This book was referenced quite a bit in Ben Horowitz's book, The Hard Thing About Hard Things, so I thought I'd prioritize it on my list. And am I glad that I did! Andy Grove is a brilliant and observant man who seems to be a teacher at heart. He wrote this book in 1983 but as I read through it over the course of a couple weeks, I found that the principles he discussed directly applied to situations that I am currently dealing with in the management of EVS today.
Andy Grove was trained as an engineer but transitioned into a manager and eventually became CEO of Intel. His engineering background is evident in his writing style and approach to the management of an organization. As a result of his engineering background, the book reads a bit like a text book, very organized and structured on building from a core theme (the egg factory...FYI, this 3 minute egg concept grossed me out - I'm a 7 minute man, myself!). In the nebulous world of management, Mr. Grove was able to observe, understand, categorize and systematize elements of managing teams or organizations. Grove then taught these principles to the employees of Intel, the students at Stanford, and with this book, the general population of business people. What a wonderful gift!
A few key takeaways:
- Always try to fix any problem in a production process at the lowest-value stage.
- Money as a motivator. This is an angle that I've never heard before, it stems from Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs. At the lowest level of the Hierarchy, money is an important motivator to provide basic needs; food, shelter, safety. Once there is enough money to bring a person up to a level he expects of himself, more money will not motivate. But, when you hit the upper-level of the Hierarchy, when one is self-actualized, money in itself is no longer a source of motivation but rather a measure of achievement. In that case, money will motivate without limit.
- Task-Relevant Maturity (TRM). Understanding where subordinates are, not as a general competency, but as a competency for the specific job or task that they are assigned to. A talented sales person (high TRM in sales) is moved to a management position and suddenly has a low-TRM because it's a new role and he has less experience/competence. A manager needs to understand the TRM of subordinates to be able to better manage them. Low TRM means more structured, task-oriented style vs a subordinate that is high-TRM who requires minimal involvement by the manager.
- Training. For training to be effective, it also has to maintain a reliable, consistent presence; be proactive vs. reactive with training.
And, like any professor, Mr. Grove gave a homework assignment to his reader. Which, like any good student, I intend to do.
My favorite quote of the book, "You can't be optimistic about the future until you have survived the crucible of change." Amen to that!