ONE-ON-ONE WITH ANDY GROVE: How to Manage Your Boss, Yourself and Your Coworkers

by Andrew S. Grove ‧ RELEASE DATE: June 10, 1987

Grove, president of Intel (a leading supplier of semiconductor devices) and author of High Output Management (1983), is also a columnist for the Knight-Ridder syndicate. Here he offers a loosely linked compilation of his newspaper pieces which dispense specific, if sketchy, counsel to readers with job-related problems. Through the Q&A columns, Grove addresses a wealth of workplace concerns that range from the risks of embracing quick-fix management fads through the presumptive rewards of keeping superiors and subordinates informed. Unfortunately, he's the prisoner of a Dear-Abby format that forces him to respond to the varied queries of upper-echelon executives and middle managers as well as underlings. The result is a largely unfocused collection of advisories that amounts to rather less than the sum of its short-take parts. Nonetheless, the text is not without dividends for patient readers, and Grove emerges as a get-on-with-it sort who seldom hesitates to call spades bloody shovels. To illustrate, he bluntly apprises an incipient MBA who aspires to make policy--and megabucks--as soon as he graduates that classroom knowledge is decidedly less valuable than real-world experience. Along similar lines, the author dismisses participatory management as a trendy phrase for what any competent businessperson does routinely, i.e., consult with those who will be affected by a decision before making it. By contrast, Grove appears oddly tentative dealing with touchy issues like drug testing and sexual harassment on the job. The bottom line: a few nuggets for employees and employers, but a full measure of dross as well.

Pub Date: June 10, 1987

ISBN: N/A

Page Count: -

Publisher: Putnam

Review Posted Online: N/A

Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 15, 1987

Categories: NONFICTION