Raytheon CEO William H. Swanson had a collection of 33 business rules he felt were key to his management style. He even had a presentation about them, calling them “Swanson’s Unwritten Rules of Management”. Eventually, he wrote them down and Raytheon bound them into a little book that Swanson gave out to other leaders in the company, who gave them to others, who gave them to others. The “Rules” were highlighted in the July issue of Business 2.0 and now Raytheon has sent out something over 10,000 copies.

Overall, it’s a great little book. There are one or two of the rules I’m not sure about – they may not be as universal as Swanson implies – but I’d say it’s definitely a useful list, particularly for anyone new to corporate management.

Check out both the Business 2.0 article and request a copy of the book for yourself through Raytheon’s site.

Update 5/25/2014: Looks like the book isn’t available from Raytheon any more, but I bet you could find it on something like www.abebooks.com.