HIGH-OUTPUT MANAGEMENT

by Andrew S. Grove ‧ RELEASE DATE: Sept. 1, 1983

Grove is an engineer who became head of Intel, one of the Silicon Valley stand-outs; and his aim--right in line with today's emphasis--is to make management productive. As an engineer and a creative CEO, he's clear, systematic, concrete--working his way up from how to deliver a three-minute egg, toast, and coffee. As a 1980s American entrepreneur, it may go without saying, he's an optimist. So his book should do very nicely, and could be more tangibly helpful than some of the samplings and theorizings now making the rounds. In moving up from producing breakfasts to producing software, Grove introduces principles of work simplification--and, as an application in a non-business situation, the problem of processing visa applications from British tourists: since 98 percent are eventually approved, why not eliminate the chronic backlog by substituting spot-checks for individual scrutiny? (As it happens, that's just what John Crewdson suggests, approaching the problem from the other direction, in his new study The Tarnished Door.) Looking at managerial output per se, Grove introduces another productivity principle: ""batching."" That may mean walking about for two-minute floor meetings--whereas, at a scheduled office meeting, exchanging a ""two-minute kernel of information"" can take a half-hour. It also means ""regularly scheduled, process-oriented meetings"" (to take care of maybe 80 percent of the problems and issues)--and a minimum of ad hoc, mission-oriented meetings. Grove goes on eclectically in this vein--how to get decisions among peers (who don't want to stick their necks out), and how to split decision-making between knowledge-power people and position-power people; how to handle ""the centralization-decentralization dichotomy"" when the Breakfast Factory (Grove's ongoing model, along with Intel) goes national. There's some motivation stuff, linking-up Maslow and ""personal best,"" that's more routine--as well as some candid remarks on performance appraisal, that aren't. Persons in many middle-management posts could well put in a profitable and agreeable few hours here.

Pub Date: Sept. 1, 1983

ISBN: 0679762884

Page Count: -

Publisher: Random House

Review Posted Online: N/A

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 1, 1983

Categories: NONFICTION