Book Description

This book is about survival. It is about survival in a world that is changing. It is about survival in an occupation - management - that is almost unrecognizable from the viewpoint of only a few years ago, and one that will change even more rapidly in the future. It is about the ultimate survival tool: that of making oneself useful. Managers can be useful, but maybe not in the traditional sense. This book is written for managers who want to be useful by adding value to society in the form of useful products and services. It is not written for those who view personal advancement or wealth as their primary goal. Former Speaker of the US House of Representatives Thomas P. O'Neill was fond of saying 'All politics is local. ' I would like to appropriate that statement and paraphrase it for this book as 'All management is local. ' By that I mean that ultimately, after the global financing and market strategies are in place, and after the top-level missions and purpose of the organization are stated, the value-added manager must know what to do on Monday morning to get the product into the hands of the customer as quickly and efficiently as possible, and to be sure that the customer is successful in using the product. Increasingly, the top-level executive who creates the grand vision is also the manager who must implement it.