8Manage: A Breakthrough for Modern Management

For over twenty years, I have managed in industrial settings; studied, researched and taught management; and avidly followed the development and publication of new management theories and practices. Only a few publications by and for international management experts have struck me as being new or improved. The book 8thManage is one of the few ground-breaking and inspirational books that are certain to improve competitiveness and foster creative thinking to management.

Efforts have been made, in recent years, to improve project management, but we had not yet seen a breakthrough. The focus remained on lower level management (hard technology), with an emphasis limited to knowledge, process and structure. High level management (soft technology, such as human-based management of an intellectual project team) lagged far behind. After twenty years working and studying the longtime dominant traditional management theories, 8thManage opened the door to a new method for project management development.

Stephen Law, the author of 8thManage, is well-aware of the missing pieces in management: even in America and other developed countries, appropriate approaches to the management of knowledge/intelligent workers are lacking. Stephen has developed 8thManage as a solution to the above mentioned issues. His ideas and practices are gaining recognition and are being adopted within the Chinese community as well. More importantly, he hopes that these management skills will improve the competitiveness of the software/information industry and all intellectual industries on the (Chinese) mainland and in Taiwan and Hong Kong, eventually becoming the gold standard for the world.

8thManage was first published for readers in mainland China, written in a combination of Chinese and English (Stephen is fluent in Cantonese and English). Stephens writer and professor friends in Beijing helped edit and proof-read the simplified-Chinese version, to make sure it was thoroughly “Chinese." Later, Hong Kong Press published its traditional Chinese version.
This May, I asked for Stephens permission to personally edit the book and publish it in Taiwan. I felt strongly that more readers should have access to Stephens 30+ years of practical experience and to 8thManage, his brainchild. I wanted more readers to learn of this revolutionary way of thinking and the practices to be applied to all intellectual industries. I thought my editing job could be easily done with only slight revisions, but there are subtle yet important differences in the choice of words, grammar or common expressions between Hong Kong-style Chinese and our traditional Chinese. Therefore, it took longer that anticipated to finish the editing.

Since last year, Stephen has been to Taiwan eight times to present his ideas, giving lectures and visiting clients in Taipei, Hsinchu, Taichung, Tainan, and Kaohsiung. We have developed a deep understanding of each other as a result of these interactions. I have found that Stephen is not only a top scientist and software engineer as well as a successful management expert with extensive experience in the business community but he is also an incredible thinker.
Finally, with the inspiration of the first publication and a deeper understanding gained through our meetings, I was able to finish the book before its deadline. Stephen will attend a promotion for the new book on the 3rd of December in Taipei. Thanks to his support and the effective "publishing plan and project management” by Jim and Gloria from my working team in Taipei, the book 8thManage was published in early December 2008 in Taipei as scheduled.

Barry Hsuing, Ph.D, PMP
Chairman of International Project Management Institute (PMI) Taiwan Chapter
11 November 2008, Taipei

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