Book Review: Management Wisdom from the New York Yankees Dynasty

by Jonathan Leshanski
July 1, 2006

Book Review: Management Wisdom from the New York Yankees Dynasty: What every manager can learn from a legendary team’s 80-year winning stream
By Lance A. Berger.
John Wiley & Sons, Inc.
p. 236

I have to admit that when this book landed on my desk I wasn’t quite sure how to approach it. It’s a book more about business than baseball and I’m not really a huge business guy, it’s also about the Yankees and I’m definitely not a Yankees fan. So I tried to pass the buck, or book as it were to one or another of the MBAs on the At Home Plate staff to get them to evaluate it. Somehow it kept ending up back on my desk, so I tried to pass it off to one of the Yankeeophiles we’ve got here at AHP. No dice, it came back again. My wife the CFO (not at AHP and not a baseball fan all – except for the minor leagues) just laughed when I asked if she’d like to read it.

And so it came down to me. With a lot of trepidation I cracked the book and began to read. Despite my lack of enthusiasm (and my anti Yankee bias) I began to find myself not only enjoying the book but learning a lot of things from it. While I may disagree with some of the authors pro Yankees feelings it did open my eyes to a lot of aspects, not just of the Yankees organization, but those of many other baseball teams, and of AHP and other businesses. Strange as it may seem the book I’d been dreading was actually pretty interesting.

Mr. Berger makes a strong case that the Yankees are the Yankees, not because of good luck and having better resources, but because of their overall corporate planning, His goal however isn’t to give you a glimpse into the Yankees, but to teach the lessons of their success so that it may be applied to any type of business. In this I think he’s successful – he’s certainly got me thinking a lot about the way by business can be improved and how to do it.

Maybe that’s the real mark of how good this book really is that a non business grad that runs a company and a non Yankees fan can enjoy and learn from a book about the Yankees. Of course it’s not just me who liked the book, somehow or another as soon as I was done with the book it made the rounds of MBAs and CFOs in my immediate acquaintance. They liked it too.

For the casual fan who doesn’t care about the business end of baseball or run a business this book probably is a swing and a miss, but for those in the business world running, or working in management at a company, or those interested in the overall design of a major league business plan, this is a pretty good read. I’ll make an educated guess and say this one is a cut above average, and give it 3 out of 4 possible balls for the target audience described above.

Our Rating System is based on a four ball system as follows:
One Ball: Average. It has something to say but is nothing special.
Two Balls: Something men usually have - also means its a cut above average, and worth reading/owning.
Three balls: Stands out from its peers and is highly recommended.
Four Balls: More than just what two men have when hanging out together, it means it is an exceptional book that truly earns a walk - straight to the local book store to get a copy.