ABOUT JERRY MANAS
Leadership, strategy, and workforce optimization through story
Jerry Manas is an internationally bestselling author, award-winning novelist, strategic advisor, and executive ghostwriter. He helps enterprise leaders make clearer decisions about capacity, priorities, culture, and execution—and helps CEOs, founders, and experts turn hard-won experience into influential business books.
At the intersection of leadership, culture, and execution, Jerry’s work is built on one core strength: turning complex realities into clear, practical frameworks people can understand, use, and rally around.
Known for simplifying complex topics without oversimplifying them, his work spans resource management, workforce strategy, organizational change, decision-making, project and portfolio delivery, storytelling, and the effective use of people in organizations. Whether advising executive teams or shaping a thought leader’s book, he brings a rare blend of strategic rigor and narrative clarity.
BOOKS AND IDEAS
Jerry is the author of bestselling business and leadership books including Napoleon on Project Management, Managing the Gray Areas, and The Resource Management and Capacity Planning Handbook. His work has been cited by Tom Peters, who frequently references Napoleon on Project Management (HarperCollins Leadership) for its insights on simplicity and character, while Pat Williams, Senior VP of the Orlando Magic, called Managing the Gray Areas “a new path for leaders.”
His book The Resource Management and Capacity Planning Handbook (McGraw-Hill) is widely recognized as a leading guide to resource management and workforce planning. Judith E. Glaser, author of Conversational Intelligence, praised it as “the first book dedicated to what is essentially the drivetrain of organizations—the effective use of its people toward its most important activities.”
In addition to his business writing, Jerry is an award-winning novelist writing as J.B. Manas. His fiction reflects a lifelong study of character, narrative tension, and the forces that shape human behavior. That storytelling sensibility informs his work with leaders and executive authors: enduring ideas need not only sound logic, but also structure, voice, stakes, and human resonance.
ADVISORY AND STANDARDS
Jerry advises COOs, PMO and RMO leaders, and senior teams seeking greater clarity in resource management, capacity and workforce planning, portfolio prioritization, organizational change, and strategy execution.
Drawing on proprietary frameworks such as the Capacity Quadrant™ and Service-Oriented Project Management (SOPM)™, he helps leadership teams move from reactive fire drills to visible trade-offs, more reliable delivery, and a stronger connection between strategic intent and the workforce required to execute it.
Jerry has also helped shape global practice in the field. He co-led the inaugural development of the Project Management Institute’s international standards for Portfolio Management and Program Management, serving as Editor-in-Chief for the core leadership team. He later served as a U.S. Registered Expert with ANSI/ISO, representing the United States in developing standards addressing Workforce Allocation, Employee Engagement, and Knowledge Management.
A founding member of the CreatingWE® Institute, Jerry has long incorporated WE-centric thinking, collaboration, storytelling, and conversational intelligence into his work on leadership, culture, and execution.
WORKING WITH JERRY
Two ways to turn complexity into clarity.
Workforce Strategy
Jerry provides high-touch strategic advisory for COOs, PMO and RMO leaders, and enterprise teams navigating workforce complexity, capacity constraints, portfolio trade-offs, and organizational change. The goal is clearer decisions, stronger alignment, and more reliable delivery.
Executive Book Services
Jerry partners with CEOs, founders, consultants, and enterprise leaders to turn distinctive expertise into compelling business books. Through executive book coaching, intellectual architecture, and selective ghostwriting, he helps clients develop books that build authority and are genuinely engaging to read.
Storytelling, clarity, and culture shape Jerry’s work—helping leaders align people around strategy and helping executive authors turn hard-won expertise into books that resonate.
To discuss a potential engagement, request a confidential exploratory conversation.