Management - Its not what you Think

Management - It's Not What You Think is a book of articles edited and complied by Henry Mintzberg.

Some of the chapters:

"Accenture's next champion of waffle words," Lucy Kellaway
"PowerPoint is evil," Edward Tufte
"The opposite of profound truth is also true," Richard Farson
"Why most managers are plagiarists," Kellaway again
"'Change management' is an oxymoron," Jim Clemmer
"Ye gods, what do I do now?" Ian Hamilton
"Managing without managers," Ricardo Semler

The collection articles emphasize that Leadership is messy and there is no right answer. Lots of mess and unclear decisions to make. Lots of thought provoking articles.

And the cutest story from the book on outsourcing:

Air Maple Leaf today announced that the office of the President, CEO and the Chairman will be outsourced as of April 30, for the remainder of the fiscal year and beyond.

"At the end of the day, the cost savings will be quite significant," says Air Maple Leaf spokesperson. "We simply can no longer afford this inefficiency and remain competitive on the world stage", he said.

Rahdpoor Nahassbaalapan, 23, of Indus Teleservices, Numbai, India, will be assuming the office of President, Chairman and CEO as of May 1. He will receive a salary of $360 Canadian a month with proportional benefits. Mr. Nahassbaalapan will maintain his office in India and will be working primarily at night, due to the time difference between Canada and India.

"I am excited to serve in this position," Mr. Nahassbaalapan stated in an exclusive interview. "I always knew that my career at the Air Maple Leaf call center would lead to great things."

An Air Maple Leaf spokes person noted that Mr. Nahassbaalapan has extensive experience in public speaking and has been given the CEO's script Tree to enable him to answer any question without having the understand the issues.

The sad part is, that is the perception some people have of what doing the CEO job is all about.