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Part - III

To a management student on the look out for the Guru's wisdom, the book offers plenty. Consider the following instances:

1. After a chapter on Rosabeth Moss Canter, incidentally the only woman in the Great Management Guruhood, one ends up knowing that:
   
   

   • Ms. Canter introduced the concept of the "post-entrepreneurial corporation" that empowers individuals as a force for change.

   • Her first book, "Men and Women of the Corporation" (1977) analyzed the bureaucratic factors that locked people into predetermined roles in an industrial corporation. It explored, how such a situation, prevented the full blooming of the potential of its employees.

   • She has written "Change Masters" and "When giants learn to dance" - two influential works on American corporatedom. She also has edited the Harvard Business Review.

   
   

2. Michael Porter's strategies, inclusive of branding for Competitive advantage, is explained after a quip that, "He himself has become a brand for which buyers are willing to pay!" The drivers for competitive positions of both companies and countries are elucidated. His strategic recommendations are distilled into six principles, easy to appreciate.

3. Peter Drucker is introduced as the "Management Guru's Management Guru." (Incidentally, in a recent Harvard Business Survey, this quip of Carol Kennedy's was borne out statistically). Viennese Sage Drucker's ubiquitous contributions, including the Basic principles of management, Management by Objectives, Privatization, Putting the customer first, Role of CEO in corporate strategy, Structure follows strategy, Decentralisation et al, are explored crisply.

4. Warren Bennis is famous for his quotation, "Managers do things right. Leaders do the right thing". Bennis's vision of the organization of the future in his work, "The Temporary Society", (1968) is shown to have identified the need for "adhocracy", or "project based teams', which was later explored by Alvin Toffler in his "Future Shock" and both by Henry Mintzberg and Waterman in their respective works. The continuity of ideas as well as the gradual building up of the edifice of a new theory is delineated.

In conclusion, if one wants to make sense of the plethora of management jargon thrown around in corporatedom, this book is the ultimate answer! It is the epitome of the saying, "Clarity of thought and brevity of expression." An absolute must for every practicing manager's library.

Concluded.