Customer Reviews

High Output Management

5 star:		(9)
4 star:		(4)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

Grove does an excellent job of relating production methods to something we can all understand, a food and beverage establishment. Aside from the production model, Grove opens the hood and examines compensation systems, meetings, employee review procedures and processes, and briefly discusses motivation ala Maslow's heirarchy. It's good, easy reading, and may be very informative and thought provoking to the open mind looking top gain a better understanding of Industrial Management.

This book made its way onto the short list of books that I have picked up and read cover to cover in one sitting. Andrew Grove helped create a small memory chip manufacturer, and in the face of increased foreign competition, turned his company around to create the largest producer of computer processor chips to date. This book is a concise explanation of the methods and tactics he used to make Intel what it is.

I came upon this book many years ago while an internal consultant for AT&T Bell Laboratories Technical Education. Since then I have found it to be a valuable tool in teaching the basics of management to students inside and outside of corporate structure. I still use it as a member of the faculty of Bloomfield College's Materials Management Institute. Grove has managed to capture the essence of what a company is all about by using simple examples. No, this isn't a high concept leading edge management text. However, it does communicate the fundamentals of running a manufacturing company clearly and simply. It provides a foundation on which you can build the knowledge of the leading edge theories.

Grove identifies what is critical in management. Leverage really only happens when focused on the right things. He gives perspective on how to determine that. Then also how to get results. This book is specific, to the point. No fluff. He writes well and he has a track record of incredible success that few have equaled. If you MUST get results then get the book.

I worked at Intel for over 5 years, and although this book is chock full of excellent strategies and advice for managers, I saw very little evidence that these principles were being put into use in the company during the entire time I was there, at least in my division, which was one of the bigger ones at the company.

I will say, however, that Intel is a very odd place to work with its own unique corporate culture, some of which I would say is quite functional, but a lot of it isn't; or at least, the principles they say do work really don't, because nobody has the nerve to apply them.

A good example of this is their principle of "risk-taking." This gets talked about more than most of the Intel cultural values. The reason is simple, although they say that it's okay to take risks, and that you won't be penalized if you fail, the reality is that no-one in their right mind ever does it if they don't have to. And it's not because your manager will give you a [rear-end]-reaming like you've never had before if your calculated risk fails and becomes a total disaster. That won't happen, because, as I said, they really do take this risk-taking principle seriously. Your boss may even commend you for having the cojones to take the risk even if your little project becomes a spectacular failure.

The problem is in a much more serious area, unfortunately. If you fail, you'll get penalized through your performance review. (And if you're an exempt employee, all it takes is two below average performance reviews and you can be fired. They don't even have to be really poor reviews). Suppose you spend 6 months working on a risky project that fails. Now it's review time. Because you wasted so much time on this other project, you won't have very many other successful projects to brag about, compared to all the other employees who didn't have the cojones like you did to take a chance, but who now have lesser but at least successful projects they can ballyhoo during "ranking and rating," (or "ranting and raving," as it's called). Hence, you won't be able to compete in Intel's intensive and truly byzantine performance-review process, which insures that people pick safer but less potentially beneficial projects that they know they can pull off and bring in under the wire by review time.

Another very odd thing about working there is that teamwork is valued almost over and above technical competence and originality. In fact, I would have to say Intel employees are about the most docile, uncomplaining, non-individualistic, and basically whipped employees I've ever seen. Someone should tell these guys it's okay to have a spine or a ... once in a while, instead of going through their work-life as a totally whipped, spineless eclair. Quite frankly, I'm not the most studly, macho guy in the world, myself, but these guys make me look like Brad Pitt, George Clooney, and Arnold Schwarzenegger all rolled into one.

Anyway, whether the principles and strategies in this book are actually being put into practice or not, Andy Grove is certainly a brilliant manager, and Intel is a more than unusually interesting place to work.

Grove describes his management techniques in a controlled, predictable environment. After reading Tim Jackson's book ("Inside Intel"), I saw the other side of the coin (less rational...). Grove is always coerent and clear. This is a must read, specially for middle-managers, but read Jackson's book for the full story...

I'm a Vice President at a small public company, and I've been managing people for over ten years, and have an MBA from a top ranked business school. Still, I wish I had read this book when I first started managing people.

This certainly appears to me to be a book written by Andy Grove for his own managers at Intel, and I found it interesting to see how he thinks about management. Not surprisingly, he has a very pragmatic, operational view of what good managers do, and he presents a comprehensive guide for all the basics. His whole orientation is that managers are responsible for the total output of their teams, and his focus is always on accomplishments and outputs, not activities.

Topics that are included
- Looking at your operations and finding the bottle necks
- How to monitor and check your processes for high quality and high output
- How managers should spend their time, run team meetings, and stay in touch with subordinates through one on ones
- How to hire, coach, and provide feedback to build your team

What you won't find in this book
- How to think about strategy
- Competitive advantage
- Building a brand
- Competitive analysis

The book has been around for a while, and it's not a trendy management book. There is no new catch phrase or research based on fMRI or paradigm shift. There is nothing sexy or trendy. But it is a very solid introduction from someone who has proven to be among the best at managing. This is one of the great CEOs of our times, and I brilliant mind, passing along what he wants his managers to know. I think that many managers could vastly improve their performance if they studied and mastered the basics covered here rather than the nifty new concept from the latest HBR.

I spent the first 10 years of my engineering career happily as an individual contributor for startup type organizations. One day the VP of engineering asked me, "I would like you to to hire a few people under you to grow the team. We need to be at 50 people by the end of the year." My reaction was very mixed. On the one hand I liked being recognized with an implied promotion, on the other hand I was being asked to manage. From my perspective at the time the harder problems to solve were technical and I did not covet the job of a professional meeting goer. And besides I already pretty much managed myself, so what value do managers really add anyway?

I wish someone had handed me a copy of Grove's book: "High Output Management" earlier on. In it Grove, one of the worlds most successful and talented engineers, explains the essential value of middle management to an engineering organization. He also explains, among other things, many of the essential the tools for successful middle managers: how to think about priorities, the value of communication, a useful framework for scheduling and illustrating trade-offs and how people are intrinsically motivated. He comes across as credible, concrete and analytical. I.e. as a great engineer who manages great engineers.

I now hand out copies of this book to every engineer I find either considering making the transition to management or ones early in their managerial career struggling with finding self affirmation in the role. Like many great tools or resources, my only complaint is not finding this book sooner.

I first read High Output Management 13 years ago. Back then it was an extremely valuable resource for a newly minted manager at Intel. I always liked the book and have come back to it over and over again, in fact over the years given ten's of copies to talented managers in my organization. While planning a larger re-org of my business unit I just re-read the book and guess what - its still stands up as one of the most authentic and perhaps best "real world" management books......written completely free of the typical "copy-edit-noise" by the master himself

Get yourself an MBA for the network, but if you really want to manage projects and people successfully, read this book carefully and implement it!