Hard-Core Management: What you won’t learn from business gurus

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The last 20 years has seen one management fad after another come and go. At the behest of consultants and gurus, businesses have re-engineered, downsized, learn excellence, developed competencies and created customer-focused strategies. But to what avail? Despite all these fads and improvements we still find bad management, unhappy customers and companies that are extolled as excellent one day and bust the next. There is a huge gulf between the excellence industry that is touted by the gurus and the real world of business. Hard-core Management bridges that gap. It exposes all the core assumptions made by managers and their gurus by stripping them of their fancy garb and forcing us to confront the stark, warts-and-all reality. More than 100 overdressed assumptions are presented for frank examination such as: We know our customers; We know our competition; We have a strategy; Our leader knows the way; We have a vision; We are in control; We can change. This is management without its clothes on. This is the hard core of management. You might not like what you see, but at least you can now do something about it. About The Author Jo Owen is CEO of Auvian Partners, and has spent 20 years working for some of the best companies in the world. Table of Contents PART I: WE KNOW WHERE WE ARE We know our customers We know our competition We understand our financial performance We are in control We understand management PART II: WE KNOW WHERE WE ARE GOING We are in control of our destiny We respond well to change and technology will save us We have a strategy PART III: WE KNOW HOW TO GET THERE We can change We will fix our operations We will fix our management PART IV: SO WHAT? So what for the business: models of management So what for managers Conclusions: modern to postmodern management Postscript: theory into practice