This provocative book looks closely at the current, lamentable organisational disease of targetitis and its cure. The apparent religion of the Western world is efficiency and this seems to be controlled by the setting of targets which are offset by the extreme difficulties in first understanding them and second, meeting them. The book examines common ways of setting targets (and corporate budgets) and argues that the primary purpose of orthodox management is to secure compliance. Do targets set artificial divides between what needs to be done to match these paper targets and what needs to be done to meet business goals? Does the checking mechanism waste resources? is data fiddled to seemingly, meet these targets? These and many more vital topics are explored as the book concludes that the best targets are generally set by the people who have to meet them - and not dropped from on high, and that where there is no alternative to targets being imposed, the relevant team should be left to decide how they should be met. It is critical reading for all organisations - and, indeed, for Government Ministers.
