The myth of management

For more than a century, management has been taught as if companies were machines. Set the strategy, align the incentives, build the culture, and measure the results.

We all know the vocabulary. But how much of it actually works?

After two decades working across general management, operations, finance, M&A and investment, Achraf Tiouali came to question the assumptions behind the entire practice. His book, The Myth of Management, draws on complexity science, physics, history and philosophy to challenge the basic ideas modern management takes for granted.

What if companies cannot be managed in the way we have been taught? What if strategy, culture, measurement and leadership are all built on a model of organisations that does not reflect reality?

Achraf Tiouali will put these ideas to the test in a conversation with Denis Pennel, one of Europe’s leading voices on the changing world of work.

Expect a conversation that challenges some very familiar ideas about how organisations currently operate.