Book excerpt: Samson/Daft/ Donnet's Fundamentals of Management is a robust foundation text providing a balance of broad, theoretical content with accessible language for students. This sixth edition features a new author on the team and contains updates to content based on recent research. Along with current management theory and practice, the text integrates coverage of innovation, entrepreneurship, agile workplaces, social media and new technology throughout. The book is rich with experiential exercises, self-assessment activities, challenges and cases for students to engage with, developing multiple skills. Examples within the text are both local and global, with a new focus on a 'skills approach', and each part of the text concludes with a contemporary continuing case study, focussing on car company, Toyota, as it faces managerial challenges and opportunities in the region The text covers the four key management functions: Planning, Organising, Leading, and Controlling, conveying to students the elements of a manager's working day.