Managment and Machiavelli: A Prescription for Success in Your Business

by Antony Jay

Anthony Jay shows you how the new science of management is a continuation of the old art of government. By looking at your own corporate organization in a political/historical context, you can fully understand its power structure - what Machiavelli wrote about statecraft in the sixteenth century holds true for business and management in the late twentieth century.
Applying Machiavellian precepts to such modern corporations as General Motors, Apple Computer, and Microsoft, Jay discovers self-contained states with courtiers and diplomats, orthodoxy and heresy lurking under their smooth corporate veneers.
Though humorous, Jay's message is clear. To understand the workings of corporation or states, you must understand the nature and behavior of their leaders. And that hasn't changed since the Middle Ages.

Genres: Business, Leadership, Nonfiction, Management

308 pages, Paperback

First published September 1, 1967

Reviews

[Robert · Rating 5 out of 5]

A full five.

1) This book has some of the properties of Brock Yates's 1968 Grosse Point Myopia. It's as if Mr. Jay had a crystal ball.

2) English understatement, but meanings are clear.

3) He spots the misincentives and ego-driven decision making.

4) He correctly foresees the lack of advancement opportunities in business, though this may be partly because it came to Britain before it came to the US.

5) Reminded me of Stanley Bing's Rome, Inc. in that the parallels of organization types are clearly spelled out to the reader's great surprise.

6) Made me wish that the American educational system were not so reductionist; I love, for example, how Jay shows that Prussian politics paralleled how markets are carved between industry leaders.

7) I would have written to him, but he died in 2016, a few months before I finished and 49(?) years after the book was published. He's getting some kind of halo effect from me, pun intended.

8) True 2000 years ago, true 49 years ago, true today.

This book again.

[EAL · Rating 4 out of 5]

The chapters on creative education and creative groups won the fourth star. Lots of interesting conclusions, though I'm sure that they're quite commonplace now. I liked it anyway.

[John · Rating 2 out of 5]

Rated: D-

[Terese]

Great book.

[El Segoviano]

Leí el libro hace mucho tiempo, casi diez años, y aunque por el contenido son reflexiones relacionados con el mundo de la empresa que utilizan como referencia diversas consideraciones que podemos encontrar en El Príncipe de Maquiavelo, la verdad es que no lo recuerdo.
No me atrevo a decir si merece o no la pena su lectura, es posible que sea de esas típicas reflexiones que asumes como propias aunque no tengas muy claro donde las has encontrado, porque todo está inventado.

[Brandon Atwood · Rating 3 out of 5]

Choosing to rate this based on the connections made between business and historical events and less on the managerial and general business advice, otherwise the rating would be lower…as would be expected of a book from 1994.

[Andrea · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great book