Up the Organisation

Discovered on W+K blog with a simple introduction:

Robert C. Townsend's 'Up The Organization' is a classic business book from the sixties. Checking it out on Amazon, I came to the conclusion that it's as good for you today as it's always been. Townsend was the CEO at Avis who appointed DDB and approved the famous 'We try harder campaign'.

This excerpt is appealing:

Moral: Don't hire a master to paint a masterpiece and then assign a room full of school-bot artists to look over his shoulder and suggest improvements.


Now I like these kind of books but they are usually 50-70% over on content - being much easier to read, better value and be more of use if made shorter. The publishers must think they need to be padded out to justify an increased price.

Here's something from the inside flap, courtesy Amazon.

Although it was first published more than thirty–five years ago, Up the Organization continues to top the lists of best business books by groups as diverse as the American Management Association, strategy+business (Booz Allen Hamilton), and The Wharton Center for Leadership and Change Management. 1–800–CEO–READ ranks Townsend′s bestseller first among eighty books that "every manager must read."

This commemorative edition offers a new generation the benefit of Robert Townsend′s timeless wisdom as well as reflections on his work and life by those who knew and worked with him. This groundbreaking book continues to remind us not to get mired in all those sacred organizational routines that stifle people and strangle both profits and profitability.

In today′s climate of seemingly endless incidents of corporate corruption, government fraud, and personal scandals, Up the Organization is more relevant than ever. Many of Townsend′s observations are as witty as they are wise. "There′s nothing fundamentally wrong with our country except that the leaders of all our major organizations operate under the wrong assumptions." "One of the most important tasks of a manager is to eliminate his people′s excuses for failure." "If you have to have a policy manual, publish the Ten Commandments."