Management 21C [Hardcover]

Subir Chowdhury (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: March 7, 2000

Collections of essays from the world's leading thinkers.

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

The only thing we can say with any certainty about management in 20 years' time is it will be substantially different from today. The question is, of course, how will it be different? And how can we adopt these new techniques before every one else does and gain a competitive edge? Well, you could do a lot worse than ask the world's top management thinkers and futurists for their views. Which is exactly what Subir Chowdhury, an executive vice president at the American Supplier Institute, has done in Management 21C.

The book is a collection of essays and speculations by the likes of Peter Senge, Sumantra Ghoshal, Barry Posner, and 23 more management heavyweights on the future of business, leadership, process, and organization. The breadth and diversity of the speculations make them almost impossible to summarize. But if there is one recurring theme, it's that management is shifting from a masculine paradigm to a feminine one. If during the bulk of the 20th century management was about male things such as certainty, predictability, competition, domination, and winning, in the 21st century it will be concerned with more ladylike traits such as uncertainty, ambivalence, change, collaboration, paradoxes, cooperation--and winning.

In his own provocative essay, Chowdury describes how new managers will have to become multiskilled, people-centered leaders whose most important task is inspiring the workforce with emotion and belief. He argues that in the next century corporate success will depend on the effective use of talent: "[T]he relentless pursuit of talent should be a main management strategy. More and more companies simply cannot recruit talent fast enough." Return on talent, he argues, will become a key business measure just like return on capital. Senior managers will ignore this thought-provoking collection of essays at their peril. --Alex Benady

From Library Journal

Chowdhury, vice president of the American Supplier Institute and coauthor of the well-received QS-9000 Pioneers: Registered Companies Share Their Strategies for Success, has compiled the views of 27 global thinkers from business and academia on management in the 21st century. In three parts, "Leadership," "Processes," and "Organization," they examine in detail a plethora of issues confronting the 21st-century leader and manager. Rosabeth Moss Kanter discusses kaleidoscopic thinking, a strength for managers who must focus on many directions in occasionally unfamiliar milieus; Barry Z. Posner and James M. Kouzes examine "Janusian leadership," the ability to look at the past to gain insight into shaping the future. Other issues addressed include the management of talent and the measuring of its return, as well as new organizational structures that accommodate the needs of professionals thriving in a world of information technology. Scholarly but readable and well documented, Chowdhury's book is a worthy addition to academic and large public libraries.DSteven J. Mayover, formerly with Free Lib. of Philadelphia
Copyright 2000 Reed Business Information, Inc.

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 304 pages
• Publisher: Financial Times Prentice Hall (March 7, 2000)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0273639633
• ISBN-13: 978-0273639633
• Product Dimensions: 9.5 x 6.4 x 1.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.5 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (5 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,961,372 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Subir Chowdhury is Chairman and CEO of ASI Consulting Group, LLC-- a world authority in Quality leadership, strategy and methods. Hailed by The New York Times as a 'leading quality expert', and by Business Week as 'The Quality Prophet', Subir is the author of 12 books, including the international bestseller The Power of Six Sigma, which has been translated into more than 20 languages and has sold more than a million copies worldwide. Subir's Design for Six Sigma (DFSS) is the first book on the topic and is credited with popularizing the DFSS philosophy worldwide. His latest book titled The Ice Cream Maker has been praised by leaders and media alike and has been distributed to every member of the U.S. Congress. Subir's latest organizational transformation philosophy, LEO, has been implemented and is being used by various organizations and industries.

Subir has received numerous international awards for his leadership in quality management and his major contributions to various industries worldwide. He is an honorary member of the World Innovation Foundation (WIF) and has been inducted into the Hall of Fame for Engineering, Science and Technology and Automotive Hall of Fame. He is the recipient of the Society of Manufacturing Engineers' Gold Medal, the Society of Automotive Engineers'(SAE) Henry Ford II Distinguished Award for excellence in Automotive Engineering and the American Society of Quality's first Philip Crosby Medal for authoring the most influential book on Quality. Subir has been twice honored by the U.S. Congress on the Floor of House of Representatives and the U.S. government presented him the 'Outstanding American by Choice Award' for his enormous contributions in the field of quality and management.

Subir received an undergraduate degree from the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT), Kharagpur, India, a graduate degree from Central Michigan University (CMU), and an honorary doctorate in engineering from the Michigan Technological University (MTU). Both IIT and CMU honored Subir with their Distinguished Alumnus Award.

The London School of Economics (LSE) has established the 'Subir Chowdhury Fellowship on Quality and Economics' to be given to a post doctoral Fellow each year to study the impact of poor quality in the advancement of economics of a nation, which is the first of its kind in the world. The SAE International has established the 'Subir Chowdhury Medal of Quality Leadership' to be given each year who bring forth innovation and broaden the impact of quality in mobility engineering, design and manufacturing. His philanthropic interest is evidenced through the Subir & Malini Chowdhury Foundation, which brings focus on the needs of society and those less fortunate in the world. Subir lives with his family in Bloomfield Hills, Michigan.


Please visit - www.subirchowdhury.com

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

25 of 25 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars "The future of business will be different.", May 1, 2000

By 

Turgay BUGDACIGIL (Istanbul, Turkey) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Management 21C (Hardcover)

An excellent study from 26 distinguished thinkers and authors. As written by S.Chowdhury, "the book you are reading reveals the collective thoughts and visions of some of the world's great minds...Management 21C brings together visions for the new millennium in one concise book, allowing you to understand the changes happening now and what changes you can expect. The future of business will be different : whose versions are you reading?...Management 21C is for those who believe in creative war, for those who inspire other people, for those who believe in others and not just themselves, for those who celebrate diversity, for those who constantly search for a dream, for those who want to reshape the world of tomorrow. Someday we'll all manage this way (from the Preface p.xiii)."

In this context, for instance :

* J.M.Kouzes and B.Z.Posner introduce "The Janusian Leader"-the leader with the capacity to look forward and back, to preside over endings and beginnings, sunsets and daybreaks. They also present seven key lessons that stand the test of time and are worthy of being carried with us from one millennium to another (see pp.17-32).

* S.Ghoshal, C.A.Bartlett and P.Moran suggest : "When the solution to a recurring problem is always 'Try harder', there is usually something wrong with the terms, not the execution. So it is time for both managers and management academics to throw out the old paradigm and to start experimenting with new, more fertile possibilities (see pp.121-140)."

* C.K.Prahalad argues : "In the new millennium, the methods and skills needed to manage large and small organizations will be different from those needed to be successful during the past three decades. Newer concepts and tools will emerge." He then discusses the emerging nature of managerial work and suggests that this transformation of managerial work will demand basic organizational innovations (see pp.141-150).

* P.M.Senge and K.H.Kaufer write : "Faced with profoundly new business realities-unprecedented demands from global competition, new technologies, emerging markets, possible mergers and alliances, and growing environmental pressures-many companies are falling back on old leadership habits...Rather than making executives less important, we argue that understanding leadership communities brings the unique roles of executive leaders into much clearer relief, as it does the roles for other types of leaders- all of whom will ultimately depend upon one another in creating successful 21st century enterprises (see pp.186-204)."

* D.Ulrich suggests : "Since the future is unpredictable but coming anyway, we need to prepare as best we can by projecting about context, organization and people." He then gives his observations about the contextual factors impacting on organizations, how organizations will operate, and how individuals must prepare themselves today to respond tomorrow (see pp.235-249).

* R.Moss Kanter argues : "Brainpower is to the global information economy as oil was to the industrial economy...Business leaders increasingly understand that one of their new roles in the 21st century is to contribute to creating such environments in the communities in which their companies operate. World-class leaders will be cosmopolitans who avoid insularity, enjoy the challenge of confronting new and different ideas, encourage cross-fertilization and learning across boundaries, and support their people in developing and using their brainpower in pursuit of innovation (see pp.250-261)."

I highly recommend.

2 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Average theoretical management book, April 6, 2002

By 

"mr_pang" (Hong Kong) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Management 21C (Hardcover)

Management 21C is overall an average management book. Nothing exciting or compulsory for the bookshelf. Recommended for students or bland-textbook readers only.

The book consists of short chapters that cover "hot management" topics. The book would be suitable for those who have no idea of the business issues facing organizations today. Personally, I found the book too generic with too much usual theoretical talk and lacked thought provoking ideas / examples. Examples were short and isolated. The writers seemed to be mashing too many quotes and popular ideas into short chapters. Overall, the readability of the book was bland and I found it to be a good book for bedtime reading rather than a book to learn about how to tackle the latest management issues.

I would recommend considering books like "profit patterns" or "management challenges for the 21st century" before this book.

3.0 out of 5 stars Hit or Miss!, July 1, 2003

By 

"tagreacca" (Modesto, CA USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Management 21C (Hardcover)

I purchased this as a text for doctoral leadership class and have to say that it was a hit or miss work. Some of the pieces are excellent, and some of them are pedestrian. I still value the purchase because of the nuggets mixed among the rubble.