Six of the Best

Ed Peppitt (ed.)

I'll be honest - I've never understood why people buy books of interviews. First of all they're bitty - there's no cohesion, because they are (in this case) six totally separate interviews with different people. Secondly, you don't get the structured insights of a well-written business book: after all, this isn't written (and some would argue it's just a lazy way to produce a book quickly), it's spoken. Finally, all too often they are dull, dull, dull.

This particular book takes six successful British business people and asks their opinions on key management topics:

Sir Michael Bichard, Rector of the University of the Arts (what?) in London, on leading people

Sir John Tusa, Managing Director of the Barbican Arts Centre in London on managing change

Lord Karan Bilimoria, founder of Cobra Beer, on meeting customer needs

Sir Digby Jones, former director general of the CBI on managing information and knowledge

Dianne Thompson, Chief Executive of Camelot on managing activities and resources, and

Andy Green, Chief Excutive BT Global on managing yourself.

As a list, they don't inspire - rather too many titled members of the British establishment, instead of high performance coal face managers. Certainly the lessons to be learned from (say) the Barbican for a manager in an international blue chip company are slight. And the old boredom of the interview format sets in very soon - it's notable that the summary at the end written by interviewer Ed Peppitt is far and above the most readable part of the book, simply because it has been written.

So, I'm not convinced you will learn a lot about these key topics from this book. If, however, you are interested in how these particular individual think - Tusa's insights on the BBC, for instance, or Bilimoria's on being an entrepreneur - you will find this a richer seam to mine, and probably worth wading through the dull format.

Paperback.

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