cover image Management Lessons from the E.R.: Prescriptions for Success in Your Business

Management Lessons from the E.R.: Prescriptions for Success in Your Business

Paul S. Auerbach, . . Free Press, $24 (272pp) ISBN 978-0-7432-1635-7

The premise is sound: life in the emergency room can be similar to life in the business world. Critical decisions often must be made quickly, and the penalty for reaching the wrong conclusion can be devastating. Auerbach, a professor of surgery in the emergency medicine division at Stanford University who also has extensive business experience as both chief operating officer of a medical management company and as a venture capitalist, would seem the perfect candidate for this book. But he fails to provide a useful framework for applying what he has learned in the emergency room to business situations. The author of Medicine for the Outdoors presents this material in a chapter-free, stream-of-consciousness fashion, resulting in a sequence of unlinked advice (e.g., the portion entitled "Sometimes Having to Keep Secrets Is Necessary" follows the one called "Golden Handcuffs Are Not Enough"). While there are occasional reflective insights ("when a problem arises, look for ordinary causes, not obscure configurations" and "stop talking and start listening to the patient"), many of Auerbach's prescriptions, such as "use metrics that make sense" are far too general to help most business people, leaving managers trying to heal themselves. (Mar.)