Rational Leadership: Developing and Redeveloping Corporations

Rational leadership inspires confidence by capably using appropriate rational means, as described in the first edition of Rational Leadership. Now a second, updated edition has added eight new chapters and has looked at redevelopment as well as development. The book highlights these two important versions of rational leadership, where a rational leader is either developing or redeveloping a business corporation. Part One presents eight cases of rational leaders who have developed iconic corporations. These best-practice leaders include Sam Walton of Walmart, Meg Whitman of eBay, and Jeff Bezos of Amazon. In all eight cases, the leaders used appropriate adaptive, calculative, and deliberative methods to develop their corporations. In Part Two the authors shift the focus from development to redevelopment. Part Two presents five classic cases of rational leaders redeveloping - remedially renewing - problematic corporations. The leaders include Lou Gerstner of IBM and Steve Jobs of Apple. In all five cases the leaders used appropriate organizational tools, which transformed, reoriented, or hybridized the corporation. Both Part Two and Part One also present supplementary cases of other rational leaders developing or redeveloping a corporation. These leaders include Sheryl Sandberg, Marcel Dassault, Giorgio Armani, Anita Roddick, Satya Nadella, Carly Fiorina, Marissa Mayer, and Jack Welch. In total the authors present more than twenty supplementary or main cases of rational leadership. Most of these case studies are based on a leader’s memoir and leader’s-eye view, validated by additional biographical and historical sources.

Paul Brooker, Margaret Hayward

Paul Brooker was born in Rarotonga, the Cook Islands in 1956 and was educated at Victoria University of Wellington and then Oxford University, where he gained an MPhil and DPhil. He then taught political science at Victoria University of Wellington and the University of Canterbury, New Zealand. He became semi-retired in 2008 but continued publishing until fully retired in 2012. Since then he has still published an occasional book or chapter, such as the first edition of Rational Leadership.

Margaret Hayward was born in Christchurch, New Zealand. She was a journalist before becoming Private Secretary to NZ Prime Minister Norman Kirk and then wrote his biography. Following his death, she held managerial positions in the media, health, accountancy and farm machinery sectors. After an MBA, she lectured in business and later gained a PhD in Leadership. She has contributed to various books and academic journals, become an international rose judge and written several books on the genus rosa.