM model that even a company with a strong bonus or commission system, cannot achieve performance levels that the OBM promises, because the employee is not looking out for the company or the company’s profitability. Rather, commission and highly individualized incentives only achieve highly individualized results. As a consequence, whether the quality of the employee contribution rises above a minimum standard or not, or whether the employee acts only out of self-interest or not will always rest on luck if the employee has no stake in company outcomes. This insight makes sense to me, I only wish the book were better in explaining how to implement this and in providing evidence that it works beyond anecdotes and case studies. In the end and in spite of the intuitive rightness of their principle argument that companies should pay for value, I remain a skeptic that this is anything more than a research, analysis, plan, implement, monitor, review, research, analysis, plan, monitor, rinse, repeat management model.
The Field book’s first half consists largely in developing an extended sales pitch about the revolutionary potential of OBM, and the case studies that make up the second half of the book are largely testimonials to how great OBM is. This approach to introducing OBM does not really make for a strong argument for or against adopting this particular management style since it does not weigh the costs or benefits of adapting OBM methodologies to the internal and external exigencies that drive an individual business. Moreover, the methodology of an OBM management model as presented in the Field book remains relatively elusive, obscured by the buzzwords and concepts that are broadly defined throughout the text. The evidence of how this specific methodological approach can be implemented and whether it is scalable to a broad array of organizations is simply not presented in the text. Nonetheless, the core principle of pay your employees and train your employees to think about the core purpose of making money for the business should not be dismissed out of hand. The task, therefore, is to glean what one can from the information presented and supplement that with other source materials.
Ultimately here is what is valuable in this book: understanding the costs and benefits to the organization’s bottom line is meaningless if the organization does not treat employees as essential stakeholders in the company’s health and provide employees with a sufficient financial incentive necessary for them to tangibly experience benefits of belonging to a successful company. In other words: OBM costs money because quality employees who are skilled decision-makers are a rare enough part of the workforce that they need to be recruited, trained and reimbursed for the value they bring to the company. Take it this way: a top-down management approach does not expect top performance from employees. Top performers in top-down organizations are either executives or they are employees who just happen to possess a self-motivated work ethic. Without a tangible benefit that appeals to the employee’s interested behavior, the top-down organization has to rely on lucking out in acquiring employees. Moreover, even if the organization does luck out, employees feel no loyalty to the organization nor do they feel any benefit will accrue to them if the company does well, just as they feel there will be no costs if they only meet baseline expectations. From OBM’s point of view, a top-down company can try to motivate its employees by creating team esprit des corps, managers can explain the mission and vision that sets the organization apart, or managers can corral employees to become compliant with the performance expectations. Indeed, it is clear from the OBM model that even a company with a strong bonus or commission system, cannot achieve performance levels that the OBM promises, because the employee is not looking out for the company or the company’s profitability. Rather, commission and highly individualized incentives only achieve highly individualized results. As a consequence, whether the quality of the employee contribution rises above a minimum standard or not, or whether the employee acts only out of self-interest or not will always rest on luck if the employee has no stake in company outcomes. This insight makes sense to me, I only wish the book were better in explaining how to implement this and in providing evidence that it works beyond anecdotes and case studies. In the end and in spite of the intuitive rightness of their principle argument that companies should pay for value, I remain a skeptic that this is anything more than a research, analysis, plan, implement, monitor, review, research, analysis, plan, monitor, rinse, repeat management model.
Displaying 1 of 1 review