Management Crisis and Business Revolution

Management Crisis and Business Revolution describes the enormous gap between business theories on the one hand, and the realities of the workplace and uncertainties of the marketplace on the other. In place of reasoned management and disciplined organization John Harte depicts daily disorder, vagueness, and confusion; instead of the logical processes of classroom case histories with rational solutions. He provides tales of an abundance of irrational judgments, personal foibles, and business follies. Once a top operational manager with multinational organizations, Harte applies his hands-on knowledge of the business world to a realistic examination of workplace conditions. He describes methodically how to handle human limitations in the average business enterprise, as well as how to develop management strengths.

The author observed superior and inferior management firsthand, and therefore witnessed the painful demise of many companies—some of which, in his opinion, could have been saved. With thirty years' experience to draw on, he analyzes why so many businesses and products fail, while others succeed. He examines the amazing progress of Japan and other Pacific Asian countries; explains the decline of German, Canadian, British, and French management practices; and provides strategies for the marketplace.

The business sectors described in this all-encompassing book include: high-technology, fast-moving packaged consumer goods like detergents; manufacturing and retailing consumer durables like furniture and appliances; soft goods; fashion products; service sector industries; manufacturing, wholesaling, and retail trade; and a whole range of new service industries. Harte stresses that while management and trade are timeless, dedication in the West has declined. The challenge is how to manage change by innovating, and replacing senile customs, systems, and institutions with more progressive ones suited to the new business environment. This unusually tough-minded view from workplace and marketplace will benefit business entrepreneurs, managers and executives, as well as students and educators of business and marketing.