Book Review: Upside Down Management

As managers and management students will know the world is full of books propounding theories of management and books by authors with something to sell. Upside Down Management: A Common Sense Guide to Better Business by John Timpson is different.

With refreshing candour John Timpson, a successful businessman untroubled by whether his management style is Theory X, Y or Z, tells the story of his business life.  Readers will recognise and relate to many examples of his experience.

In many ways his message can be distilled into a simple slogan:  It’s the people stupid.
People as customers, as staff and as parts of other organisations with influence over the future success of the business.  Too frequently the importance of people appears in company vision and value statements but does not appear in the thoughts and actions of those making decisions. 

John Timpson is different – he not only makes sure that he understands people but that he understands their local markets and the support that they need to enable them to be successful.  As a result they and the business win.
This is not a cuddly approach.  ‘Drongos’ don’t last long but those with the attitude and application to succeed will succeed.  As the author states:  “You can’t be nice to everyone. You can’t be a good boss unless you say goodbye to the drongos.”
A mark of a good leader and manager is the ability to recognise and to learn from mistakes; theirs and others. The author illustrates this with examples from his personal experience. 

Some might argue that owning and leading a family business is different to life within other types of business.  This may be true but this book transcends different types of businesses and illustrates that more corporations need to be led and managed as if they were family businesses.  Readers should learn a lot from this book.

Reviewed by Malcolm Morley

Published by John Wiley & Sons
£12.99
ISBN 978-0-470-68945-5