Ben Franklin's 12 Rules of Management: The Founding Father of American Business Solves Your Toughest Problems

Most books built around the theme of a famous person's leadership or management principles are pretty thin on substance. This book is an exception, and is probably the most effective version of that genre that I have seen. Naturally, it helps to begin by having Ben Franklin's witty observations and common sense to build on. But the author does a fine job of supplementing those foundations with modern examples, analyses of the meaning of Franklin's life and experiences, and ways to apply the principles in your own life.

If you haven't read the Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin, you have a real treat ahead of you. In fact, I would recommend that you read that before reading this book. You need a bit more context on Franklin to fully appreciate the lessons outlined in this book. Everything in this book is drawn from that as a source.

The main drawback of this book is that the quotes by Franklin (which the author apologizes for and warns about in the introduction) are hard to read. Franklin loved to capitalize a lot in a seemingly random fashion compared to how we do it today; he adored ampersands; and he used archaic nouns and verbs not familiar to us today. On the other hand, I think you will find them rewarding in most cases if you take the time to absorb them. I suggest reading them aloud.

A strength of using Ben Franklin as a source is that he was, in fact, a very successful businessman who retired at the age of 42. He was talented in many other ways, as well.

I see the 12 rules as being great stallbusting material. He encourages people not to use humble beginnings as a reason for not striving for the top. Franklin emphasized self-management as a precursor to managing others. (Your own bad habits will get you into more trouble than anything your subordinates and colleagues will do.) There is good advice on overcoming communications stalls (people want to appear to be reasonable). The advice on the importance of experiments will help overcome the dangers of creeping complacency and bureaucracy. The concept is kaizen may have had its first expression in Franklin's encouragement to master lots of little things.

A beauty of this perspective is that when we find that something was important to Franklin, and is still important to us today, we have probably discovered a fundamental element of humanity that needs lots of attention.

I strongly recommend this book for management fans, Ben Franklin fans, and those who would just like to help get rid of some bad habits. Although it is certainly not one of the top 100 management books ever written, it is certainly a solid and well-done one.

Free yourself from excuses about why you and your organization cannot make progress!

Ben Franklin's 12 Rules of Management: The Founding Father of American Business Solves Your Toughest Problems

Blaine McCormick

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Well-Done Development of Franklin's Ideas for Management (1/1 people found this helpful)

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