Customer Reviews

The New Rational Manager

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1 star:		(3)

 

 

I found a 1965 version of the Rational Manager at a garage sale for $1.00 and because I had taken the Kepner Tregoe problem solving training I bought it. What a great book! I then discoverd The New Rational Manager version and got it as well. The books present a very solid and structured methodology with great examples to illustrate their use.

Anyone interested in dealing with the complexity of business or life and doing it well would be well served to pick up these books.

This book can teach you a process for problem identification and solving (root cause analysis) that will change the way you look at your job and will increase your effectiveness immensely. The weeklong seminar which I attended with about 12 other engineers was an eye-opening experience that is much better than simply studying the book. Take one of these if you can.

Despite its publishing date, the New Rational Manager stands for what we, leaders, encounter everyday.

From dealing with business associates to even parenting, the writers consolidate all aspects of life to be a focused and managable matter. Almost every issue can be broken down into phases, where in each phase there are opprotunities to ask quality questions, of which drive towards quality solutions. This book shows you how.

On the overall, this is one of the few well-written books of balancing life and business.

An easy read for practical approaches to understanding how to improve business processes. It is easy to relate to the numerous case studies providing scenarios of the common, and not so common, problems faced by organizations. An especially valuable section details a step by step approach to analyze a problem to find it's root cause. The chapter on decision analysis provide insight into factors to be considered when making choices.

The New Rational Manager, a revised version of the original The Rational Manager, presents the problem analysis and decision making methods developed many years ago by Kepner and Tregoe.... the results of seeking to identify the difference between people who consistently make good decisions and those who don't. Although aimed at busniess managers, these methods are incredibly useful for all manner of day-to-day decisions and problem solving. Should I buy a car now? Should it be used or new? Which make and model? Should I take a vacation in Cape Breton? IF yes, what could go wrong, and what plans are in place to deal with it? I even know one guy who loved two women, and wanted to get married to one of them! It worked? They are still together and are now ounting great-grandchildren! Must reading for everyone, not just managers. The only shortcoming is that the blank charts and tables used in the original training courses are not present in this volume... you will have to make your own based on the examples.

Purchased this used book, which I received in almost perfect fashion.

About the content: sound arguments for the four basic processes of rational thinking. Sholud be a mandatory book for everyone enolved in the business world.

I had actually attended the Kepner-Tregoe training and this book was a part of the training material. The whole logic of it seems common sense. The issue is that there is a generalisation of all problems.

It is a typical symptom of the modern business world, where there is a push for creating "1-size fits all" process.

There is nothing in this book that will make you any more "rational".

All this stuff is second nature to rational managers. It was only written here to make money for guys selling seminars to irrational managers (or their employers) who can't be helped to be rational but can be relieved of some spare cash.

This book is useless. No one aside from people associated with "Kepner-Tregoe" have heard of it or would recomend it. This has nothing on any college management course book used at any major university in the U.S. and there are certainly much better equivalent books on management. Not only that, it seems to think that it, and nearly it alone, has found THE process for rational decision making. And guess what? All you have to do is buy the book or pay for a course from the company that produces this book to benefit as well. What a joke. Kepner-Tregoe has an incentive to be dishonest about the effectiveness of its products especially as the people involved with it seem to think they are on their way to becoming rich off their own brilliance. Here is a quote from chapter one "Not supprisingly, results were better in the organizations that promoted and encouraged the continuing use of these ideas." Of course, no examples are provided. It also claims that commodity trading firms needed Kepner-Tregoe's advice about what warehouses to keep and where to build new ones. I call b.s. If the book/process is so brilliant, why cant it be printed and taught without preaching about how great it is? Why does it insist on constantly reminding people about the company that produces it? To put it plainly, if you buy this book and buy into/put time into the "Kepner-Tregoe" method, you are a sucker. You may want to watch infomercials late at night about how to make a killing in real estate right now as well, I wouldn't be suprised if Kepner-Tregoe had a foothold in those as well.