General Management @ Knowledge Zone



Book Review
"Guide To The Management Gurus"
(Short Cut To The Ideas Of Leading Management Thinkers)
by Carol Kennedy"

by Ministhy Dileep
BE Electronics,
PG (PM&IR) XLRI, Jamshedpur,
IAS Probationer.

Part - I

Carol Kennedy, with her business journalistic experience of 16 years, has produced a highly readable and informative book on the Management Gurus (Published in 1991).

In fact in one of her latest books, "The Next Big Idea", (Random House Business Books; August 28, 2002), the author has again brought forth her unique ability to analyze big ideas in the corporate world in a precise manner. The strength of the writer seems to have evolved over a decade, with an ability to get to the heart of an issue and render it in an extremely readable form for the lay man.

The writing is quite delightful, full of unexpected wit. At the end of each chapter, one gets a clear idea of the Guru and his works. One even feels confident of posing as an expert on the subject!

The Introduction narrates the evolution of the "Guruhood" - from Machiavelli to the likes of Peter Drucker and Alfred P. Sloan. Gurus, says the author, are divided into those with "One Big Idea", (Edward De Bono and his lateral thinking for example) and those with Multiple Ideas (Charles Handy, Peter Drucker and Tom Peters would fall in this category). With typical irony, the author states what it takes to be a Management Guru: "Timing, originality, forcefulness; a gift for self-promotion and perhaps above all else, the ability to encapsulate memorably what others immediately recognize as true - these are the marks of the modern management guru!" * She justifies the statement by pointing out that the snappy slogan, "Stick to the knitting", of the famous duo Tom Peters and Waterson, (In Search of Excellence) was just the same old wine of fundamental truths. Some of them, adopted from the works of Chandler, Barnard and Mayo - "... it was partly cannibalized from these vehicles!" **

Next


* Op Cite, pg.xviii, Introduction.
** Ibid.