Contents, Commemorative Edition v

Foreword vi
Warren Bennis

Publisher’s Note xi

Robert Townsend’s Cure for Management Heartburn xiii
Jim O’Toole

How Robert Townsend Talked Me out of Getting an MBA xvii
Bob Davids

Up the Publisher: On Editing Robert Townsend xxii
Robert Gottlieb

Contents, Original Edition xxxi

Up the Organization, Original Edition 1

Appendix A:Townsend’s Third Degree in Leadership 161

Appendix B: No Reserved Parking:The Guerrilla Life of Robert Townsend 170
Robert Townsend Jr.

Although it was first published more than thirty-five years ago, Up the Organization continues to top the lists of best business books by groups as diverse as the American Management Association, strategy+business (Booz Allen Hamilton), and The Wharton Center for Leadership and Change Management. 1-800-CEO-READ ranks Townsend’s bestseller first among eighty books that “every manager must read.”

This commemorative edition offers a new generation the benefit of Robert Townsend’s timeless wisdom as well as reflections on his work and life by those who knew and worked with him. This groundbreaking book continues to remind us not to get mired in all those sacred organizational routines that stifle people and strangle both profits and profitability.

In today’s climate of seemingly endless incidents of corporate corruption, government fraud, and personal scandals, Up the Organization is more relevant than ever. Many of Townsend’s observations are as witty as they are wise. “There’s nothing fundamentally wrong with our country except that the leaders of all our major organizations operate under the wrong assumptions.” “One of the most important tasks of a manager is to eliminate his people’s excuses for failure.” “If you have to have a policy manual, publish the Ten Commandments.”

In addition to the book’s advice that is striking in its candor, spontaneity, and integrity, this new edition includes essays from such leaders as James O’Toole, Bob Davids, and Robert Gottlieb, as well as a never-before-published transcript of Townsend’s Conference Board speech: “Townsend’s Third Degree in Leadership.”

Read Up the Organization and discover why Robert Townsend served as role model for a generation of corporate activists.

"The sagest (and even most outrageous) book ever written about how business should be run."
—Harper’s Magazine

"Bob Townsend's words still ring true, truer than they seemed almost 40 years ago."
—Warren Bennis

"Robert Townsend's book continues to light up the business world with straightforward and practical management advice that is as pertinent today as when originally published. A must-read for all managers!"
—Ray Davis, president and CEO, Umpqua Holdings Corporation

"Townsend proves that the best business wisdom is timeless. In an era filled with business buzzwords and ethical misdirections, Townsend's bluntness makes for refreshing and hilarious reading for the next crop of CEOs."
—Ben Casnocha, chairman, Comcate, Inc., author, My Start-Up Life