Managing organizationsManagement is one of the most fascinating—and useful—disciplines there is. In fact, the success of people, organizations, and societies crucially hinges on effective management, and knowledge and skills in this area directly impact on performance and results. The achievements of great icons in all domains of society show just how strong the influence exerted by management knowledge can be. Such individuals can teach us a great deal about how to apply management skills to our own lives. Regardless of the domain in which you wish to achieve your goals, one thing is certain: management know-how will be an essential prerequisite for attaining them. As the many different examples set out in this book show, management know-how is not just applicable and essential to business. Human beings who are successful in a huge range of domains have used such knowledge, often unknowingly. This book tells you which areas need your attention if you are interested in being effective and achieving lasting success.
What Makes Great Leaders Great: Management Lessons from Icons Who Changed the World sets out to convey effective management in a simple and entertaining manner. It makes fairly complex material not only readily understandable but, more importantly, easy to apply in your own life. In this respect, it is a practice-based manual that is itself designed to be put to practical use. Reading it will enable you to successfully apply management skills and attain your goals.
The numerous examples provided in the book will help you remember what you need to bear in mind when applying management knowhow. At the same time they also illustrate how creatively and effectively management skills can be applied. If you adopt the mind-set advocated in this book, you will very quickly find many more examples of the practical application of insights into management. Management skills are applied in all social domains, including art, music, culture, sport, medicine, the military, science, politics, and of course business. Indeed, management know-how is invaluable whenever people are intent on performing well and achieving results. And while different disciplines require distinct expertise, the management know-how applying to all of them remains universally applicable.
This compact, entertaining, and practical book both presents the key elements needed for organizations to be managed effectively and provides a wealth of tips on the practical application of effective management. Offering an overview of prominent issues covering the entire spectrum of management, it breaks them down into three core areas, namely:
Managing organizations
Managing innovation
Managing people
In many instances it would have been easier to write far more extensively rather than to focus on limited aspects, but certain choices had to be made to enable the book to cover the widest possible range of examples and topics in a way that is both absorbingly instructive and geared toward practical application. In this respect, the many facets of management covered in the book’s individual chapters combine like the pieces of a mosaic to form an overall picture of what effective management entails and what you need to bear in mind when applying its methods.
If this book kindles your interest in finding out more about effective management, it will probably end up doing more for you than you can presently imagine. If you consistently apply the management insights discussed on these pages, you will become exceedingly effective and highly efficient—and probably extremely successful as well.
I would like to thank everyone who directly or indirectly contributed to this book, but first and foremost my three most important teachers:
Professor Hermann Simon, who taught at the university I attended, for it was he who aroused in me a strong desire to gain a profound understanding of management.
Professor Fredmund Malik, who provided me with countless valuable insights. During the five years and more in his employ, including two years as head of one of his company’s divisions, I gained invaluable experience in the practice of management.
Professor Peter F. Drucker, whose ideas and works truly unlocked the fascinating world of management to me.
My views on effective management are based primarily on their works and on those of others management thinkers listed in the bibliography.
I also owe a huge debt of gratitude to the many managers with whom I have had the privilege of talking and working; they have taught me a tremendous amount.
Particular thanks are due to Helmut Hilgers for his invaluable advice, help, and support in so many ways.
Furthermore, I would like to thank the following for their invaluable advice and support: Professor Klaus Evard, Dr. Helmut Maucher, Fred B. Irwin, Dr. Josef Ackerman, Dr. Friedhelm Plogmann, Claus Seibel, Professor Wolfgang Mewes, Dr. Kerstin Friedrich, Professor Lothar Seiwert, Professor Herbert Kargl, Professor Klaus Breuer, Willy Pfister, Dr. Gunter Nittbaur, Klauspeter Nüesch, Silke Bachmann, Martin Janik, Dr. Hermann Riedel, Jim and Kathy Aceto, John Harris, Mark Walker, and Christoph Evard.
I would also like to thank Britta Kroker for our precious discussions on the original concept for the book and Evelyn Boos for her inestimable assistance in critically reviewing the German manuscript and suggesting numerous improvements.
In addition, I am most grateful to Rob Gartenberg for cooperating so diligently and constantly aspiring to excellence in the translation of this book.
Thanks, too, to Philip R. Ruppel and Knox Huston at McGraw-Hill Professional for their support and unfailing cooperation.
Extra-special thanks are owed to my family, especially my wife Isabel, who with our two children Julius and Valérie, makes family life a source of great strength and joy. Without her unwavering support this book, What Makes Great Leaders Great, would quite simply never have seen the light of day. Last, but not least, I am deeply indebted to my father Klaus and mother Gunhild for their tremendous support.
Frank Arnold
New York, N.Y.
July 4, 2011