The Financial Times Guide to Management

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A guide to the gurus

Thirty years ago books on management were largely confined to dusty library shelves and written in dull, dense prose that was begrudgingly digested as part of one’s academic study. But then, along came the one-minute manager in search of excellence and before you could blink, a populist bestseller business genre was built to last. According to the FT’s Andrew Hill, nearly 20 million business books a year are sold in the US, the world’s largest market for such fare, a figure that excludes downloads.¹ And the bestselling business book of all time? Spencer Johnson’s colourful Who Moved My Cheese, with 23 million copies sold, underscoring the point that the most popular books combine business advice with self help.

So just ...