For the business executive in desperate need of organizational guidance, this quick primer could be helpful.
A brief instructional manual designed to teach business leaders how to more efficiently identify and solve problems.
Petermann’s first book is an exercise in concision: In about 50 pages, he lays out an intricate, rational process for finding and trimming business waste. The central concept is that of the “kaizen”—a “small group of employees voluntarily working together to solve problems or make improvement in their work area.” In other words, it’s a team specifically selected to address a problem and search for solutions, drawing upon the “collective knowledge of the people closest to the problem and those most impacted by the results.” Based on a combination of Toyota’s LEAN managing process and the Six Sigma improvement process, the main thrust of the book is devoted to parsing the entire metho of problem-solving using such a kaizen. Starting from the selection of the team, Petermann covers the discovery of waste, the collection and analysis of data, the testing of solutions and the implementation of the one finally agreed upon. The approach focuses on the role of the leader; three separate chapters address the characteristics and responsibilities required of the leader, including some additional tips delivered in bullet-point style. The advice is always lucidly dispatched, often in the form of enumerated lists and short, accessible paragraphs. About a quarter of the work comprises visual aids packaged in a “Toolkit” section meant to illustratively clarify concepts such as brainstorming, replete with ready-made checklists and mnemonic formulas for various business processes. This section, however, is the least useful of the work, as it needlessly muddies simple notions that don’t call for simplification. The central defect of the book is that it goes to great pains to systematize what should largely count as common sense. For example, the business executive who needs to be reminded to bring paper and pencils to a meeting might need more than this book can provide.
For the business executive in desperate need of organizational guidance, this quick primer could be helpful.Pub Date: April 7, 2014
ISBN: 978-1493582723
Page Count: 60
Publisher: CreateSpace
Review Posted Online: July 3, 2014
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
Striking research showing the immense complexity of ordinary thought and revealing the identities of the gatekeepers in our...
A psychologist and Nobel Prize winner summarizes and synthesizes the recent decades of research on intuition and systematic thinking.
The author of several scholarly texts, Kahneman (Emeritus Psychology and Public Affairs/Princeton Univ.) now offers general readers not just the findings of psychological research but also a better understanding of how research questions arise and how scholars systematically frame and answer them. He begins with the distinction between System 1 and System 2 mental operations, the former referring to quick, automatic thought, the latter to more effortful, overt thinking. We rely heavily, writes, on System 1, resorting to the higher-energy System 2 only when we need or want to. Kahneman continually refers to System 2 as “lazy”: We don’t want to think rigorously about something. The author then explores the nuances of our two-system minds, showing how they perform in various situations. Psychological experiments have repeatedly revealed that our intuitions are generally wrong, that our assessments are based on biases and that our System 1 hates doubt and despises ambiguity. Kahneman largely avoids jargon; when he does use some (“heuristics,” for example), he argues that such terms really ought to join our everyday vocabulary. He reviews many fundamental concepts in psychology and statistics (regression to the mean, the narrative fallacy, the optimistic bias), showing how they relate to his overall concerns about how we think and why we make the decisions that we do. Some of the later chapters (dealing with risk-taking and statistics and probabilities) are denser than others (some readers may resent such demands on System 2!), but the passages that deal with the economic and political implications of the research are gripping.
Striking research showing the immense complexity of ordinary thought and revealing the identities of the gatekeepers in our minds.Pub Date: Nov. 1, 2011
ISBN: 978-0-374-27563-1
Page Count: 512
Publisher: Farrar, Straus and Giroux
Review Posted Online: Sept. 3, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 15, 2011
BOOK REVIEW
IN THE NEWS
These are not hard and fast rules, but Meyer delivers important reading for those engaged in international business.
A helpful guide to working effectively with people from other cultures.
“The sad truth is that the vast majority of managers who conduct business internationally have little understanding about how culture is impacting their work,” writes Meyer, a professor at INSEAD, an international business school. Yet they face a wider array of work styles than ever before in dealing with clients, suppliers and colleagues from around the world. When is it best to speak or stay quiet? What is the role of the leader in the room? When working with foreign business people, failing to take cultural differences into account can lead to frustration, misunderstanding or worse. Based on research and her experiences teaching cross-cultural behaviors to executive students, the author examines a handful of key areas. Among others, they include communicating (Anglo-Saxons are explicit; Asians communicate implicitly, requiring listeners to read between the lines), developing a sense of trust (Brazilians do it over long lunches), and decision-making (Germans rely on consensus, Americans on one decider). In each area, the author provides a “culture map scale” that positions behaviors in more than 20 countries along a continuum, allowing readers to anticipate the preferences of individuals from a particular country: Do they like direct or indirect negative feedback? Are they rigid or flexible regarding deadlines? Do they favor verbal or written commitments? And so on. Meyer discusses managers who have faced perplexing situations, such as knowledgeable team members who fail to speak up in meetings or Indians who offer a puzzling half-shake, half-nod of the head. Cultural differences—not personality quirks—are the motivating factors behind many behavioral styles. Depending on our cultures, we understand the world in a particular way, find certain arguments persuasive or lacking merit, and consider some ways of making decisions or measuring time natural and others quite strange.
These are not hard and fast rules, but Meyer delivers important reading for those engaged in international business.Pub Date: May 27, 2014
ISBN: 978-1-61039-250-1
Page Count: 288
Publisher: PublicAffairs
Review Posted Online: April 15, 2014
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 1, 2014
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