Customer Reviews
Packed with Knowledge ! - By: Rolf Dobelli, 24 Feb 2005 
If "stripping bare" means taking off the old coating or varnish, Jo Owen has succeeded in baring management to a delightfully ruthless degree. Owen isn't satisfied merely to proclaim that the boardroom emperor has no clothes. No, he catalogs, in encyclopedic A to Z style, every managerial fad, self-aggrandizing procedure & hypocritical impulse. Lest you mistakenly think he's from the "Saturday Night Live" school of irreverence, Owen also offers insightful options for managing the daggers & dangers of corporate life. He doesn't just tear down, he builds up. If painful truth is indeed the heart of alll humor, this unbitter, honest book will leave you snickering in your cubicle or corner suite. Owen also offers real-world solutions (while admitting they may be no better than anyone else's). Stripping bare is fine, as long as you go back & apply a new-and-improved coat of varnish. Owen does. We highly recommend taking a break & learning the lessons business school skipped.
Excellent ideas, some radical. Read it and help the economy! - By: , 11 Apr 2002 I like ideas in this book-and its layout. It is arranged as a simple A-Z which means that you can access ideas & digest them without having to read the whole lot in one. In fact Owen's ideas ars so dense and, in some cases, so radical, they deserve time & thought. If managers could implement even half the ideas in the book the economy might just have a chance.
A more honest and useful business book than I've ever seen - By: , 01 Apr 2002 A very sharp look at how business reallly is, with no bubbles left unburst. Lots of accurate descriptions & some practical things to do. The section on diversity is sobering but on the mark - so why does every other business book treat this subject with sugar-coated platitudes? This is also a business book that is readable (merciful for those of us with short attention spans) & funny (honest).
Must read - By: , 31 Mar 2002 This is a sensational book. It has transformed my perception of management. So many titles come onto the market promising An Answer - but Owen's book simply poses some timely questions. It also shows how to do the basics effectively - basics like reading, writing, listening & speaking.
Apart from the content, which is ground breaking, the author's style is simple, direct...and enjoyable.
Jane Dashwood March 28th
At last: a management book with genuine wit - By: John Tate (John_Tate@McKinsey.com), 22 Mar 2002 Management Stripped Bare succeeds where so many management books fail. Jo Owen avoids the preaching & pseudo-science common to his genre, providing instead a wonderfully engaging & humorous account of the business world. With the use of case studies, he separates the true from the merely seemingly true, providing useful tips gleaned from his own considerable experience. Management Stripped Bare contains alll that I wished that I had known before presenting to CEOs!
