From the Introduction
This small work was written partly out of protest and partly from a wish to contribute something toward the renewal of American managerial effectiveness.
 Since acquiring an M.B.A. from Cornell, I have spent several years working at staff and middle management positions in banking, publishing, and government. In each of these fields I have been privileged to observe some very able managers, but also amused and chagrined to observe some breathtakingly bad ones (including some enjoying lofty titles and hefty paychecks).
Now, no manager is perfect, and even the worst managers have redeeming qualities. Certainly I acknowledge my own flaws and limitations as a manager and as a judge of others. It has seemed to me, though, that even the most senior managers (through habit or in pursuit of the latest management fad) impair their effectiveness by occasionally violating the most elementary principles of management, principles that would be included in any book of elementary rules for managers.
The trouble is that no such book has existed. Bookstore shelves groan, of course, with books on “management,” and many of them are very good. Too many of them, however, are simply case studies of particular companies or industries, or treatises on a current management theory. None gives a clear, concise set of basic rules of management that can serve as a guide for new managers and a reminder for experienced ones. This book endeavors to fill that gap.
Many of these rules will seem obvious. That’s quite all right. Sometimes the truth that is right in front of our noses is the most difficult to see. With this book I hope to remind new and experienced managers alike of a few “obvious” truths and thereby increase their effectiveness.
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