Well, good management books do serve a purpose: they provide you templates/mental models to reason critically from. Like anything else, you have to sift through the chaff and translate/apply to your own circumstances, but they can provide incredible leverage.
Most new managers have no idea what has been done before so they make all kinds of expensive and unnecessary mistakes. Having mentors in senior management can help moderate this, but that is assuming the mentors are themselves knowledgeable, which often isn't the case, especially at large corporations with many layers of management.
This is where understanding the management literature really helps. Reading any great book (e.g. Shakespeare) is like spending a few hours picking the brains of an incredible mind that you would otherwise have no direct access to.
Some years ago, I was at a company in a provincial part of the country where good management practices weren't widely known. There was a lack of intellectual curiosity about management within the company, so I had to look elsewhere. Books helped me gain leverage over managers who have managed for years but never thought to look outside their enclaves. I had the opportunity to try things out and refine in a small-scale setting. I've moved on since, but the knowledge I acquired during those wilderness years continues to be useful and practical in much larger scale setting.
I don't disagree that they are useful, just that they must be carefully considered and applied in situations where appropriate — not treated as a law that applies to everybody, all the time.
The same thing is true for diets, exercise, self help, etc. Turns out humans are pretty complicated and there is almost never a single solution that works for everyone, all the time.
Most new managers have no idea what has been done before so they make all kinds of expensive and unnecessary mistakes. Having mentors in senior management can help moderate this, but that is assuming the mentors are themselves knowledgeable, which often isn't the case, especially at large corporations with many layers of management.
This is where understanding the management literature really helps. Reading any great book (e.g. Shakespeare) is like spending a few hours picking the brains of an incredible mind that you would otherwise have no direct access to.
Some years ago, I was at a company in a provincial part of the country where good management practices weren't widely known. There was a lack of intellectual curiosity about management within the company, so I had to look elsewhere. Books helped me gain leverage over managers who have managed for years but never thought to look outside their enclaves. I had the opportunity to try things out and refine in a small-scale setting. I've moved on since, but the knowledge I acquired during those wilderness years continues to be useful and practical in much larger scale setting.