Issue link: http://www.e-digitaleditions.com/i/62215
Bookshelf Management Misinformation What an iconoclastic essay James Hoopes uses to open his intriguing book False Prophets! While the bulk of the book con- sists of personal and professional biographies of some of the top names in business management, the introduction essentially declares that most modern management theories are bogus, because they overlook an essential truth. "Top-down power and its potential abuse are here to stay in corporate America," he writes. "It is foolish to think otherwise." The problem, he notes, is that the true structure of corporate manage- ment is so at odds with fundamental American concepts of freedom and self-government that theorists and business gurus keep trying to invent ways to make the two systems mesh. "For a century now, one of the gurus' main tactics for dealing with our ambivalence about management power has been to try to make cor- porate life seem freer than it is," Hoopes believes. Hence all the emphasis on leadership, bottom- up management, and empow- ered work teams. These opti- mistic management gurus, he says, don't seem to have realized "how flimsy a bridge they [have] thrown across how immense an abyss" as they overestimate "the moral possibilities in corporate life." In business—as in all other walks of life—power corrupts. Hoopes declares that we need to stop pretending that top CEOs will stop abusing power and instead start hoping that they will acquire "the humility that will help minimize self- righteous use of power." 56 BizEd NOVEMBER/DECEMBER 2003 Barnard, W. Edwards Deming, Peter Drucker, and a host of others. Hoopes, a history professor at Babson College, cannot help but take a historical perspective on his subject. In a fascinating if horrifying parallel, he describes early American slave owners as the first management class, who shared management tips through essay contests and published tracts that justified their treatment of their workforce. While one likes to believe corporate management strate- gies today have grown a little more humane, one can't help but recog- nize some of the rhetoric. (Perseus Publishing, $27.50) duction, the book settles into its main focus, a close look at the lives and influences of the people who have shaped management theory. These include Frederick W. Taylor, Mary Parker Follett, Chester After that rousing intro- Selling to Women No matter what you sell, most of your customers are probably women. They are involved in 85 percent of all U.S. purchases; they earn $1 trillion annually. They have the money, and they know how to spend it—but they'll only spend it with you if you understand what they want from your products and services. Lou Quinlan's Just Ask a Woman, the title also given to the marketing consulting firm she started in 1999. In a chatty, intimate, and friendly style, Quinlan shares her insights That's the premise behind Mary into the stress that colors women's lives and how this leads them to demand products that are reliable, simple to operate, and able to save them time. Make it hard for a woman to buy or use something, and she'll turn her back on it, the author says. "A woman's stress filters the way she decides, shops, and behaves," Quinlan says. "Like it or not, stress is standing between you and your marketing success with women." Women also buy products based on the input from their "board of advisors"—friends, neighbors, televi- sion commentators, and other people they trust. Their attitudes toward spe- cific brands and products are strongly influenced by good and bad memo- ries, product legends that may or may not be true, and original research they do while actually shopping. Without understanding these and other complex factors that go into a woman's decision to buy, says Quinlan, marketers cannot hope to break through the wall of stress and connect their products with their tar- get market. The book's fun style does not mask the fact that Quinlan con- siders this a very serious topic—one that marketers would do well to take seriously, too. (Wiley, $27.95) Marketing Savvy A great marketing campaign creates instant awareness of a specific prod- uct and often becomes part of the cultural landscape. Ordinary con- sumers, not just marketing experts, remember "Where's the beef?" and "Please don't squeeze the Charmin" decades after the ads first aired. But how can a marketing firm come up with the next dramatic and effective ad? Linda Kaplan Thaler and Robin Koval explain the mysteries of adver-