■ The Big Idea
Management affects everyone because it is present in every aspect of the world. It applies to managing oneself ? focusing our abilities towards our goals. It applies to our working relationships with others because it affects our choices about them. Management is about putting together organizations that work to accomplish a mission.

The basic tasks of the manager are to plan and to execute. The manager assesses the organization’s goals and resources. He defines these clearly for others. The manager formulates a plan of action or a kind of road map. Having the plan, the manager then proceeds to implement it. The manager must constantly keep careful track of where the organization is (Are we heading towards our goal?) and how the organization is performing (Are we utilizing best value from our resources?).

■ About the Author
Joan Magretta is a uniquely authoritative
speaker on management who has written the big-picture management book for our times?What Management Is: How It Works and Why I t ’s Everyone’s Business?chosen by BusinessWeek as one of the ten best business books of 2002. Speaking with an authority that comes from exhaustive research and many years as a corporate manager herself, Joan brings her "back-to-basics" message to the podium with enthusiasm, humor, and common sense. Joan Magretta is a Senior Institute Associate at the Institute for Strategy and Competitiveness at the Harvard Business School.

Prior to her current position at Harvard, Joan was the Editor-at-Large and principal strategy editor of Harvard Business Review. A collection of her work at the Review has been published as Managing in the New Economy, which was h a i l e d by BusinessWeek as one of the "six books that are essential reading for modern managers." She also served as a partner at Bain and Company, a leading strategy firm For two decades she has advised senior management in a wide range of settings, from healthcare to high fashion, to heavy manufacturing and higher education. She has also written for The Wall Street Journal and Sloan Management Review.