The Handy Guide to the Gurus of Management

The Handy Guide to the Gurus of Management

In these days of global capitalism has management become

some sort of religion? Who are these gurus anyway, and what do

they preach? How useful have they proved to be in the past and

how much notice should we take of their ideas?

These are the questions that I shall be trying to answer in the

twelve short talks in this, my personal guide to these gurus of

management.

Each talk will concentrate on just one of these gurus, so I have

had to select the twelve writers, academics and business

professionals that I think have been the most influential. But in

this first talk I'll be discussing gurus in general and why I think

they matter, as well as telling you a bit about myself and my

ideas. It is, perhaps, a bit cheeky to include myself in the list of

the twelve gurus, but you need to know the sort of things that

matter to me if you are going to make sense of the rest of the

series.

Back to the beginning, however, and the rise of the gurus. Noone

knows how it happened, but twenty or so years ago the

leading thinkers in the field of management started to be called

'gurus' by their publics. Some suggested that, actually, witch

doctors would be a better title, because there was often no

scientific basis for their ideas. To others the gurus were a sign

that management was an art more than a discipline or even a

serious profession............

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