Paperback, 232 pages
English language
Published Jan. 26, 1996 by Vintage.
This is a user-friendly guide to the art and science of management from Andrew S. Grove, the president of America's leading manufacturer of computer chips. Groves recommendations are equally appropriate for sales managers, accountants, consultants, and teachers--anyone whose job entails getting a group of people to produce something of value. Adapting the innovations that have made Intel one of America's most successful corporations, High Output Management teaches you: what techniques and indicators you can use to make even corporate recruiting as precise and measurable as manufacturing how to turn your subordinates and coworkers into members of highly productive team how to motivate that team to attain peak performance every time Combining conceptual elegance with a practical understanding of the real-life scenarios that managers encounter every day, High Output Management is one of those rare books that have the power to revolutionize the way we work
However influential and innovative this book has once been, it seems outdated now. Instead you should read a more modern management book that took its good ideas and brought them into the 21st century.
Written in a conversational style by a technology-focused, operations leader.
Originally written in 1983, it's showing it's age as many lessons and learnings on people-management practices have been built into the modern management training curricula.
A few chapters on organisation design, centralisation, decentralisation, scaled teams, large organisations and the trade-offs. Nicely written. Still perfectly valid in today's world.
If I put aside the people-management aspects of the book, we see that Andy Grove has a good eye and understanding of optimisation and effectiveness. This is missing from many management/leadership books. His focus on excellence and flow, and his specific reflections are useful.
You can find other material on operations management in other books, but here he puts is side-by-side with leadership and people-skills. I think it's a good mix.
A bit on the dry side but still very good. It won't make you a great manager, but it will definitely reinforce good habits. I wish Andy wrote a second edition with more IT focus rather than using his "breakfast factory" example. Overall, definitely a keeper.
