Publisher's Synopsis
Be Virtuous, Discover Effectiveness, Become Truly Great!
- Recognize why 'efficiencyism' robs an organization of its potential;
- Find out why dysfunction is an emergent phenomenon when you set arbitrary goals;
- Discover how manual workers & knowledge workers become productive;
- Understand effectiveness, then verify it in the field through direct observation;
- Adapt offerings to changes in the external environment;
- Join in with other organizations to manage capitalism for the common good.
The effective organization understands its environment, serves it in innovative ways, and is rewarded in return. It is not about maximizing shareholder value, but about providing customer value, and creating products and services that elicit favorable customer responses.
The demand-side always remains in control of whether any given transaction will be completed. The supply side cannot run full steam ahead unless the demand side agrees. The achievement of effectiveness is a win-win for both the organization and its environment. In a wide-ranging story that weaves together threads from history, economics, engineering, biology, and organization and management theory, Charles Chandler derives a new approach to management for both practitioners and scholars. He revisits pioneers such as Adam Smith, Frederick Winslow Taylor, Alfred D. Chandler, Milton Friedman, and Peter Drucker, among others, to tell an epic story in an engaging way. The aim is nothing short of fixing management (and saving capitalism from itself).
