September 5, 2008
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Whistling Past the Graveyard:
For Mike Hammer
Block That Metaphor
“Michael Hammer, an engineer and author on management
who helped popularize the ‘re-engineering’ movement in the 1990s, died
Thursday [Sept. 4, 2008].A spokesman for Mr. Hammer’s consulting firm, Hammer
and Co., said Mr. Hammer died from cranial bleeding that began Aug. 22
while he was vacationing in Massachusetts. He was 60 years old.Mr. Hammer was the co-author of the bestselling
management book Reengineering the Corporation and founder and
president of Hammer and Co., Cambridge, Mass.”“An engineer by training, Hammer focused on the operational nuts and bolts of business.
Hammer’s relentless pursuit of ‘why?’ drove his entire career. ‘My
modus operandi is simple,’ he once wrote, ‘though not always easy to
carry out. I take nothing at face value. I approach all business issues
and practices with the same skepticism: Why?’A funeral will be
held at 9:30 a.m. Friday, Sept. 5 in Stanetsky Memorial Chapel, 1668
Beacon St., Brookline. Interment will follow at the Shaarei Tefillah
Section of the Chevra Shaas Cemetery at Baker Street Jewish Cemeteries
in West Roxbury.”Related material:
From today:Outside the Box
“I need a photo opportunity,
I want a shot at redemption.
Don’t want to end up a cartoon
In a cartoon graveyard…”
– Paul Simon
