'Business Exposed' breaks new ground
Freek Vermeulen, Associate Professor at London Business School, has published a groundbreaking new book, which delves into previously untouched areas of business study and challenges common perceptions within the industry.
He investigates CEO pay, the role of boards and the role of the City amongst other crucial themes in Business Exposed.
The book also tackles formulating strategy and the problem of motivating staff, claiming that many established management views are merely "misguided myths".
He also argues that many of the methods incorporated by managers are often actually dangerous to the firms involved.
Claims within the book are backed-up with research from some of the world's leading academics.
Vermeulen refers to management fads and trends as "corporate flu", arguing that they often do not work.
He also questions many firms' quest for innovation and the methods brought in to maintain that pioneering status.
Further examples of areas explored in Vermeulen's pioneering text include challenging businesses' "obsession with numbers and measuring everything."
Focusing on the numbers can be damaging if it encourages concentration on the wrong things, neglecting the more intangible aspects of business which can often be the real source of competitive advantage, he argues.
The book also looks into the age-old area of employee motivation, and whether or not long term incentive plans really work. It asks what impact would 'family friendly' policies have on workers' satisfaction and on the bottom line.
Vermeulen said: "This is something of a wake-up call for those of us in business. Much of our daily thinking in the workplace is highly influenced by well-established theory from some of the giants of management thinking from past generations."