Leader - Bringing consultants to book

As consultants are swamped with information, it’s ever more important that quality control measures are put in place to ensure that the sources are of the highest calibre. In an effort to be one of those control measures, Management Consultancy is proud to be one of the co-sponsors and judges for the MCA’s annual book award. Boasting a #5,000 prize, the award is designed to recognise and reward outstanding achievement in business management writing during 1998.

This year’s shortlist was published as this issue went to press and the winner will be announced in late May. The chosen books cover wide ground.

Jayne Buxton’s Ending the Mother War argues for a fundamental restructuring of the workplace if women and children are to enjoy a better future.

David Freemantle’s What Customers Like About You declares that marketing initiatives designed to build customer “relationships” and “loyalty” are not only failing but are counter-productive, costing companies billions in lost revenues. The answer, the author claims, is to add emotional value to everything a company and its people do.

Not suprisingly, the MCA received a record number of books this year on issues surrounding electronic commerce and the Internet. Only three books on this subject made it to the final shortlist; Business in a Virtual World by Fiona Czerniawska and Gavin Potter, E-Shock, The Electronic Shopping Revolution by Michael De Kare-Silver and Web-Weaving-Intranets, Extranets and Strategic Alliances by Peter Lloyd and Paula Boyle. In the next issue of Management Consultancy we will reveal the winner and offer you the chance to win copies of all 10 of the shortlisted books.