A beginner's guide and bible for one of the greatest social innovations of modern times: the discipline of management.
In this book, Joan Magretta, a former top editor at Harvard Business Review, distils the wisdom of a bewildering sea of books and articles into one simple, clear volume, explaining both the logic of successful organisations, and how that logic works in practice.
Are you a new, experienced or would-be manager who isn't quite sure what "value creation" means? Could you articulate your company's business model in a single-page description? Do you understand the reasons for the disparate performance of such superficially similar companies as eBay and Priceline.com? These questions and many others are answered in this book.
Magretta makes rich use of samples - contemporary and historical - to bring to life management's high concepts: value creation, business models, competitive strategy and organisational design. Newcomers will find the basics demystified. More experienced readers will recognise a store of useful wisdom, and a framework for improving their own performance.