Management issues are fundamental to any organization: How do we plan to get things done, organize the company to be efficient and effective, lead and motivate emplyees, and put controls in place to make sure our plans are followed and our goals are met? Good management is basic to starting a business, growing a business, and maintaining a business once it has achieved some measure of success. To understand how important good management is, think about mistakes like these: Mistake #1. A high-level bank manager reduces a marketing manager to tears by angrily criticizing her in front of others for a mistake that wasn´t hers. Mistake #2 Guidant Corporation, which makes cardiovascular medical products, let forty-five device failures and two patient deaths occur over a period of 3 years before recalling 50,000 defective heart defibrillators, 77 percent of which were already implanted in patients. Ah, bad managers and bad management. Is it any wonder that companies pay management consultants nearly ´240 billion a year for advice on basic management issues such as how to lead people effectively, organize the company efficiently, and mangae large-scale projects and process? This textbook will help you understand some of the basic issues that management consultants help companies resolve.