The Human Asset Manifesto: What Happens When Organizations Allow People The Freedom To Be (Hardcover)

~ (Author) "Organizations are socially dysfunctional because they have been singularly unable to understand the extent to which human and social changes within society are affecting their..." (more)
Key Phrases: bling generation, social dysfunctionality, human assets, Industrial Revolution, World War, Scientific Management (more...)

Editorial Reviews

Product Description

The inability of modern organisations to engage and motivate their employees in a manner that makes individual effort more worthwhile, productive, and rewarding is a cardinal failure of our time.

The Human Asset Manifesto unequivocally demonstrates that organisations are socially dysfunctional, and despite professing a great interest in people, they remain steeped in the Scientific Management principles of the past. Thus, they emphasise technology, process, and control, over relationships, engagement, and motivation.

The Human Asset Manifesto rejects the modern approach to management and conclusively demonstrates that people, their human and social disposition and their motivation, are the source of innovation, productivity, and competitive advantage.

By redefining the organisation in human and social terms, The Human Asset Manifesto makes it abundantly clear that organisations can only achieve their best when they view their business as a human and social construct that lives and breathes, and respond accordingly. It emphatically declares that a leader must first be a human being.

The Human Asset Manifesto defines a strategy for human asset assessment and development that resonates with every individual who ever craved an opportunity to give of their very best, while being sufficiently expansive to question our approach to freedom and liberal democracy.

About the Author

Jonathan Ledwidge was born in London but grew up in his parent’s native Jamaica. He studied Physics and Chemistry at the University of West Indies before joining Price Waterhouse, later qualifying as a Chartered Accountant. He then worked for J Wray & Nephew, a manufacturer and distributor of sugar and rum, before migrating to the UK in 1986.

For the next eighteen years, he worked in London for a number of global investment banks, including Continental, CIBC, and ABN AMRO. Much of this time was spent on developing business strategies for the global capital markets in a range of sophisticated products and services.

Towards the end of his investment-banking career, Jonathan focused on learning, knowledge development and cultural change, and devised strategies and approaches for improving sales output and productivity for global product origination and distribution teams.

The Human Asset Manifesto is the philosophy on which Jonathan has established his business practise, The Human Asset Partners, or THAPartners, and more specifically, The Human Asset Evaluator or THAEvaluator. THAEvaluator was launched in February of 2006 and will be offered to organisations directly as well as through HR and strategic consultancies.

Jonathan holds an MBA from Cass Business School in London. Politics, history, people, and culture are his lifelong interests and he has travelled extensively. He is also the author of the book, A Mannequin for President, in which he places current American Presidential politics within its historical context, and writes regular columns on his website.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 348 pages
• Publisher: Morgan James Publishing (August 14, 2006)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1600370411
• ISBN-13: 978-1600370410
• Product Dimensions: 8.9 x 6.2 x 1.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.4 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #5,380,424 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Thought-provoking and entertaining, October 5, 2006

By	Hopeful Employee (UK) - See all my reviews

Jonathan Ledwidge's writing does not fit a conventional mold - and that is its attraction. It also makes his work difficult to categorize. The Human Asset Manifesto is a book of changing moods. Basically, it is a serious, informative business book. Although his focus is on how businesses are run, Jonathan Ledwidge takes us beyond the office walls, and views organizations as an inseparable part of their historical and contemporary social context. At the same time it is a highly entertaining book. The writer's plain-speaking, wit and eclectic interests make the book very reader-friendly, and provoke you to broaden your vision, to think, to laugh and to BE. This is the work of a well-read, witty humanitarian and businessman who is presenting a strong case for valuing the human asset in business organizations and, thus, increasing productivity.

You may be, but you don't have to be a business person to learn and benefit from The Human Asset Manifesto. The book makes it plain that business is not a static side issue; it exists in the changing fabric of all our lives.

5.0 out of 5 stars The Human Asset Manifesto: What Happens When Organizations Allow People The Freedom To BE, October 1, 2006

By	Michael A. Mundy (Coral Gables, FL, USA) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

This review is from: The Human Asset Manifesto: What Happens When Organizations Allow People The Freedom To Be (Paperback)

As a student of business with over 30 years management, consulting, and entrepreneurship experiences, needless I say, I too have read many graduate level text books on the subject of business management and strategy before awarded a Master of Business Administration degree. Might I further state, that with the emphasis of my graduate course of study having been Management and Strategy, you may appreciate that I've found myself studying the salient characteristics that frame successful organizations throughout the ages, while recognizing the absences thereof that led to the demise of many prior successful business enterprises littering the pages of business history but having ceased to exist many moons ago.

Nevertheless, from Adam Smith to Frederick Winslow Taylor, the emphasis on recent management theories virtually singularly extolled the mission of optimization or maximization in exploiting resources, or conversely the minimization of costs and expenses, with little regard to understanding both the socio-political-economic external dynamics that frame the real economic ballpark for sustainable business outcomes, and the internal strengths that grant ultimate success. Unfortunately, with the profit levels reported today for those highly publicized business players, while losses are argued as the natural outcome for those incapable of adapting to an ever dynamic and changing world within the destructive nature of capitalism, the equally evident need to establish more sustainable policy mechanisms and business practices are dwarfed in our recent environment of over-exuberance run amuck. But as history teaches that too is unsustainable, while the real asset of most organizations -- their Human Assets -- are underutilized by bad management practices and the consequent stresses added to peoples lives unnecessarily.

It is with his usually refreshing writing style that Jonathan Ledwidge, brings to our attention the underlying reasons why people are mostly unhappy in their jobs, the reasons why organizations continue to underachieve from employee disengagement with the daily efforts that consumes the larger part of their time awake, while eruditely proffering sensible solutions for successful future experiences.

If you've never read a business book, you ought make this your first! If you are like me, who've probably read too many of them, I invite you nonetheless to read the Human Asset Manifesto too, for it finally brings together the missing pieces between what you were exposed to and what you ought to have been exposed to in gaining a truly balanced appreciation for the value of organizations in our lives. One thing is sure, after reading this easy to read book, you shall place business in its proper perspective, having been easily mentally engaged in a remarkable analysis of people, history, and business, their interconnectedness, and why we go to work, and how to make it truly a place of accomplishing personal challenges to the advantage of all.

Certainly, it's no 'how to' nonsensical prescription for success. Rather, it's a pleasurable read on that which each and everyone of us should be excited to do daily, were the proper emphasis placed on adding value to the most important resource of any organization --- our human lives.

I highly recommend it to anyone interested in gaining thorough insights into modern business mindsets and experiences --- for it's a riveting and excellent read --- one that's sure to frame life around you in proper perspective too!!!

5.0 out of 5 stars A Refreshing Change, September 12, 2006

By	Larry Dunn (Toronto, Ontario Canada) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

Prior to its publication, Jonathan Ledwidge asked me to read his new book called "The Human Asset Manifesto". I agreed to do it out as a courtesy but was quite apprehensive when I learned that it was about 200 pages in length and thereby much longer than Marx and Engels' similarly titled opus "The Communist Manifesto".

Because I also do not like books on business as a rule, I was doubly apprehensive but when I started to read it, I was delighted to find that Jonathan has a light touch and the ability to make complex issues both simple and interesting.

The book provides an excellent history of management styles and practices which are amusingly related to the feudal societies of yesteryear. The author also reviews and rates the quality movement including its successes, failures and massive boondoggles.

The author persuades us that today human assets are more important than the engineered processes that are designed to manage the un-enlightened masses. He also touches on feminism and other political hot topics in a way that is respectful and yet entertaining.

As an introduction to business history and as a new way to think about management, I would recommend this book highly.