Adam Smith's business dictums from the 1800s no longer apply. That's the thinking behind management consultants James Champy and Michael Hammer's 1994 bestseller. Rigid divisions of labor which once sped up productivity in fledgling corporate America was now driving the sluggishness and lack of creativity holding firms back, the authors contend. They advocate for a radical redesign of the way companies process and organize their business, including regrouping multiple jobs into one. No wonder the book is credited with inspiring corporate downsizing in the 1990s. In the digital age, its insights still ring true.
The 25 Most Influential Business Management Books
There's never a shortage of new books about how to be more effective in business. Most of them are forgettable, but here are 25 that changed the way we think about management from the iconic "How to Win Friends and Influence People" to groundbreaking tomes like "Guerilla Marketing" and quick reads like the "The One Minute Manager".