Rosabeth Moss Kanter on the Frontiers of Management (Hardcover)

by Rosabeth Moss Kanter (Author)

Editorial Reviews

From Library Journal
To borrow a line from a popular commercial, "When Rosabeth Moss Kanter talks, people listen." A former editor of the Harvard Business Review and the author of numerous books on management (e.g., World Class, LJ 8/95), Kanter is a renowned management theorist. Her latest work is a compilation of articles previously published in the Review on such subjects as strategy, innovation, and leadership. While the articles themselves have stood the test of time, the thematic arrangement (e.g., leading change, values and purpose, partnerships) adds yet another dimension. Kanter presents a progressively orthodox view of cutting-edge managerial thought that is thoroughly grounded in present reality. She conveys the complexity of situations and solutions without the proscriptions often encountered in management texts. Recommended for business collections.?Steven Silkunas, Southeastern Pennsylvania Transit Authority, Philadelphia
Copyright 1997 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Review
There is understandably some suspicion that when an academic produces a volume quietly dubbed by the publisher "The Essential ... ," he or she is making a final pitch for immortality. At the same time, isn't it easier just to reassemble old bits of work than to embark on something fresh and new?

To say this about Rosabeth Moss Kanter, one of America's best-known management thinkers and author of such seminal works as "The Change Masters," "When Giants Learn to Dance" and "World Class," would be unfair. Ms. Kanter is a much sought-after speaker, consultant and interviewee, but she is most unguru-like in her modesty, approachability and charm. More than most, she is entitled to stand back because she has been a prolific writer for the past 20 years and many of her ideas have stood the test of time.

She has, moreover, a rare ability to champion the cause of the manager at the sharp end of business while rightly retaining her academic detachment. She revels in the detail of case studies and nitty-gritty examples, yet never loses the bigger picture. And while full of individual prescriptions, she resists the temptation to make it all sound easy, rather urging managers to remember that ultimately success will depend on their own "balance" and judgment.

The essays in "Frontiers of Management" -- all, with the exception of the "World Class" excerpt, taken from the Harvard Business Review over the last 15 years -- cover familiar Kanter themes, from strategy, innovation, customer focus and empowerment to strategic alliances, compensation systems and community responsibility. Reading them, she hopes, will help managers create the conditions inside their companies that make productive change "a natural way of life." Such "change-adept" organizations, as she dubs them, view change not just as a departure from the past (the conventional definition) but see projects as a way of improving their fitness for thriving in competitive markets in the future.

Ms. Kanter's previous book, "World Class," argued that globalization was not the threat often perceived by Middle American smaller and medium-sized companies. It developed the idea of a breed of globetrotting "cosmopolitan" businesses rich in the "three C's" -- concepts (knowledge and ideas), competence (the skill to operate anywhere at a high standard) and connections (the ability to form good and fruitful relationships as well as gain access to resources around the world). These now familiar three C's reappear in the introduction to "Frontiers" as defining characteristics of the change-adept organization. But the power of the thesis is undiminished -- those that fail to develop these assets are surely condemned to inward-looking isolation and defensiveness, and will be swept away, or at the very least bypassed, by international economic forces.

The first of the three C's, concepts, highlights the imperative of innovation, not least in service industries, where new technology can just as easily be deployed to revitalize an old formula. Look at the way the airline industry, for example, has used computerized reservation systems, frequent-flyer programs, arrival lounges and new seat designs to transform what could have been a commodity industry into a dynamic and flourishing sector. But the trouble, as this sector graphically illustrates, is that the need for improvement never ceases -- today's competitive advantages are tomorrow's industry standards.

New concepts can stem from many functions beyond the R&D department, with distribution channels a particular focus for companies like Dell Computer, and the Internet a huge opportunity for those who can find the right key to exploit it. Ms. Kanter is full of useful examples and has a shrewd eye for the failings of cautious corporate bureaucracies. My favorite maxim of management, if not of life: "Everything can look like a failure in the middle.''

The second C, competence, involves more than raw skill; it extends to the organizational routines that permit people to use their skills to a very high operational standard. "If 'do it right the first time' was the mantra of zero defects, 'do it better the second time' should be the slogan for the change-adept organization," Ms. Kanter writes. Here, programs like Total Quality -- which Ms. Kanter likes when they allow for genuine employee involvement -- can be significant. Professional training, empowerment and social networks that exchange knowledge with or without the aid of information technology should all serve this purpose of making competence an organizational asset, rather than an individual attribute.

Connections is the third of the three C's and refers to the way far-sighted management understands the strategic importance of relationships: in some companies, senior executives and whole departments are dedicated to the management of alliances and partnerships. Much has been said about the boundaryless organization, as Jack Welch calls it, but Ms. Kanter's contribution is typically pragmatic and rooted in common sense. Purchasing, she observes simply, has suddenly become "global supply chain management" in the wake of the growing collaboration across territories, both inside and outside companies. "The tricky step for managers to master is how to dance with dissimilar partners without stepping on any toes," she writes.

Ms. Kanter has made much in pre-publicity interviews of her frustration at the frequent lack of sensitive management in the 1990's -- something she attributes to a combination of the recession (which often brutalized relationships between management and employees) and the basic imperfection of human nature. In typically optimistic style, she believes that the more role models are wheeled out, the more the new conventional workplace wisdom is paraded, the more likely it is that conservative managers will change.

I disagree. Bad habits remain deeply ingrained in many large organizations, and it was perhaps this implicit admission that moved her focus in "World Class" to the more dynamic possibilities for small and medium-sized knowledge-based companies.

I doubt that there is much point in middle to senior executives reading this book (they will either know it all, which is fine, or say they know it all when they do not). I very much hope, though, that the down-to-earth lessons that Ms. Kanter has collected over a generation will reach younger managers before they are confused by too much "cutting edge" research. -- Tim Dickson, Strategy and Business magazine, 4th quarter, 1997

These essays reinforce a single, timeless message: the importance of providing the tools and conditions that liberate people to use their brainpower to make a difference in a world of constant challenge and change. --Booklist

"One of the thirty best business books of 1997." --Soundview Executive Book Summaries -- Soundview Executive Book Summaries

This is Rosabeth Moss Kanter's 13th book, and like the 13th floor of a building, it should have been skipped. The title, On the Frontiers of Management, is a misnomer. Instead of talking about companies in the forefront of business management, the book is a rehash of has- beens and old theories. The problem stems partly from the book's format. It is a repackaging of essays that Kanter, a professor at Harvard Business School, wrote for the Harvard Business Review during the past 15 years. Some of the essays are intriguing historical studies, and some of the companies profiled are still doing well, but none of them is "on the frontier" today. Some of today's most innovative companies, those really on the frontier, are barely mentioned. Kanter has been one of the leading business management theorists for years. She edited the Harvard Business Review for three years and has written several memorable books, including When Giants Learn to Dance and The Change Masters: Innovation and Entrepreneurship in the American Corporation. If you want to see Kanter at her best, read these titles, not On the Frontiers of Management. -- Upside, Eric Nee

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Hardcover: 306 pages
• Publisher: Harvard Business School Press; 1 edition (July 1997)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0875848028
• ISBN-13: 978-0875848020
• Product Dimensions: 9.5 x 6.4 x 1.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.4 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.0 out of 5 stars See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #1,836,426 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A Great Introduction, September 10, 2004

By	Alan S Train "Alan" (Boston) - See all my reviews

Rosabeth Moss Kanter has written over 16 books and hundreds of articles and shorter pieces. As a result, the body of her work has become almost impossible to appreciate fully, and even to get a sense of her range requires more time than most of us can spare. This is a shame, because her work, more than that of any other social scientist, has continued to build and to grow on her previous work, resulting in a powerful and coherent overall framework. This book, RMK on the Frontiers of Management, is the best possible introduction to her work and its scope. The information in its longer essays is as current and valuable as ever, because her work rarely becomes dated, and the short pieces offer sparkling insights into a wide range of organizational and business issues. I strongly recommend it to everyone with an interest or stake in modern organizations.

1 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars drivel, February 14, 2004

By A Customer

This review is from: Rosabeth Moss Kanter on the Frontiers of Management (Paperback)

I apologize for being trite, but this book is drivel. Ms Kanter is not on the frontier, but rather at the tail end, making random observations as they go past.