TITLE : FABULOUS MANAGER: 20 KEY LESSONS TOWARDS MANAGEMENT EXCELLENCE, THE.

If there is one good thing,about writing a book for busy practising managers, it is that you have to clarify your thoughts and make sense of a bewildering array of information from the management literature. Of course, the temptation for some authors is to go the other way and present ideas and concepts too simplistically. That way, the ideas lose their substance.

What we have tried to do is to give you some sound, proven principles to work on, and we have selected those concepts which we believe are the most important in transforming your managerial performance - to make you a 'fabulous' manager. We have also tried to eliminate much of the coma-inducing jargon you have to wade through in textbooks.

We hope we have succeeded and that you find our fayre acceptable. We have not succeeded, however, in finding an alternative to the male pronoun, and we apologise to those who gnash their teeth at the sight of 'he', 'him' and 'his' in every other sentence. Our attempts to change this were hopelessly clumsy.

Some readers may recognise some of our chapters if they have read our work in other sources. Indeed, the reaction to our Business Times articles and those in several management magazines was encouragingly favourable, and we felt impelled to put together a collection which would cover what we consider to be the key issues in management.

One confession we have to make is that the humorous interpolations are not our own. We would certainly like to lay claim to many of the anecdotes, but we have been largely influenced by the stories friends have told us and the material we have read in various books, rather than by our own imaginations.

Unlike our policy in other books, we have decided not to break up this text by inserting references. Indeed, we don't even recall where some of the references came from. We can only tell you about several texts that have given us material and raised more than the odd chuckle. And if you want to enjoy the funny side of life, we can do no better than recommend these splendid books for your bedtime reading.

First, The Solid Singapore Joke Book. Ben Mathews is a master when it comes to humour. His book, a little saucy in places, is an absolute delight. Braude's Treasury of Wit and Humor for All Occasions too covers all the subjects under the sun, and has something to say for every occasion. If you are a regular public speaker, these books will serve you well.

The best favour our Singaporean friend did for us was to introduce us to the work of Anthony de Mello. He relates jokes, yes, but his stories are full of profound meaning, and if you want to enjoy a sometimes irreverent, but always humorous look at life, the late de Mello's Prayer of the Frog, Volumes 1 and 2 are well worth the investment. We are indeed indebted to the creators of all the above texts for the inspiration and material for our humble volume. We are also grateful to Jerene Tan and Ang Lee Ming at Prentice Hall in Singapore for their unceasing support, and to Doug McGufficke in Australia for his help in keeping us up to date with developments in Belbin's team roles work. We would also mention former colleagues who have given us encouragement to continue writing and who have used our books in their lecturing. In particular, Dr Narendra Dixit and Dr Zhang Yenming deserve a special mention. Last, but not least, we thank Andrea and Kim for being the guinea pigs for our sometimes bizarre sense of humour. To all, we give our thanks.