HOW TO MANAGE

Ask a group of business leaders for their thoughts on management, and you're likely to get a hodgepodge of philosophies, experience, and priorities--sometimes well-put and sometimes ponderous, sometimes concise and sometimes verbose. Wild has attempted to organize these thoughts into proper-sounding business categories--""Risks and Decision Making,"" ""Objectives and Skills,"" ""Planning and Policy,"" etc--but the groupings become meaningless as the same themes turn up whether the subject is product marketing or corporate planning. In one ""feature"" (a comment that stands alone, outside any specific chapter), we hear that management ""still reduces itself simply to homework, common sense, and good communication."" That seems to be the majority opinion among the interviewees, a mixed bag that ranges from Edward Harnes, formerly of Proctor and Gamble (one of the few who's well known), to J.D. Stewart, Principal, Lincoln College, New Zealand. Though certain themes recur more frequently than others--the need for communication, the effect of government regulations--Wild seems to have divided the various comments as he saw fit. Those who want to learn from the experience of others, as he suggests, will not find that opportunity here.