Customer Reviews

Further Up the Organization: How to Stop Management from Stifling People and Strangling Productivity

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As a beginning PhD business man (1973) I read and used Up the Organization to build a successful PhD managed, high tech analytical lab. The insights added in Further Up the Organization stand today as the critical backdrop to leading your people and organization through rapid change and growth. This serves as a compatible platform for initiating JIT, TQM and other management fads that might work "if-you-do-it-right". The section on computers and their priests plays as well in the desktop world as it did in the mainframe world. Unfortunately we cannot stop Microsoft from givings features we don't need but which eat memory and CPU cycles.

The sections on PEOPLE, TOO MUCH, LEADERSHP, MISTRESSES, FIRING PEOPLE, AND INCENTIVE COMPSENSATION are classics which remain as useful today as in 1970. You would never know that this book is almost 30 years old.

When I have a difficult management or people problem, I review the relevant sections for a grounding in common sense. I have tried to order a copy for each of my employees, but it is out of print. Let us hope that Robert Townsend puts a few updates on this commen sense book and saves more business folks from themselves!

HINT! HINT!

This book belongs on every business owner's bookshelf -- not at the other end of the house, but right at hand. Currently ignored, it will likely re-emerge as a classic, perhaps ranking close to The Prince.

Hypesters need not read it. Business people who think should read it, re-read it, and refer to it. Cynical and fair, mercenary and humane, realistic and pessimistic and mostly optimistic, it is one of the finest business books of this century.

It's a great shame that this book is out of print.

It's well worth the trouble of finding a copy. I make a point of re-reading it at least once a year to keep my feet on the ground and my head out of the clouds and other unfortunate places.

Townsend is a very sensible person who has sterling credentials as a succesful manager; we should all do half as well as he did. He believes in the power of doing simple things very well and allowing your staff to do what they know how to do.

"In Search Of Excellence" and "Who Moved My Cheese" and all the great morass of poor, high faulutin' salve for the over-inflated but tender and insecure egos of senior managers should be immediately put into the trash ... shame on you if you ever attend another Hammer-esque seminar. You don't need seminars and the tricks don't work.

What works in management is what works everywhere in life, in the long run: humility, hard work, loyalty downwards, rewarding success and knowing how to define it.

In a sense, nobody should need a book to tell them these things, but life is complicated and the world is full of charlatans, so we all need to be reminded from time to time to take a step back and laugh at ourselves.

whenever i have had a tough problem in my 17 year business career, i pick up "up the organization" and lo and behold, there's the answer. it has been my business bible and it is amazing how it never gets outdated. i am thankful i chanced on to this book early in my career.

Good, solid leadership and management advice but the book oozes of age. Too many irrelevent examples to be consider a book that I love but for the most part, it's valuable to read. Not a long book by any means, it's style packs in lots of tips and real life examples to help you increase your management effectiveness. I do love the last survey that ask you to rate you own boss ( and the real value is self evaluation if you are a manager). Bang for your buck, this book is well worth your time reading and revisting every couple of years.

As a member of the up and coming CEO's of the world (my plan), Further Up The Orcanization is an execellent piece of stimuli for those of us who like to engage our brains in the big picture. If you are one that is fortunate enough to be able to see the forest through the tree and understand how the total solution is the right solution then this book is for you.

It is easy to read and fast. The topics are arranged from A to Z with a one page snap shot of the "answer" to business question and organization issues. While other books attempt to help you understand everything from your inner business self to business lessons through the eyes of a piss ant (remember those who can't do teach, or in most cases write books on the subject), Townsend's book should be considered the manual. Be ensured that if you follow these simple practices your company will be on the way to the top 100 (the company I work for lives by this book and we are ranker number 5 by Fortune this year, our first year under review).

For those fortunant enough to be stepping out on your own, this book is a reminded and a refresher for you to being successful. Interesting that a book writen first in the early 70's then updated in 85 still holds so true for today, ie not a business fad book. After all the bible is still on the best seller list.

Good job and thanks to Robert Townsend.

Terril Perrine

My review title seems a bit inflated but I truly mean every word of it.

This is the book I refer to and remember the most often in my job as corporate director of human resources. In fact, I pulled it off my shelf so I could flip through it before writing this review and was surprised at the number of page marks I had accumulated in the book through the years.

When I first read the book back in 1984, I learned a tremendous amount about management. I was a first line supervisor at the time. While the book was directed at top management, due to its wisdom, I was able to apply many of the lessons contained therein. In fact, in my business book, Wingtips with Spurs, I used Robert Townsend's book as both an inspiration and a model. For me personally as I have grown in my career, I will confess that I practice only a portion of Townsend's advice. If I were a more courageous man, I would enlist all of his advice. I am positive I would be better off if I did.

As a corporate employee I can not publicly agree with Townsend concerning a few of his views of corporate America (opps! I just did). However for the most part, his view is - as the British say -"spot on". The ability to get straight to the point and the bluntness that is used is not found in any of the more modern business books. Townsend's style should be imitated in this arena. Instead of books about penguins and cheese we need to be hit upside the head on occasion.

I can also recommend Power Ambition Glory: The Stunning Parallels between Great Leaders of the Ancient World and Today . . . and the Lessons You Can Learn, High Altitude Leadership: What the World's Most Forbidding Peaks Teach Us About Success (J-B US non-Franchise Leadership) and How to Argue & Win Every Time: At Home, At Work, In Court, Everywhere, Everyday.

If your job is in management - no matter the level - this is absolutely the best investment you will make.

I hope you find this review helpful.

Michael L. Gooch, SPHR

Futher Up the Organization is a management and leadership classic - written by a short-attention span CEO *for* other short-attention span executives and managers. The fast-read format of the book is great at supporting it's purpose - getting leaders to take action, get out of their best employees' way, and make things happen through wise use of people, time, money, and company resources.

Opinionated, sharp, and sometimes hilarious, this book is easy to pick up almost anywhere and generate a real "A-ha!" moment within minutes.

Putting the book down and getting back to work may be more challenging!! A really great find. You'll enjoy it. I guarantee it!!

There is little difference between this book and "Up the Organization." So, if you were hoping for something new and different you will be disappointed. However, there are a few updates and a few additions. If you can't get "Further Up the Organization," then buy "Up the Organization."

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There are many books out their on how to take over the world, but few that contain any realistic approaches to effective professional conduct. Although the author is a little brash and self-promoting his insight and practical assessments of the work environment are a fantastic reference/guide to sound corporate conduct and management.