IM - April 1997 - Manufacturer's Library

April 1997, Volume 14, No. 4

Manufacturer's Library

Leading Change, by John P. Kotter, Harvard Business School Press, 187 pages, $24.95, ISBN 0-87584-747-1

The rate of change is not going to slow down anytime soon, this book asserts. If anything, competition in most industries -- particularly manufacturing -- will probably speed up even more in the next few decades. What will it take to bring an organization successfully into the 21st Century?

The methods managers have used in the attempt to transform their companies into strong competitors -- total quality management reengineering, right-sizing, restructuring, cultural change, and turnarounds -- routinely fall short, the author believes, because they fail to alter behavior.

Emphasizing the critical need for leadership to make change happen, this book identifies an eight-step process (see accompanying box) that every company should consider going through to achieve its goal.

Kotter is with Harvard Business School.

The Witch Doctors: Making Sense of the Management Gurus, by John Micklethwait and Adrian Wooldridge, Times Business, 369 pages, $25, ISBN 0-8129-2833-4

Has your company survived a major management initiative, only to be ambushed by another theory that demands that you rush full-speed in the opposite direction? Have you been told your fate depends on throwing yourself body and soul into "reengineering," the search for "excellence," "quality," "360-degree assessment," or "chaos"? Do you dream of the day when the consultants will go away and let you get back to work?

This book, the result of a two-year research project, attempts to answer the above questions by deflating the hype and self-promotion surrounding management theory. The authors believe the business world is overrun by fads, and that management gurus are in large part latter-day witch doctors, each promising the cure for what ails corporate America.

According to one recent study, 72% of managers believe that the right management tools can help ensure business success, even though 70% also say most of the tools promise more than they deliver. Often, the results are thousands of people losing their jobs or having their work lives irrevocably altered. But thousands of companies continue to grasp at the newest concept du jour -- until the next sure thing comes along. The irony is that some of the gurus' ideas and prescriptions really can rescue or renovate your company.

This book is organized around the management problems that plague today's corporations. It examines the promise and the problems of reengineering, and analyzes what -- and who -- is driving the current boom in the management industry.

The book looks into the social and corporate implications of the conundrums managers and workers face today. It also examines the inroads management theory is making in the public sector, and the unexpected paths Asian managers are blazing through the world economy.

The authors are editors at The Economist.

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