No-Nonsense Management: A General Manager's Primer

The book is designed to make managers think and to inspire them to improve their management style. The author is a firm believer that managers should lead and not make apologies for what they are paid to do--lead. No-Nonsense Management shows them how!

This compact book is a practical guide for the aspiring General Manager and a valuable refresher for those who have already made it. Richard S. Sloma succinctly describes seventy principles that General Managers must follow if they are to be effective and identified with high levels of performance, and he shows how to make them work. He presents dictums on such topics as sphere of authority, management control, accountability, decision-making, operational and environmental changes, planning and time management.

Best Management Book available to date, July 28, 2000
Reviewer: Cary Sholer from Danville, CA Richard Sloma

As the previous CEO of ITT during its peak years, writes from real life experiences simple two page lessons on 72 principals of management. You could either read the whole chapter, or just the first paragraph. Or, after you understand the concept, you can just refresh your memory from the table of contents. He uses about a half page to explain the principal, another page to highlight examples of the principal applied wrong and another half page or so of how to apply it correctly. My performance as a manager went from being a strong mid to senior manager to a strong executive, nearly overnight. Would I recommend this book? Not only would I recommend it, but I often give it out as a gift to friends as my top choice of management books.

Twenty-eight years of hands-on management experience as a Board Member, Chairman, CEO and COO of several companies. Hold a J.D. from DePaul University and an MBA from the University of Chicago. He is the author of a number of other books on good business practices: No-Nonsense Management, No-Nonsense Planning, How to Measure Managerial Performance and Getting it to the Bottom Line.

1.	Welcome to the club!	3
2.	If you want to be a general manager, begin performing like a general manager.	9
3.	Never tolerate mediocrity.	11
4.	Move fast with reversible decisions---move less fast with irreversible decisions.	13
5.	Never try to solve all of the problems at once---make them line up one-by-one.	15
6.	Never waste time on low-impact matters.	17
7.	Don't even listen to any significant program presentation that doesn't include a definite time period allocated for planning.	21
8.	First be effective; then devise ways to be efficient.	23
9.	Seek out those rare individuals who are truly committed, and build around them.	25
10.	It never pays to delay personnel decisions.	27
11.	It is better to impose slight over-control than to lose control.	29
12.	It is easier to remove controls (or ease them) than it is to install them.	31
13.	The shorter the control cycle, the more effective the results	33
14.	No one ever gives 100% all the time.	35
15.	Aggressive and consistent review of accountability guarantees an improvement in results	37
16.	The effectiveness of a firm's planning and control is inversely related to the organization level at which it is exercised.	39
17.	Never accept a "numbers only" financial report; insist on prose; "good-bad" statements and prognoses.	41
18.	Manage inventories and receivables by "profile" too, not only in total.	43
19.	Rank your time and project selection according to impact on profitability.	47
20.	Manage an organization as nature would: (A.) Show neither malice nor pity. (B.) Abhor a vacuum, whether of power or action.	49
21.	Management's responsibility to employees---begins and ends with creating an environment for individual opportunity. (A.) Support those who grasp it. (B.) Replace, promptly, those who fail---for whatever reason--- to grasp it.	51
22.	Plan your operational environment changes so that the implementation periods parallel each other.	55
23.	Your true adversary is time. Not competition, not legislation, not the economy---but time.	57
24.	It is far better to risk over-investment of time in productive planning than to rely on ad hoc solutions to unpredictable problems.	59
25.	Management planning is not complicated, but it is tedious---that's why the temptation is so strong to avoid it.	61
26.	Law of reversed entropy apply to business organizations: that is, energy must be applied to the system to restore, maintain, or increase order. In the absence of applied energy, the system will deteriorate toward increasing disorder.	63
27.	Results are generated by conditions---viz., etc., the operating environment of a firm. Don't expect changes in results if you haven't changed the conditions.	67
28.	Get time on your side.	69
29.	Only rarely are business failures or poor decisions the result of too much planning; almost universally they can be traced to management ego---the temptation to say, "I don't need a plan; I'm sure I can handle whatever develops.	71
30.	When management only responds to development, the bell has begun to toll. Excellent management predetermines developments and thereby controls its corporate future.	73
31.	Management control is like vitamins---You need a fresh dose every day to stay healthy; they are not supplied automatically.	75
32.	Learn to cope with vulnerability	77
33.	Get in the batter's box and swing. Babe Ruth struck out more times than anyone else, but he also (until Hank Aaron) hit more home runs than anyone else.	79
34.	Never be satisfied with results. Too often, profitable companies become comfortable companies---and then they are profitable no longer!	81
35.	A business can tolerate a truly enormous number of errors in detail---if the strategic direction is relevant and correct.	83
36.	Spectators never appear in the record books.	85
37.	Genuine, meaningful "ROI" improvement is generated only by corporate growth.	87
38.	Avoid becoming responsible for someone else's problems---you should have enough of your own to work on.	89
39.	Solving a business problem always generates even more problems.	91
40.	Master the previous before leaping to the subsequent.	93
41.	The first and foremost social goal of a business is to make a profit.	95
42.	Maintain enough constant pressure to expand your sphere of authority.	97
43.	No superior can give you authority. Your extent of authority is exactly what you extract from your peers and subordinates.	99
44.	The numbers can never be too hard.	101
45.	Don't waste your time risking small mistakes.	103
46.	If something is worth doing, it's worth doing imperfectly.	105
47.	Be known to have ambitions---never be known as ambitious.	107
48.	A decisive man will always prevail only because almost everybody is indecisive.	109
49.	An effective general manager is an expert juggler.	111
50.	Never propose single-vector strategy plans.	113
51.	For firms that intend to stay in business, profit plans must always be based on an order input rate in excess of the sales rate.	115
52.	If a numbers analysis conflicts with common sense, abandon the numbers.	117
53.	The bigger the decisions, the more subjective the decision-making process.	119
54.	At best, quantitative analyses only justify an already "right" decision.	121
55.	Management is always a contest of wills---that's why persistence always wins.	123
56.	Never just "attend" a meeting---always "win" it.	125
57.	Become immune to "paralysis by analysis"	127
58.	The more someone asks for supplemental analyses, the less serious he is about facing the issue.	131
59.	The "BS" content in a firm's communication system is proportional to the number of layers in the organization.	133
60.	Never make a decision unless you really have to.	135
61.	Nothing is as effective as a well-planned spontaneous demonstration.	137
62.	Use approval-level sign-off for communication in all operational activities.	139
63.	Nothing is as devastating to an opinion as a number	141
64.	Every new general manager has but one honeymoon period---use it wisely.	143
65.	Never become involved in the personal lives of business associates.	147
66.	Management planning is a tow-step process: (I.) analysis---defining in detail the objective(s), and the tasks needed to achieve those objectives. (2.) synthesis---ranking by priority the sequencing and specific assignment of the defined tasks.	149
67.	The right answer at the wrong time is always a bad decision	151
68.	There are really only two types of problems: growth problems and liquidation problems. Growth problems are better.	153
69.	Constantly test the ranking of planned action priorities.	155
70.	When nothing else works...	157