Net Gains For Managers

RESOURCES/Website Reviews

We bring you our monthly feature of sites to watch out for. These offer an interesting peep into management thought and personalities. Browse through.

FEELING THE PULSE OF ASIAN BUSINESS

APMFORUM, or Asia Pacific Management Forum, calls itself an Asian business strategy and street intelligence e-zine. The forum is associated with a number of well-known business institutes like the Asian Institute of Management, Australian Graduate School of Management, Sydney, Australian National University, (Managing in Business MBA), Canberra and the Chinese University of Hong Kong. Among its content providers are: Malaysia Kini, Strategis, Economist Intelligence Unit and the Bangkok Post.

The e-zine has its finger on the pulse of Asian business. It's reporting is done by local writers. The site has sections on business news, analyses, management issues and a discussion forum. All this is for free and does not require registration.

The articles take on issues with a uniquely Asian perspective. On the flipside the writers often use terms and references that are unique to the country of reporting. For instance, a report from China speaks of practices and terms that are unique to the region.

The website's news segment, Asia Pacific Management News, has as its mascot the "Chao Phraya River Rat" that symbolises a proud independence, and a scavenger for all news, not only what is published in the mainstream press.

The e-zine's fascination with the "Rat" leads it to imbue its mascot with a character that the paper wishes for itself. "The Rat is lean because nobody pays for his upkeep... that way he can be independent," it goes on to say.

www.apmforum.com

ROADMAP TO BUSINESS THINKING

Part of Pearson Education, Business Minds is all about the world of business thinking. It says that it is a roadmap on "what to know, whom to read and where to go in a world of business thinking".

Several interesting elements make up this site. One such segment is that on management leaders or gurus. This is a compilation of short profiles of well known management personalities like Peter Drucker, C K Prahalad and several others. The profiles do not cover all that there is to know about the personalities but prod you into ferreting out more information about these men and women. The site also offers links to other sites that could offer more information on the subjects.

There are newsletters on management, business, finance and education management. These tap into what is current and controversial in their fields of study and are put together by the Pearson team. For access, one has to register for a fee.

A part of the site can be browsed for free. However, to know more or for updates on the newsletters and the like one has to subscribe. The site also solicits new ideas or concepts being developed among the management fraternity worldwide. It promises to aid research to back up an idea if it is truly path-breaking. So future aspiring management-gurus, log on.

www.business-minds.com

FOR ASPIRING MANAGEMENT GURUS

If you are into rankings and popularity polls, this site is for you. Peter Drucker, Stephen Covey, Tom Handy, C K Prahalad, Bill Gates - Who is the greatest management thinker of them all? To find out, log on.

As the name suggests, the site ranks the 50 top management thinkers of our time. The ranking methodology and the panel that pinned the numbers and other poll-related information have been made available online.

The site also offers short biographies of the leaders. These are researched, and often contain trivia that could interest management enthusiasts. For example, it says about Peter Drucker who, incidentally, is number one on the list: "Somewhere in Korea it is reputed that a businessman changed his name to Peter Drucker in the hope that some of Drucker's wisdom would be transferred to him. Worth a try but, more realistically, if you want to emulate the creator of a large chunk of modern management theory, you better begin re-reading Jane Austen and Anthony Trollope."

The writings are humourous and irreverent. The readers get a look into the making of a management guru in one article; a tongue-in-cheek formula to attain guru status and then how to brand yourself to sustain it is another good read.

www.thinkers50.com

TAPPING MANAGEMENT RESOURCES

The site has been set up by a software company. But let that not be a deterrent to those looking for management-related information and research material.

Log on and then go straight to the management resources segment. And you will find a whole lot of information about latest management theories, techniques, leaders and their biographies, etc.

The section on management thought has a comprehensive list of people who have made a difference to the world of management. Their brief biographies have been put online. Despite misses in covering some prominent management leaders, the site is still a valuable research tool.

There is a segment on management methods where one can go through concepts that have influenced or have the potential to change business.

The topics covered are not vast but the few papers that are here are definitely worth a read. An interesting section is that on management tools where the site has a list of practices and methods that management experts have developed over the years. Here the list is quite exhaustive and the descriptions are easy to understand.

Also worth a click is the site's collection of management articles; writings from business magazines and newspapers have been posted online. The site also takes on original writing and asks writers to send their work in. All the resources on management that the site offers can be accessed for free. One does not need to register unless you want to shop for their software.

www.pathmakers.com

THE STUDENT'S AND PRACTITIONER'S FORUM

Management leaders, knowledge management, traits and tools of the trade are all covered here - a forum for practitioners and students of knowledge management.

A network of consultants, students and teachers of management from America, Japan and several European countries have collaborated for this site. The papers presented here and the issues covered are thus multi-cultural and have universal appeal.

The site is divided into a free resources section that is available in the form of survey reports, articles and research papers, and the paid resources section like seminars, discussion forums and such others that the site helps hold or manage.

The focus of the site is on knowledge management. An interesting feature is a global map of quotes on knowledge management. Soundbytes from thinkers and students of the subject from all over the world have been posted online.

The map with a criss-cross of quotes throws up a mass of international opinion on knowledge management, its strengths and weaknesses. Those interested can also contact senior executives and professors of the subject through the site.

www.entovation.com

A PEEP INTO THE MANAGEMENT WORLD

The site is a part of the Foundations of Modern Management series. According to the blurb posted on the site, "It traces the origins of management and shows how different strands of thinking drew together and combined into the discipline we know as management today".

The site is useful to management students, managers and academicians. There is a host of topics to choose from and have been presented in brief. The writings posted online are extracts from these books on the subject. To find out more, one has to order online for the books or step out to the nearest bookstore.

What the site offers is a quick introduction to the world of management, how thinking unfolded in the decades, and how it continues to shape this discipline. You will find articles that advertise books about advertising history, management evolution, historical development of management and biographies of management thinkers.

All this is not readily available online.What you get on the site is more like a short introduction to the subject, but even that is worth browsing through as it guides and directs those who seek information and a history of the ideas that have shaped it into a science.

www.thoemmes.com

(This article appeared in the July 2002 issue of Indian Management magazine)