The Instant Manager

Robert W. Sexty is a professor of commerce and business administration
at the Memorial University of Newfoundland and the author of Canadian
Business: Issues and Stakeholders.

What criteria should be used to evaluate how-to or self-help books? Some
that come to mind are ease of reading, applicability, completeness, and
credibility.

The Instant Manager is easy to read, discussing complex topics in one
or more pages and relying heavily on point-form checklists. The ideas in
the book are applicable, if readers are seeking simplistic solutions. In
terms of completeness, the impression given here is that effective
management can be distilled down to a specific number of ideas—in this
book, a round number of 100. Credibility is lacking when the
“Communicating Upwards” section is followed by the quote “The most
important sale in life is to sell yourself to yourself.”

Instant and easy solutions have been sold for years. In the old
American West, patent-medicine peddlers promised quick cures. Then came
the entrepreneurs selling get-rich-quick investment schemes. Today,
there are numerous peddlers of trendy, quick-solution management
approaches. Let the buyer beware: whether they’re promoting miracle
medicines, wealth-creating schemes, or solutions to complex management
challenges—all such operations promise more than they can deliver.