Review: High Output Management

High Output Management by Andrew S. Grove
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

The first edition of this management book was written in 1983, when one of the most successful tech companies in the West was Intel. Its long-term serving CEO Andrew Grove gave some rather timeless management lessons (some other might be dated though).

"In principle, more money, more manpower, or more capital can always be made available, but our own time is the one absolutely finite resource we each have. How you handle your own time is the single most important aspect of being a role model and leader."

One of the most important jobs of a manager is to increase own leverage: by well-prepared and powerful conversations with key people, by well-organised meetings, by giving unique relevant trainings.

Grove dedicates considerable attention to how to run the meetings, because:

"Most expenditures of such cost have to be approved in advance by senior people – yet a manager can call a meeting and commit thousand of dollars worth of managerial resources at a whim. So, even if you’re just an invited participant, you should ask yourself if the meeting – and your attendance – is desirable and justified."

Send agenda beforehand. Dedicate time for "open session". Control the pace of the meeting. Send out minutes and the decisions made. And then:

"A meeting called to make a specific decision is hard to keep moving if more than six or seven people attend. Eight people should be the absolute cutoff. Decision-making is not a spectator sport, because onlookers get in the way of what needs to be done."

Grove also describes the algorithm of an effective decision-making process:
1. Free discussion.
2. Reaching a clear decision.
3. Everyone involved must give the decision reached by the group full support.

When planning, take into account that:

"By saying “yes” – to projects, a course of action, or whatever – you are implicitly saying “no” to something else. People who plan have to have the guts, honesty, and discipline to drop projects as well as initiate them."

There are many more lessons. Many of them seem non-brainers - however, also 40 years after this book is written, I see how large effect these can have in managerial context if followed consequently.