Operations Management: The Art & Science of Making Things Happen
What the business schools don't teach you to survive and flourish. Putting management theory into practice faces some major challenges. Some of the raw realities of modern work environments require a high level of intuition and judgement over and above scientific methodology alone. This book sets out the hard learnt experience of a senior Scotland Yard officer and centres on three themes: How to develop and look after yourself as an individual manager; how to make operations happen and work successfully; how to develop a high performance team around you. This book has many important messages for new managers, enabling them to survive and eventually flourish whilst guiding more experienced Directors to secure the holy grail of truly exceptional performance. It has equal relevance to those in the public, private and voluntary sector who have to translate strategy into action
Review
Clear, concise and informative, each chapter comes alive with examples, stories and case studies. You can read it from cover to cover or jump in at any point for pearls of wisdom that will help you take your life and business to the next level of success.–Bev James, Best Selling Author of Do it or Ditch it! CEO of The Coaching Academy
Essential reading if your personal and professional goal is long term effectiveness and high performance as an Operations Manager.–Andrew Priestley, Business Coach & Ecademy advisor
Leadership and management starts with the ‘self’ and Cooke has rightly brought this in to context within the needs of the individual, the team and the task. He is more than an ex-police officer. He is a leader, a manager, a coach and businessman. He uses his experiences from his public and private life providing a well-balanced, informative and insightful book that captures the essence of operations management. This is a must have book for any aspiring or current leader.–Lieutenant Colonel Stewart Hill, Professional Leadership Speaker and former Army Officer (severely injured in Afghanistan)
This is a book full of wit, wisdom and professional clout. It’s written by a former high ranking police officer who has been in the thick of it and knows what he is talking about. This is not another run of the mill management tome but a sharp and intensely, practical book. It is sprinkled with small learned gems that send out the right message to various audiences such as wearing a uniform cap when exiting a police vehicle at an incident. Some will miss the value of such tiny details of wisdom but they are the nuggets that mark James out as a consummate professional. He also throws in vivid funny scenes such as a drunk woman resisting arrest and leaving James having his keys caught up in her stockings. Every manager who reads this book will be a better manager for it. Switch off the television and get stuck into Operations Management. It’s worth it. Highly recommended.–Paul Marsden, Former Shadow Transport Minister and Member of Parliament for Shrewsbury