Barbarians to Bureaucrats: Corporate Life Cycle Strategies: Corporate Life Cycle Strategies"One day your sluggish company will taken to the sound of a beating drum and the sight of a competitor approaching at ramming speed. On deck will be a jut-jawed Barbarian....He will hardly blink as his target is ripped asunder, sending Aristocrats, Bureaucrats and their unfortunate shipmates to their corporate death....So goes Mr. Miller's tale, from which we can all profit." The Wall Street Journal Barbarians to Bureaucrats presents a brilliant new solution to a stubborn old business problem: how to halt a company's descent into wasteful, stifling bureaucracy. Lawrence M. Miller, a management consultant for such corporate giants as Xerox and 3M, argues that corporations, like civilizations, have a natural life cycle, and that by identifying the stage your company is in, and the leaders associated with it, you can avert decline and continue to thrive. Every company begins with the compelling new vision of a Prophet and the aggressive leadership of an iron-willed Barbarian, who implements the Prophet's ideas. New techniques and expansions are pushed through by the Builder and the Explorer, but the growth spawned by these managers can easily stagnate when the Administrator sacrifices innovation to order, and the Bureaucrat imposes tight control. And just as in civilizations, the rule of the Aristocrat, out of touch with those who do the real work, invites rebellion -- from employees, customers, and stockholders. It will take the Synergist, a business leader who balances creativity with order, to restore vitality and insure future growth. Executives from major corporations have already put the powerful insights of Barbarians to Bureaucrats into practice to regenerate their own companies. Now you can use this brilliant, lucid, and dazzlingly original book to put your company -- and your career -- back on track. |
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Barbarians to Bureaucrats: Corporate Life Cycle Strategies: Corporate Life ... Lawrence M. Miller No preview available - 1990 |
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achieve acquisition Administrative Age agers airline Alexander alien Aristocrat Arnold Toynbee assets Barbarian become behavior believe Builders and Explorers building Bureaucratic carhops challenge civilization command company's competence competitive conquered Corollary cost create customers cycle decisions decline Dick McDonald dominant Dun & Bradstreet energy engineers entrepreneur environment external failure feel Frank Lorenzo Geneen growth Honda ideas improve increasingly innovation integration internal investment Kiam Kroc layers leaders leadership Lee Iacocca manufacturing mature McDonald's ment mission numbers organization performance period personality Peter Drucker planning problem product or service profits Prophet Ray Kroc rebellion recognize requires result Roman Ross Perot sell serve Shoichiro Irimajiri skills social purpose society specialized spirit stage steel Steve Jobs stockholders strategy structure style successful symbols Synergist synergy tion Toynbee U.S. Steel understand Victor Kiam vision wealth Xerox