Pat Okedinachi Utomi (2025; first printed 2015), The Artwork of Main: Open Secrets and techniques of Management Effectiveness. Second Version. Lagos: Makeway/Centre for Values in Management (CVL). ISBN 978-1-907925-84-9. 190 pages.
Famend Nigerian scholar and political economist, Professor Pat Utomi, turns seventy this week. To mark the milestone, colleagues and associates are organising a five-city celebration centred on mental engagement, civic discourse, and concepts which have formed public life in Nigeria and past.
A major factor of the celebration is a renewed highlight on Utomi’s printed works.
A lifelong bibliophile and completed scholar of concepts, he has revisited a number of of his main texts, producing revised and improved editions.
Amongst these is the second version of The Artwork of Main: Open Secrets and techniques of Management Effectiveness, a ebook that distils certainly one of his enduring scholarly preoccupations—management grounded in values, ethics, and function.
is Professor of Political Financial system and Administration, founding father of the Centre for Values in Management (CVL), and a extensively printed authority on management, governance, and public coverage. The Artwork of Main displays this wealthy mental pedigree. Its thematic focus is the how and why of efficient management, providing trendy views that bridge principle, apply, and ethical accountability.
At its core, the ebook hyperlinks management principle to real-world challenges. It advances a values-based conception of management, insisting that moral grounding and social function are usually not elective add-ons however important elements of effectiveness. Utomi argues that whereas management stays indispensable in a posh trendy world, it’s neither mystical nor reserved for a choose few: management capability may be developed.
He frames this inquiry with a provocative query: “What occurred to management within the twentieth century?” For Utomi, management isn’t mere authority or charisma. Relatively, it’s:
“The train of goal-directed affect in as cost-effective a fashion as doable by the deployment of property of confidence within the one who leads, such that the cooperation which leads to attaining that which we thought inconceivable crystallises.”
Drawing on a long time of scholarship, public engagement, and lived expertise, Utomi enriches the ebook with anecdotes, reflections, and insights that transcend formal case research.
The result’s a beneficiant mental bouquet—considerate, accessible, and grounded.
Part Two, which examines Fashions and Types of Management, is especially illuminating.
Utomi identifies 5 management fashions, together with the Servant Chief, Shepherd Chief, Steward Chief, and Solicitor Chief. Relatively than presenting a mechanical typology, he animates every mannequin with historic references, organisational expertise, and ethical reasoning, making the dialogue each analytical and sensible.
Total, the ebook is organised into 9 substantive sections:
The Management Problem; Fashions and Types of Management; Main with Goal; Attributes of Management; Champions of Technique; Management and Nation Constructing; Management Position Fashions; Social Intelligence and Management; and Discovering the Grit for Knotty Challenges.
Nation-building—a recurring concern in Utomi’s mental work—receives sustained consideration in Part Six, Management and Nation Constructing.
That is adopted by Management Position Fashions, the place he examines figures reminiscent of Dr Christopher Kolade (enterprise management), Reverend Sam Adeyemi (religion management), Aung San Suu Kyi (political management), and Nelson Mandela (political management). The choice underscores his perception that management excellence cuts throughout sectors whereas remaining anchored in character.
The part on Social Intelligence and Management is very instructive. Subsections tackle themes reminiscent of Character Issues, Emotional Intelligence, Constructing Social Intelligence Muscular tissues, Groupthink, and The Toxicity of Insult. These discussions are well timed in an age of polarisation, shallow discourse, and performative management.
Some of the compelling additions to the second version is the ultimate chapter, Discovering the Grit for Knotty Challenges. It’s a considerate and motivating meditation on resilience, braveness, and perseverance—qualities indispensable to management in troublesome contexts. This part alone justifies revisiting the ebook.
An intriguing second within the ebook is Utomi’s reflection on how his sustained curiosity in values and character was formed by private expertise. He recounts encountering a former schoolmate after delivering a lecture as a governor’s visitor in a South-West state.
Recognising him by his college nickname Iwe—the Yoruba phrase for ebook, a nod to his distinctive intelligence—Utomi was struck by the distinction between mental brilliance and restricted social development. The person, regardless of his presents, remained a director within the civil service, standing meekly behind a safety cordon.
“The second was not misplaced on me,” Utomi displays. “He needs to be entitled to extra social status for the way sensible he was and the way laborious he labored… Watching my classmate pull again so meekly lest he be seen to interrupt protocol challenged me to topic the expertise to additional evaluation.”
This anecdote crystallises one of many ebook’s deeper issues: how societies reward—or fail to reward—character, competence, and quiet excellence.
The Artwork of Main combines foundational principle, sensible frameworks, and timeless insights. It stands comfortably alongside traditional management texts reminiscent of Good to Nice by Jim Collins, The 21 Irrefutable Legal guidelines of Management by John C. Maxwell, The Management Problem by James Kouzes and Barry Posner, The One Minute Supervisor by Ken Blanchard and Spencer Johnson, and True North by Invoice George and Peter Sims.
Additionally price mentioning are enduring works reminiscent of Dale Carnegie’s Find out how to Win Associates and Affect Folks, Stephen Covey’s The 7 Habits of Extremely Efficient Folks, Brené Brown’s Dare to Lead, Simon Sinek’s Leaders Eat Final, and Patrick Lencioni’s The 5 Dysfunctions of a Group. Utomi references a number of of those texts, situating his work inside a revered international management canon.
Deceptively slim but intellectually weighty, The Artwork of Main packs a strong punch. It’s a considerate, morally grounded, and virtually helpful contribution to management literature—notably related for societies grappling with deficits of belief, function, and moral course.
