Reviewed by Ashley James
In the book “High Output Management,” Andrew S. Grove, the president of Intel, discusses the art of business management and the tasks associated with being a manager. The first issue Grove points out that managers in this day and age must recognize is the issue of globalization. Grove says that managers today must recognize the importance of globalization and the information revolution to succeed. He says companies today must adapt in the face of these issues or they will die. It is the duty of managers to make sure companies adapt and forecast for the future. In order to adapt to the pressures of globalization and the information revolution, Grove says companies must have a higher tolerance for disorder and anticipate the unexpected.
Grove gives lots of advice to managers of all kinds. He makes it clear that his book is geared towards every kind of manager, from those who run huge corporations to those in charge of small operations. He says managers of all kinds must find the most cost-effective way to deploy resources and that the key to optimizing all types of productive work is to understand trade-offs. Grove says that to run an operation well, the manager must use a good set of indicators or measurements. Each indicator should be focused on a specific operational goal.
Grove puts great emphasis on output in his book. He says stressing the importance of output to workers is the key to improving productivity in a company. He also writes that a manager’s output is the combination of the output of his or her own organization as well as the output of neighboring organizations. Grove believes that a manager is not just responsible for his or her own job, but for the output of those under him too, as well as everything that happens with the company under his or her management. Grove puts great importance on the role of the manager, and that is probably why he has been so successful.
Grove also stresses that output and activity are not the same thing. Some important activities of a manger include information gathering and decision-making, but those activities do not necessarily result in successful output. Grove believes that output can be increased by managerial productivity which means increasing the rate with which a manager performs and increasing the leverage associated with managerial activities.
An important example of managerial leverage Grove points out is delegation. Grove stresses the importance of delegation but warns managers that they are still responsible for a task even when they delegate it to their employees.
Grove also advises managers to learn when to say “No.” He says that time is a valuable resource of mangers and that managers should have times they are inaccessible to their employees and close their office, while there should also be times they hold open office hours because many people depend on them for advice. Grove says that while many feel otherwise, meetings are not time wasted. He believes they are an important medium through which managerial work is performed. Grove points out that Peter Drucker believes “25% of time spent in meetings is “malorganization,” but Grove says only “25% of time in mission-oriented meetings is “malorganization,” the rest of time in meetings is time used efficiently.
I believe Grove does offer a good approach to management. He has obviously been successful in corporation management as the President of Intel. He puts great emphasis on planning which I believe is crucial to successful management. In the book, Grove writes about how he agrees with Peter Drucker’s approach to management, MBO. We discussed this approach in class and Grove follows it very closely. Grove agrees with Drucker that management must set objectives, organize, motivate and communicate, measure, and develop employees.
Grove says that the MBO approach to management is based on good judgment and common sense. Like Drucker, Grove believes employees should be evaluated by their results and held accountable. The MBO approach advocated by Drucker and Grove stresses the importance of evaluation and accountability.
Grove’s approach to management is easy to understand because he emphasizes three main ideas: the output oriented approach, the importance of teams and not just individuals, and motivation understood in terms of sports analogies. The MBO approach has many similarities to the military and uses military terminology, while Grove uses sports terminology and analogies.
I like how Grove uses the MBO approach to management and his belief in the importance of objectives. I feel that if a manager does not understand what he and his company are trying to achieve, it will be difficult to achieve and measure their success. I like how Grove stresses the importance of organization and the measurement of achieved objectives. I also feel that evaluation of employees used by Drucker and Grove is extremely beneficial because otherwise managers would not recognize the output achieved by individuals. I agree with Grove in the importance of teamwork, but mangers must recognize the significance of individuals in order to put together a successful team. As the old saying goes, a team is only as strong as its weakest link.
I would recommend this book to fellow public relations students looking
to learn more about management. Grove is a successful manager of a major
company, so students looking for management guidance should look no further
than Grove. His book advocates the MBO approach to management so students who
prefer the MBO approach to management would enjoy Grove’s take on running a
business. Grove explains all aspects of management very clearly and then gives
detailed examples of what he wrote about to help readers clearly understand the
concepts he discusses. At the end of the book Grove gives a detailed list of
steps for mangers to follow. Mangers looking to implement Grove’s guide to
management in their own workplace will appreciate his step-by-step guide to
improving output in their own company.
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