This is a great read.However there were moments when Owen's observations made me feel like throwing in my management towel. As he points out, most of us operate in a deluded state of believing that we know where we are going and how we are getting there.
Today that belief doesn’t seem to be getting us very far. Owen's solutions are brilliant in their simplicity and conviction: listening, reading and seeing in order to understand rather than show off...searching for the local as opposed to universal truth....
As he says, we are prisoners of the past and prisoners of our ignorance. For instance we pretend to understand technology on the basis of being able to operate mobile phones and laptops – but in reality few of us know much and, rather than admit that, we skate over technical decisions which are key to our companies’ futures.
The need for clarity and simplicity is another central message of Owen’s book which is delivered in a clear and amusing style. It should be read by anyone serious about breaking through the hackneyed jargon of business management and towards an entirely new approach. Out of all the management books I have read it is the only once that comes up with a convincing model for leadership and success in the twenty first century.
Joseph Cohen
