"This book will help managers in any type of organization, including nonprofits and the public sector, do their jobs better."

-- Michael E. Porter
Harvard Business School

Whether you're new to the field or a seasoned executive, this book will give you a firm grasp on what it takes to make an organization perform. It presents the basic principles of management simply, but not simplistically. Why did an eBay succeed where a Webvan did not? Why do you need both a business model and a strategy? Why is it impossible to manage without the right performance measures, and do yours pass the test?

What Management Is is both a beginner's guide and a bible for one of the greatest social innovations of modern times: the discipline of management. Joan Magretta, a former top editor at the Harvard Business Review, distills the wisdom of a bewildering sea of books and articles into one simple, clear volume, explaining both the logic of successful organizations and how that logic is embodied in practice.

Magretta makes rich use of examples -- contemporary and historical -- to bring to life management's High Concepts: value creation, business models, competitive strategy, and organizational design. She devotes equal attention to the often unwritten rules of execution that characterize the best-performing organizations. Throughout she shows how the principles of management that work in for-profit businesses can -- and must -- be applied to nonprofits as well.

Most management books preach a single formula or a single fad. This one roams knowledgeably over the best that has been thought and written with a practical eye for what matters in real organizations. Not since Peter Drucker's great work of the 1950s and 1960s has there been a comparable effort to present the work of management as a coherent whole, to take stock of the current state of play, and to write about it thoughtfully for readers of all backgrounds. Newcomers will find the basics demystified. More experienced readers will recognize a store of useful wisdom and a framework for improving their own performance.

This is the big-picture management book for our times. It defines a common standard of managerial literacy that will help all of us lead more productive lives, whether we aspire to be managers or not.

Magretta and Stone succeed brilliantly. They carefully consider various subjects which include value creation, business models, "the logic of superior performance," organizational parameters, "which numbers matter and why" (the real bottom line), innovation amidst uncertainty, using focus to achieve results, and those values which are most effective when managing others. I think this volume will be especially valuable to relatively inexperienced executives. However, any decision-maker in any organization (regardless of size or nature) will find an abundance of information, useful observations, and practical suggestions which can guide, direct, and enrich their performance. I just hope this book attracts the readership it so eminently deserves. More to the point, as presumably Magretta would concur, I hope it can help to nourish and enhance business acumen at a time when the need for "discipline" in management has never been more urgent.


friendly and jargon-free   March 16, 2003
Maxim Masiutin (Chisinau, Republic of Moldova)
9 out of 9 found this review helpful

The book is about the management basics that aren't always obvious. It offers a concise synthesis of important ideas and practices:
- value creation
- business models
- competitive strategy
- the 80-20 rule
- performance metrics
- decision analysis.

With various remarkable examples it shows that the value creation is the managers' chief responsibility in the modern world. It also shows that the managers shouldn't overlook the rest of practices to be successful.

The book is amazingly friendly and jargon-free.

I would also recommend "How to Survive the E-Business Downturn" by Colin Barrow and "Leading the Revolution" by Gary Hamel in addition to this book.


Good jumping off point   December 11, 2002
Don Steiny (Santa Cruz, CA USA)
4 out of 4 found this review helpful

As an engineer that has gotten into business through entrepreneurship I have been surrounded with MBAs who rattle off buzz words. When they start using technical buzz words I can tell real quick that they are using words with no real subtance behind them, but I have avoided talking about "value chains" and "best practices" because though I understood them from context I did was not sure of myself. This book explains many of the key buzz words used in management in clear terms.

It also provides references and resources for further study. For instance it recommends "Competitive Strategy" by Michael Porter. I asked a friend that is a Wharton graduate if she was famliar with the book "Competitive Strategy" and she answered "by Michael Porter?" There are so many business books it is nice to have a guide to cut the wheat from the chaff.

I am glad I read this book and it even inspired me to make some changes in my business that have been useful.


The Big Picture - Clear & Lucid   August 10, 2002
Dhakshinamoorthy (Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia)
5 out of 6 found this review helpful

You are new to the game of management and you want an overview of its elements, read this book. You are an experienced business practitioner and you want to play the game with greater skill and dexterity, read this book. You are an employee, or work in a non-profit organisation and you want to grasp what management entails, please read this book. You are a MONK, and you want to understand this great body of knowledge than man engage in day in and day out, seek out and delve into this book. Once in a while a book comes along that is not a fad and is here to stay and remain a classic, this one fits the bill. Well done to the authors. They have really thought hard to make the ideas simple. Its simply effective! Get it before your competition does.


A must for non profit managers   October 10, 2002
Kevin Murphy (Bernville, PA USA)
2 out of 2 found this review helpful

Read most management books and you'd come to believe that the non profit sector either doesn't exist or doesn't need to be managed. Not this one.

At every turn in the road, the authors take pains to tailor their message to the unique concerns of managers running businesses in the non profit sector. They acknowledge the challenges of measuring success beyond the financial bottom line and even hint that non profit management can be harder, with the rules less clear, than managing in the for profit sector. Heady stuff when it comes from an HBR editor.

This book would be an ideal introduction to management for the many non profit managers who come from the program backgrounds and lack formal business training. Written in plain English (apparently the authors felt a more compelling need to be understood than to impress the readers with the business jargon du jour), it provides an incredibly useful overview of the challenges of managing a complex organization.

It's an easy and valuable read.