Management Stripped Bare: Understanding Business As It Really Is

by Jo Owen

Have you ever noticed how all the buzzwords, trends, and "latest thinking" on management have very little to do with how things work in the real world? Seemingly every year, the management gurus dress their wisdom in the latest jargon, but it's been awhile since somebody shouted, "The emperor has no clothes!" Today, that somebody is Jo Owen, who has seen it all in his more than twenty years working with organizations of all types and sizes, including some of the world's most respected corporations. Management Stripped Bare is Owen's A-to-Z recounting of what he has learned (and now teaches) about how businesses actually operate.

With dry and occasionally piercing humor, Owen examines the good, the bad, and the ugly of more than 150 universal management issues from leadership to accounting practices, performance appraisal to harassment policy, mergers & acquisitions to project management, and much more. Among his less traditional subjects are herd instincts, "-ists," blame, Mars Bars, the death of the Tea Lady (read the book!), and why attrition and stress are good. For novice and veteran managers disillusioned by blind faith in sacred cows, Jo Owen serves up the juiciest burgers in town. And while it's amazing that someone with tongue so firmly planted in cheek can speak so clearly, more impressive is the wealth of real solutions you'll be able to apply in your own work environment.

Genres: Business, Nonfiction, Management

256 pages, Paperback

First published May 1, 2002

About the author

Jo is the first person to be awarded the CMI gold medal three times, for Mindset of Success; How to Manage and Leadership Skills Handbook.

He practices what he preaches as a leader: he has started seven NGOs with a collective turnover above $100million annually. He was a partner at Accenture; he started a bank, was sued for $12 billion and was the best nappy (diaper) salesman in Birmingham.

His research on leadership has taken him to the ends of the earth and resulted in Tribal Business School: what modern business can learn from traditional societies. He has worked with over 100 of the best , and a few of the worst, organisations on our planet and has interviewed everyone from spies to sportspeople as well as leaders around the world to find the essence of leadership.

His latest work is on Global Teams, which is the first book to look at the plumbing of globalisation: how global teams do and do not work.

Reviews

[نور · Rating 5 out of 5]

محتوي الكتاب عظيم جدآ و أفضل ما قرأت في مجال الإدراه

[Zach · Rating 4 out of 5]

My favorite thing about this book is the very frank look it provides on how most large businesses operate today. It seemed like advice you'd get at an airport bar from a jaded consultant that was one week from retirement.

At first I was unsure if I would like the glossary format this book is presented in, but I found it allowed pieces of advice that otherwise probably would not have meshed well in organized chapters. It also made it easy to read during small pockets of availability, as a stopping point was close.

Only gripes were minor... some of the passages are satirical and a few times it took me to pick up on the gear change. The author is also British and there were a few terms I had to figure out from context.

[Jim · Rating 1 out of 5]

I'm a fan of the management books of Jo Owen, but this tries to be too clever by half. It wears you down with the constant slagging off of management trends and practices that don't work, and you begin to wish he'd highlight some that do. Perhaps he does, but if so they were lost on me in the barrage of criticism that is levelled against much of management. By the end of this book you'll doubt that there actually are any business ideas that don't deserve to be pissed upon from a great height by Jo Owen. (Mind you, maybe there's a truth in that!)

[Leader Summaries · Rating 5 out of 5]

Desde Leader Summaries recomendamos la lectura del libro El management al desnudo, de Jo Owen.
Las personas interesadas en las siguientes temáticas lo encontrarán práctico y útil: liderazgo, características de un buen líder.
En el siguiente enlace tienes el resumen del libro El management al desnudo, Los auténticos secretos de la gestión empresarial que no le enseñarán en ninguna escuela de negocios: El management al desnudo