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The Management Myth: Management Consulting Past, Present & Largely Bogus (2009)

by Matthew Stewart(Favorite Author)

3.86 of 5 Votes: 4

ISBN

0393065537 (ISBN13: 9780393065534)

languge

English

genre

Nonfiction

publisher

W. W. Norton & Company

review 1: The author present a humorous, or rather sarcastic view, on the management / strategy theory and the consulting business he has been working in. In alternating chapters he gives an overview of the history of management theorie, and an account of his experiences in the consulting world.The chapters on management theory are ok. He gives an overview of the thinking in the field, starting with Taylor, over Mayo, Drucker, Porter to end with "excellent" Tom Peters, and explains why most of their work is nonsense. This part of the book is valuable. It shows that their is no scientific foundation for management theory and strategic thinking, and that it is mostly driven by fads.The chapters on his personal experience concentrate on the battle for power within a newly founded consu... morelting firm. They are disappointing and boring.
review 2: Stewart skewers management thought and consulting, intermixing his own career as a consultant, in a very readable book (although I had to go use dictionary.com a few times for some of his adjectives).Who does he skewer - Taylor, famous for his stop watch, Elton Mayo, who I hadn't heard of before, Drucker (not that badly), Boston Consulting Group, Tom Peters and some others. He does a particularly good job taking apart the famous 4 square grid that gave us cash cows, dogs, stars, etc. as a mechanism for deciding where to invest resources.In interspersing his own career as a consultant (which interesting he does anonymously by not naming names) he tears apart the consulting industry. I think he is mostly correct in saying that a primary objective is to sell the engagement and then sell more engagements.This book reminded me of 1982 - 1984 when I was in the undergraduate business school at The University of Michigan. I knew where I was headed - the Big 8 and public accounting. A lot of people I knew wanted to consult. This struck me as ridiculous - what did a 22 year old know that would allow that to consult with big business? I had a difficult time of it when I was in my early 40s.One thing I know for sure - I'm done reading most of the management books that come out.Highly recommended. less

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