** Masters of Management by Adrian Wooldridge

Masters of Management: How the Business Gurus and Their Ideas Have Changed the World – for Better and for Worse is an exhaustively researched book not so much about the business gurus of its subtitle but about management theories in general. If you’ve ever snickered at the back of the room while company executives blabber on about re-engineering and synergies and war for talent, this may be the book for you. I must say I found it strangely cold and unengaging in its encyclopedic approach — and I got annoyed by the comments about the childcare needs of women, as if children did not have fathers, too (and mothers did not spend years of their lives without young children to care for).  Still, the book is full of interesting summaries and insights, for instance that most entrepreneurs do not offer world-changing products, but rather a new twist on existing products, often based on process improvements.

 

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