Builders and Dreamers: The Making and Meaning of Management (Financial Times Series) - Hardcover

"Builders and Dreamers is a vivid account of how management developed as a set of practices and as a subject of study. Morgen Witzel has an encyclopaedic knowledge of management biographies and his book is highly readable." Professor Malcolm Warner, Fellow, Wolfson College, Cambridge and Judge Institute of Management Studies, University of Cambridge "Morgen Witzel has written a fascinating and important book. Builders and Dreamers highlights the long history of management and helps put today's global world in proper perspective. I would recommend it for managers and students of management alike." Professor Karl Moore, Faculty of Management, McGill University "Builders and Dreamers reminds us that when it comes to management, history is anythingbut bunk. Every facet of business, be it marketing, organization, finance, strategy, or ethics, has a centuries-old and quite human story to tell. From Cheops to Bill Gates, Morgen Witzel tells this story, topic by topic, very, very well. Historians, MBA students and CEO's ignoring this charmingly readable book will miss out on a whole new and valuable perspective." David Lewis, Historian and Co-author of Foundations of Corporate Empire "Celebrating millennia of organizational triumphs, Morgen Witzel offers provocative ideas about management by describing achievements and thinking from around the world and across time. He reminds us (with considerable style and humour) that today's managers can learn as much from history's military and religious leaders as from its commercial titans. Builders and Dreamers is both a good read and a vital contribution to the history of business." Peter McKenzie-Brown, Business Historian

Builders and Dreamers weaves the story of our business past and future, showing how and why management has evolved to it's present state. Stripping away some of the complex theories which have grown up around management over the years, this book reveals the unchanging, successful principles in management. Examples presented range from the Medici Bank to the East India Company; from the Cistercian order of monks - masters of organisation and innovation - to the military managers who have defined our modern concepts of strategy. In business there are lessons from history that last and managers need to use these lessons to their advantage. In Builders and Dreamers, Morgen Witzel equips readers with a corporate memory that will enrich their judgement and renew their sense of management purpose.