Why management books fail to inspire
It was when I tried to complete my ‘About me’ page that I first ran into problem with selecting business books that I could call inspiring. After some thinking I was able to indicate one, a book on strategic scenarios by Kees van der Heijden. Now it seems my ambiguous feelings towards management science found a much better articulated foundation in the article by Matthew Stewart, quoted by Nick Carr:
As I plowed through tomes on competitive strategy, business process re-engineering, and the like, not once did I catch myself thinking, Damn! If only I had known this sooner! Instead, I found myself thinking things I never thought I?d think, like, I?d rather be reading Heidegger!
My grandpa, a technical university professor, used to say that the only things worth studying are the difficult ones, and consequently enticed me to explore mathematics, statistics, and IT related topics. Even if never fully bought into his total contempt for “soft stuff”, like psychology and marketing, I always felt there was so much truth to his view. Again M. Stewart:
(…) the impression I formed of the M.B.A. experience was that it involved taking two years out of your life and going deeply into debt, all for the sake of learning how to keep a straight face while using phrases like ?out-of-the-box thinking,? ?win-win situation,? and ?core competencies.? When it came to picking teammates, I generally held out higher hopes for those individuals who had used their university years to learn about something other than business administration.
