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High Output Management Kindle Edition
The essential skill of creating and maintaining new businesses—the art of the entrepreneur—can be summed up in a single word: managing. Born of Grove’s experiences at one of America’s leading technology companies (as CEO and employee number three at Intel), High Output Management is equally appropriate for sales managers, accountants, consultants, and teachers, as well as CEOs and startup founders. Grove covers techniques for creating highly productive teams, demonstrating methods of motivation that lead to peak performance.
"Generous enough with advice and observations to be required reading." —The Wall Street Journal
- LanguageEnglish
- PublisherVintage
- Publication dateNovember 18, 2015
- File size12157 KB
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This book is about the art of managing and creating new businesses, with practical techniques for building productive teams and inspiring peak performance.Popular highlight
The output of a manager is the output of the organizational units under his or her supervision or influence.8,665 Kindle readers highlighted thisPopular highlight
A common rule we should always try to heed is to detect and fix any problem in a production process at the lowest-value stage possible.6,856 Kindle readers highlighted thisPopular highlight
High managerial productivity, I argue, depends largely on choosing to perform tasks that possess high leverage.6,529 Kindle readers highlighted thisPopular highlight
How you handle your own time is, in my view, the single most important aspect of being a role model and leader.6,466 Kindle readers highlighted this
Editorial Reviews
Review
“[Andy’s] book played a big role in shaping my management style.” —Mark Zuckerberg, cofounder and CEO of Facebook
"A good book, generous enough with advice and observations to be required reading." —The Wall Street Journal
"A great book. . . . Its elementary prescriptions form the basis of a highly effective management style." —San Francisco Chronicle
"An important book which says some very important things . . . beautifully and with style." —Peter Drucker
“High Output Management is a bible that every entrepreneur and every manager in the country should look at, read and understand.” —Bill Campbell, former Intuit CEO
“Andy exemplifies the best of Silicon Valley. Andy built the model for what a high quality Silicon Valley company could be.” —Marc Andreessen, creator of the original Mosaic and Netscape web browsers
From the Inside Flap
what techniques and indicators you can use to make even corporate recruiting as precise and measurable as manufacturing
how to turn your subordinates and coworkers into members of highly productive team
how to motivate that team to attain peak performance every time
Combining conceptual elegance with a practical understanding of the real-life scenarios that managers encounter every day, High Output Management is one of those rare books that have the power to revolutionize the way we work
About the Author
Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.
I first read High Output Management in 1995. In those days, there were no blogs or TED Talks teaching us about entrepreneurship. In fact, there was almost nothing of use written for people like me who aspired to build and run a company.
Against this backdrop, High Output Management had an almost legendary status. All the best managers knew about it. The top venture capitalists gave copies of it to their entrepreneurs, and aspiring leaders in Silicon Valley devoured its contents. It amazed all of us that the CEO of Intel had taken the time to teach us the essential skill of entrepreneurship: how to manage.
This was no small thing because Intel was known as the best company in the technology industry. It had pulled off the greatest transformation in the history of the business: moving from the memory business to microprocessors more than a decade after its founding. Beyond that, Intel ran with legendary precision, which gave it the ability to make multibillion dollar investments with high confidence. If you wanted to hire a great operational manager, then Intel was the place to go—but good luck getting one to leave the best-managed company in Silicon Valley.
Andy himself was a legendary figure. He had grown up Jewish in Hungary during a time when the country was occupied by the Nazis and, later, by the Soviet Communists. Arriving in New York, he spoke no English and had almost no money. He enrolled himself at the City College of New York, overcame his language deficiency, and went on to get a PhD from UC Berkeley. This non native English speaker would then write an important textbook on semiconductors in English while working at Fairchild Semiconductor. As a result, he was considered a scientific pioneer even before helping to launch Intel in 1968, building it into the seminal technology company of the era. Later, in 1997, Time magazine would recognize his nearly impossible accomplishments and name him Man of the Year.
This is in part what made High Output Management so extraordinary. Andy Grove, who built himself from nothing to run Intel, stopped what he was doing to teach us his magic. And not through some ghostwriter either—Andy wrote this book himself. What an incredible gift.
When I finally got my hands on the book, the paperback cover took me aback. The 1995 version featured a picture of Andy Grove standing next to the Intel sign. Unlike every other CEO photo that I had ever seen, Andy was not wearing a designer suit. He did not have perfectly combed hair, and he did not strike an arms-folded power pose. No, Andy Grove was dressed for work right down to his key card hanging from his belt. I did a double take. “Was that a key card? He didn’t remove his key card for the book’s cover photo?”
In retrospect, the cover was perfect. As you will see when you read this book, Andy Grove was all substance. He did not have time for pretty photo shoots or self- promotion. He wrote the book for us, but if we had to be sold on it by how he looked in the photo, then that would be our loss. The time that he did not spend styling fancy photos, he put into writing the book. He did not just give us the lessons; he articulated them in a way that connected both logically and emotionally. We would come to understand him and feel what he meant in our core.
I immediately got a jolt of this style with the title of the very first chapter: “The Basics of Production: Delivering a Breakfast (or a College Graduate, or a Compiler, or a Convicted Criminal . . .).” Okay, I am interested. What does making a soft-boiled egg have to do with how many prisons we build? It turns out quite a bit. High Output Management opens by teaching us the importance of proper system design even when we are dealing with a system of human beings—especially when we are dealing with a system of human beings.
Andy then shows us how you can use these same principles to understand how society should operate. It doesn’t accomplish anything to declare that we need more kids going to college than to jail and demand that we build more schools than jails. In fact, it’s counterproductive. Identifying complex system problems is one thing. Solving them is something else entirely, and Andy lays out the tools to do just that.
Over the years, I have come to consider High Output Management a true masterpiece, and there are at least three core aspects to its genius. First, in as little as one sentence, it lucidly explains concepts that require entire books from lesser writers. Second, it consistently uncovers brand-new management ideas or finds new insights into old standards. Finally, while most management books attempt to teach basic competency, High Output Management teaches the reader how to be great.
Andy introduces management with this classic equation:
A manager’s output = the output of his organization + the output of the neighboring organizations under his influence.
On the surface it may seem simple, but he clarifies the essential difference between a manager and an individual contributor. A manager’s skills and knowledge are only valuable if she uses them to get more leverage from her people. So, Ms. Manager, you know more about our product’s viral loop than anyone in the company? That’s worth exactly nothing unless you can effectively transfer that knowledge to the rest of the organization. That’s what being a manager is about. It’s not about how smart you are or how well you know your business; it’s about how that translates to the team’s performance and output.
As a means to obtain this leverage, a manager must understand, as Andy writes: “When a person is not doing his job, there can only be two reasons for it. The person either can’t do it or won’t do it; he is either not capable or not motivated.” This insight enables a manager to dramatically focus her efforts. All you can do to improve the output of an employee is motivate and train. There is nothing else.
As he describes the planning process, Andy sums up his essential point with this eloquent nugget of wisdom: “I have seen far too many people who upon recognizing today’s gap try very hard to determine what decision has to be made to close it. But today’s gap represents a failure of planning sometime in the past.” Hopefully, the value of this short insight is not lost on the young reader. If you only understand one thing about building products, you must understand that energy put in early in the process pays off tenfold and energy put in at the end of the program pays off negative tenfold.
The book has an entire section dedicated to an often neglected, but critically important management tool: meetings. Andy makes us see this oldest of business principles in a new light. He teaches meetings from first principles, beginning with how to conduct a one-on-one. It seems incredible that the CEO of Intel would take the time to explain how to have a one-on-one.
Why is he doing this? It turns out that the one-on-one is not only a fundamental element in the manager/employee relationship, but perhaps the best source for organizational knowledge that a manager can get. In my experience, managers who don’t have one-on-ones understand very little about what’s happening in their organizations.
It is by understanding the simple things that Andy goes deep. For example, when people visit today’s technology companies they often remark about how casual the environments are, but with very little explanation about why they are that way. In fact, many CEOs do not understand why as they simply follow the trend, but Andy explains it perfectly:
A journalist puzzled by our management style once asked me, “Mr. Grove, isn’t your company’s emphasis on visible signs of egalitarianism such as informal dress, partitions instead of offices . . . just so much affectation?” My answer was that this is not affectation, but a matter of survival. In our business we have to mix knowledge-power people with position-power people daily, and together they make decisions that could affect us for years to come.
In this fashion, the book quickly gets to the heart of complex issues. It raises and deals with the stickiest management issues. Andy asks the question of whether you should be friends with the people you manage:
Everyone must decide for himself what is professional and appropriate here. A test might be to imagine yourself delivering a tough performance review to your friend. Do you cringe at the thought? If so, don’t make friends at work. If your stomach remains unaffected, you are likely to be someone whose personal relationships will strengthen work relationships.
By breaking down the process, he makes hard things manageable.
Ultimately, the power of High Output Management is that it creates expert rather than merely competent managers. A great example of this is the section on task-relevant maturity. This part of the book became very personal for me as it taught me how to formulate the most useful management question that I use in interviews: “Is it better to be a hands-on or hands-off manager?”
It seems like a simple enough question, but it sorts out the 95 percent of managers who never think deeply about their craft from the 5 percent who do. The answer, as Andy explains, is that it depends. Specifically, it depends on the employee. If the employee is immature in the task, then hands-on training is essential. If the employee is more mature, then a delegate approach is warranted. Andy presents a great example of this: “The subordinate did poor work. My associate’s reaction: ‘He has to make his own mistakes. That’s how he learns!’ The problem with this is that the subordinate’s tuition is paid by his customers. And that is absolutely wrong.”
Perhaps the chapter that best reflects Andy Grove is the last, “Why Training Is the Boss’s Job.” Often, people who manage in the so-called knowledge economy believe their employees are so smart that they need no training at all. Andy brilliantly corrects this notion by explaining why as customers we are flabbergasted when we encounter employees who are insufficiently trained at relatively simple tasks such as taking restaurant reservations. He then challenges us to imagine how furious customers of complex jobs will be if an employee isn’t properly trained. Finally, he reiterates his thesis that there are only two ways in which a manager can impact an employee’s output: motivation and training. If you are not training, then you are basically neglecting half the job.
Throughout the chapter, the reader feels Andy’s intense passion toward training and teaching, because in the end—more than anything else—he is a teacher . . . in the very best sense of the word.
Many years after reading High Output Management, I met Andy for the first time. Upon seeing him, I was so excited that I immediately blurted out how much I loved the book. In classic Andy Grove style, he shot back: “Why?” I did not expect that. I thought that he would say, “Thank you” or “I appreciate that,” but not “Why?” But that was Andy. He was always teaching and always expecting more from every student.
Caught completely off guard, I scrambled for the reason and came across a good one: “Every other management book that I’ve read explains the trivial, but yours gets to the real issues.” Upon hearing that, the master teacher softened and replied with a priceless story:
It’s funny that you say that about management books. I recently ran out of space on my bookshelf at home, so I was faced with a choice. I either had to throw away some books or buy a bigger house. Well, that was an easy decision, but which books to throw out? Then I thought, the management books! But I had a problem. Nearly every management book that I’d received was sent to me by the author and was autographed with a kind inscription. I felt badly about throwing away all those nice notes. So, I went through each book and tore out the inscription page then threw away the book. So now I have a large stack of pages of nice notes to me and plenty of space for good books.
I have never met anyone other than Andy Grove who would have a story like that. He uniquely balances the highest standards for clear thinking and performance with an undying belief in the underlying person. Who else would require so high a bar for writing that you had to be good enough to fit on his one bookshelf and still be so touched by the fact that you wanted him to read your work that he would save the page that you inscribed?
Later, in 2001, I met with Andy again and I asked him about a recent run of CEOs missing their numbers despite having told investors that their businesses were strong. The bubble had burst for the first wave of Internet companies nearly a year prior, so it surprised me that so many many of them had not seen this coming. Andy replied with an answer that I did not expect:
“CEOs always act on leading indicators of good news, but only act on lagging indicators of bad news.”
“Why?” I asked him. He answered in the style resonant of his entire book: “In order to build anything great, you have to be an optimist, because by definition you are trying to do something that most people would consider impossible. Optimists most certainly do not listen to leading indicators of bad news.”
But this insight won’t be in any book. When I suggested he write something on the topic, his response was: “Why would I do that? It would be a waste of time to write about how to not follow human nature. It would be like trying to stop the Peter Principle.* CEOs must be optimists and all in all that’s a good thing.” This is classic Andy Grove. He is amazingly perceptive and can see every flaw in every person, yet despite that he believes in human potential more than anyone. Maybe that’s why he has spent so much time teaching us to be better.
It has been an honor for me to learn from Andy Grove through the years and I am excited for everyone who is new to High Output Management to join me in this experience. I know that you will enjoy this marvelous book written by the best teacher that I have ever known.
Ben Horowitz, 2015
* The Peter Principle is a concept in management theory in which the selection of a candidate for a position is based on the candidate’s performance in their current role, rather than on abilities related to the intended role. Thus, “managers rise to the level of their incompetence.”
Product details
- ASIN : B015VACHOK
- Publisher : Vintage; 2nd edition (November 18, 2015)
- Publication date : November 18, 2015
- Language : English
- File size : 12157 KB
- Text-to-Speech : Enabled
- Screen Reader : Supported
- Enhanced typesetting : Enabled
- X-Ray : Enabled
- Word Wise : Enabled
- Sticky notes : On Kindle Scribe
- Print length : 261 pages
- Page numbers source ISBN : B09KWX1QFB
- Best Sellers Rank: #115,948 in Kindle Store (See Top 100 in Kindle Store)
- #25 in Business Teams
- #33 in Startups
- #79 in Business Leadership
- Customer Reviews:
About the author
Andrew S. Grove emigrated to the United States from Hungary in 1956. He participated in the founding of Intel, and became its president in 1979 and chief executive officer in 1987. He was chosen as Time magazine's Man of the Year in 1997. In 1998, he stepped down as CEO of Intel, but continues as chairman of the board. Grove also teaches at the Stanford University Graduate School of Business. He lives in the San Francisco Bay Area.
Photo by World Economic Forum from Cologny, Switzerland [CC BY-SA 2.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0)], via Wikimedia Commons.
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Learn more how customers reviews work on AmazonCustomers say
Customers find the book very concise and easy to follow, with fascinating management principles. They also appreciate the author's candor, honesty, and well-rounded experience. Readers describe the book as full of practical advice and proven. They find the business advice inspiring and principled.
AI-generated from the text of customer reviews
Customers find the book provides valuable frameworks and strategies for all kinds of common managerial tasks. They also say it contains a ton of wisdom in 230 pages, is practical, and analytical. Readers also mention that it covers situational topics such as reviews, one-on-one meetings, subordinate motivations, and tough. They say it's no-nonsense, no-fluff, and easy to read.
"This is a great book for managers and executives. It offers practical advice from one of the premier American business executives— insightful and..." Read more
"...for both new and experienced managers since it provides valuable frameworks and strategies for all kinds of common managerial tasks...." Read more
"...This book contains a ton of wisdom in 230 pages. If there's a flaw with the book, it's that it's too dense with wisdom...." Read more
"This book is packed with best practices in management...." Read more
Customers find the book very concise, easy to follow, and relatable. They also appreciate the well thought out, articulated concepts and advice. Readers also mention that the book is very well structured, clear, and direct.
"...of the premier American business executives— insightful and relatively jargon free." Read more
"the book is easy to read and follow" Read more
"...First, in as little as one sentence, it lucidly explains concepts that require entire books from lesser writers...." Read more
"...The book provides a straightforward and comprehensive guide on how to approach and enhance performance, making complex ideas easily accessible." Read more
Customers find the book's business advice to be both principled and practical. They say the teachings are still relevant, actionable, and comprehensive. Customers also say the book is inspiring and has made a huge impact on their ability to execute.
"This is a great book for managers and executives...." Read more
"...This book is great for both new and experienced managers since it provides valuable frameworks and strategies for all kinds of common managerial..." Read more
""High Output Management" masterfully explains the mechanisms behind productivity, leverage, and output...." Read more
"...view of what good managers do, and he presents a comprehensive guide for all the basics...." Read more
Customers find the author's candor very honest, realistic, and based on experience. They also describe the book as one of the most authentic and well-rounded experiences.
"...The book is also a very frank account of the ups and downs of management, the author shares his mistakes and moments when his judgement was not..." Read more
"...re-read the book and guess what - its still stands up as one of the most authentic and perhaps best "real world" management books......written..." Read more
"...It works because it is simple and honest." Read more
"One of the few business books actually worth reading. Fast, 100% based on experience, effective and efficient...." Read more
Customers appreciate the craftsmanship of the book. They also say it's of good quality and a great reinforcement of the cannon.
"...He comes across as credible, concrete and analytical. I.e. as a great engineer who manages great engineers...." Read more
"...All in all, this book was great reinforcement of the cannon but not an inspiration for thinking differently in 2020." Read more
"Its not complicated, very easy to read. A lot of basic and excellent material. Tried to summarize the best practices in management field" Read more
"Good condition, good content" Read more
Customers find the book timeless and valuable.
"...The book is a great read and provides a lot of value!" Read more
"...how to manage your calendar and to write a performance review are worth the price." Read more
"...but all the teachings are still relevant, actionable and extremely valuable." Read more
"Very well written and informative. Well worth the time and the money." Read more
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This book is great for both new and experienced managers since it provides valuable frameworks and strategies for all kinds of common managerial tasks. Below are the core topics covered in this book:
* Delegation - In order to maximize leverage, a manager needs an optimal number of subordinates to whom he can delegate to. Successful delegation provides lots of leverage, whereas poor delegation ends up netting no leverage since it turns into errors and micro-management.
* Meetings - Meetings are extraordinarily expensive to a company. There are three types of recurring meetings: one-on-one's, staff meetings, and operational reviews. Each of these meetings should have a clear framework for maximizing value and minimizing time-waste. There are also one-off meetings centered around making a particular decision - such meetings should be especially carefully planned and executed since they are often scheduled ad-hoc without a clear purpose and with too many participants.
* Making decisions - When making decisions, there's a fragile power dynamic that needs to be carefully handled. Managers should facilitate free and open discussion amongst all parties until a consensus emerges. In cases where a consensus does not emerge naturally, the manager should push for a decision.
* Dual reporting - Dual reporting is inevitable in most large organizations. Consider advertising: should each division of a company decide and pursue its own advertising campaign, or should all of it be handled through a single corporate entity? The optimum solution calls for the use of dual reporting where each division controls most of their own advertising messages but a coordinating body of peers consisting of the various divisional marketing managers chooses the advertising agency and creative direction.
* Motivating employees - Our society respects someone's throwing himself into sports, but anybody who works very long hours is regarded as sick or a workaholic. Imagine how productive our country would become if managers could endow all work with the characteristics of competitive sports? Eliciting peak performance means going up against something or somebody, and turning the workplace into a playing field where subordinates become athletes dedicated to performing at the limit of their capabilities.
* Performance reviews - Performance reviews are easily mistaken as simply a way to assess performance and evaluate compensation. The fundamental goal of a performance review is to improve the subordinates performance. A review will influence a subordinate's performance for a long time, which makes the activity one of the manager's highest-leverage activities. Thus great care needs to be taken in the preparation and delivery of a performance review.
After finishing reading through the book, I immediately started re-reading it. In the forward by Ben Horowitz, he writes
"First, in as little as one sentence, it lucidly explains concepts that require entire books from lesser writers. Second, it consistently uncovers brand-new management ideas or finds new insights into old standards. Finally, while most management books attempt to teach basic competency, High Output Management, teaches the reader how to be great."
I think that's a really good summary. The first sentence is worth highlighting though. This book contains a ton of wisdom in 230 pages. If there's a flaw with the book, it's that it's too dense with wisdom. It's like an amazing teacher has condensed a full two-year Stanford MBA program into one small book. It is NOT a page turner (though he's a fine writer). There is so much in each page that you need to take breaks to think over what you just read before moving on.
Regarding the forward, you can skip it the first time through. I think it's more useful as a summary review after reading through the book once.
I bought the audio as well as the paperback so I could reference the critical parts later.