Useful Numbers For Busy Managers is a database containing accurate summaries, with full references, of management models and theories based on numbers.

You can search by

...Number e.g. 5, 7, 12, 14, 21……. (eg choose 7 if you are looking for the 7 Ss of organisational change)

...Author e.g. Drucker or Kanter or Deming or any name from the extensive dropdown list

...Theme e.g. Leadership or Team working  from the dropdown list

or simply Browse.

There is also useful list of acronyms

The fascination of numbers provides a brief introduction.
 
The database was compiled by Michael Pearn (c) 2006 and is constantly being updated. The initial database was assebled with assistance from friends and colleagues including Patricia Hinds, Peter Honey, Andrew Mayo, David Megginson, Ian Cunningham, Bob Garratt, David Clutterbuck, Paul Mooney, Sean Boyle, Fran Ryan, John van Maurik, and Carole-Harding Roots and many others.

Several books were especially useful in providing broad-ranging surveys of management thinking over the years. The book by Uris (1986) on the greatest ideas in management, and by Kennedy (1996, 2007) on management gurus deserve special mention, as do the two books by Stuart Crainer on key management ideas, and the fifty books that made management (1996, 1996a).

This database is not intended to be a comprehensive survey of management theory. Perhaps the single most useful and up-to-date survey is The Financial Times Handbook of Management (Crainer & Dear love 2004) and the Gower Handbook of Management (Lock 1998). Another useful survey is Key Management Models by Have, Have, Stevens (2003) as well as Stuart Crainer’s other publications, including Key Management Ideas (Crainer1998), all of which are fully referenced in this database

Bill Hartston’s intriguing Book of Numbers (1997) has been drawn on heavily, and acknowledged throughout.  My only regret was that I did not discover it sooner. Other stimulating books on the role of numbers are Conway & Guy (1996) on numbers and number theory, and The Penguin Dictionary of Curious and Interesting Numbers (Wells, 1997).

Finally, a special thanks to Fiona Morris who during an early and critical stage of this project held it all together and heroically persisted where lesser people would have given up.