Applied Wisdom James C. Morgan
Cover of Applied Wisdom by James C. Morgan with Joan O’C. Hamilton: a black and white portrait of Jim Morgan above the subtitle Bad News Is Good News.

Bad news is good news, if you do something about it.

Jim Morgan ran Applied Materials for nearly thirty years. He joined a company near bankruptcy and retired from a global leader with 15,000 people in 18 countries. Applied Wisdom is his memoir and his working manual, written for anyone who manages people.

The management techniques in it are not reserved for high tech. Jim shows how the same approaches, tools, and values work at any scale, from start-ups to middle management in a global corporation, and in the nonprofit sector where he spent his later career.

Read the ebook freeAbout the book

All profits from the book go to philanthropic causes.

Ten Morganisms

Jim’s team at Applied Materials started calling his short management truisms “Morganisms.” The book has many. These are the ten he comes back to most, each with an excerpt from the audiobook.

  1. 1Respect and trust your people.
  2. 2Value collaboration.
  3. 3Always listen for and even seek out signs of trouble. Bad news is good news if you do something about it.
  4. 4Develop court sense and align with driving forces around you to create momentum.
  5. 5Stress the importance of making decisions and managing the consequences.
  6. 6Build teams deliberately; look for both competence and complementary skills and character.
  7. 7Understand and commit to doing the “whole job.”
  8. 8Reinforce individual ownership of problems by always asking, “Who owns the monkey?”
  9. 9Proactively prepare for the next major shift and always “face the elevator door.”
  10. 10Since modern life is filled with paradoxes, help your teams understand and work within those tensions.
Read all ten with audio

What leaders say

  • I have been a beneficiary of Jim’s wisdom and this book makes his wisdom come alive for new and experienced leaders alike.

    Henry M. Paulson
    Chairman, The Paulson Institute; former Chief Executive, Goldman Sachs; former U.S. Treasury Secretary

  • Managers of any size business or non-profit group will find solid advice for building agile and effective organizations.

    Meg Whitman
    CEO, Hewlett Packard Enterprise; former CEO, eBay

  • A must-read for anyone who wants to have a more productive, focused and motivated team.

    Mark R. Tercek
    President and CEO, The Nature Conservancy

Read the full endorsements

Buy the book

The paperback, ebook, and audiobook are available from these booksellers. You can also special order the paperback from any bookstore.