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 Should be required reading for an MBA
Every B-School professor should have to teach a course based on this book, and every MBA should have to read it. This debunks many of the gurus and wonderkids that have offered magic wands.
Even real, valid management principles and techniques are hard to employ (hint - that's why they call it "work"), so any kind of quick fix should be guilty until proven innocent. This book shows why.
I once ran a management mentoring program for a major corporation, and I noticed that most people don't really read management books. In some cases, that's a good thing. But some, like Drucker's books, and this one need to be read and understood - otherwise people are just playing at management.
 Why Can't You Grab Fish?
Most of the Amazon reviews are fair on this book. I bought this at a used book store several years ago. Just now got around to reading it and wished I would have read it sooner. This is a meta book about the business of the management business. If you are involved with business management in some way this book is a bit of truth serum and potential dose of medicine.
Just like the fact is that you can't just grab fish (due to light refraction and quick movement of the fish), managing is equally difficult and subject to trial and error. The "bottom-line" is that it is frustrating and time-consuming. Sure, it is not impossible to get lucky but the probability of grabbing the fish is correlated to your own prior personal experience.
Business media, new management gurus and even academic research are akin to learning about the science of the fish and how it can be cooked, where to find fish, why you need them, etc...I read this as a someone with a formal education in business at the graduate and MBA-level. I've been reluctant to read management books for alot of the reasons mentioned in this book. Fads are great for selling books and driving a consulting or seminar business but of limited value when you are "in the hot seat" trying to grab the fish...with your family and many people depending on you.
Witch Doctors is admittedly a bit wordy and could have used some judicious editing. That aside the observations are spot on; the true value of the book is that it helps one see through the hype of the *business* of the modern management business from 40,000 feet. I have never come across anything that turns the microscope around on all of the familiar and sometimes well-meaning perpetraitors (managers themselves, business schools, business press, consultants, speakers) and while the perps may find it harsh at times the book from my standpoint is balanced.
What would have made this really interesting is to hae gone further. Why not involve these same perps in providing feedback when confronted with the realities. There is no accountability for these perps and this book is as close to it as I have seen. The net of the observant business person after reading this book should be, "I have been warned!"
What kind of guru are you anyway?
Hold your nose and grit your teeth as John Micklethwait, Adrian Wooldridge take you on a tour through the buzzword ridden world of the modern management guru. Like televangelists, these modern money-grabbing tellers of the future would be laughable were it not for the fact that they influence the course and direction of many of today's businesses. This book should be read anyone in the role of making managerial decisions - to serve as a reminder that bestselling books, catchy catch phrases, and any idea that starts with the word `New' is not a substitute for good old fashioned facts and reasoning.
The best summary on management theory there is
Great fun, great wit, great journalism. These guys started off as outsiders but they clearly are top-class journalists: they truly captured all the "strengths, weaknesses, opportunities & threats" that all the true, semi or fake gurus have produced since Taylor, Sloan and Drucker. A must have!
 Good overview of the consultancy industry
I quite enjoyed this book, except for one or two gripes that I will come to later, and which kept me from awarding it a (much sought-after) fourth star. It provides a good overview of the management consultancy industry, and the rise of management studies to its current status in the business world. I particularly liked the authors' even-handed approach: they give the industry credit where it is due and do not only dwell on the negatives (and I say this as someone who is quite sceptical about the industry at the best of times). By the same token, they do point out the negatives as well, especially the industry's dependency on new fads to sell to clients in order to sustain revenues. I also found the chapters dealing with management styles in the Eastern economies very interesting.Coming to the gripes, my first one is that the book is slightly too long- I think it could have been a good 50 pages shorter, and a much better read, with more judicious editing. Also, I feel that the authors tried too hard to employ a "chatty" style of writing, and this is sometimes irritating.
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