How to manage by objectives – John W. Humble – The Presidents Association – 1973 – Dura

**How to manage by objectives**: Preface:

No one denies that management by objectives has made a major contribution to better management in the past fifteen years. But at the same time no one doubts the wrong emphases and poor perceptions which have led to disappointments and failures. It is timely to see what common pattern of mistakes has emerged in the United States and elsewhere so that we may profit from our mistakes. That is what this book is all about.
Acknowledgments alone might fill a book. The debt I owe to Peter Drucker and Douglas McGregor is inestimable. When anyone asks for a reading list, I usually reply, "Read Drucker's Practice of Management and McGregor's Human Side of Enterprise. You'll find all the wisdom, stimulus, and originality about MBO expressed with the simplicity only great men can afford."
Without the encouragement of our clients, my colleagues and I in Urwick, Orr & Partners Ltd. would not be in a position to codify this practical experience.
Peter Hives, who has special responsibilities for MBO in the Urwick Group, has made a major contribution to concepts and methods for many years.
The trouble with writing a book in a field full of change, experiment, and expansion is that one must freeze one's current prejudices at a certain moment in time. Within months the need to rewrite is painfully clear. I can only say that this book is a personal contribution to the continuing study of how to manage by objectives, not a final answer.

John W. Humble.