Product Description

Peter Drucker's wide-ranging book, drawn from his best work, looks at management, the individual and society. He connects these themes of today's world with his usual clear-sighted and far-reaching style to create a work which encapsulates his essential and strongest writings in one volume.

Under the three headings, Drucker covers aspects such as what the non-profits are teaching business and the information that executives need today. In his section on the individual he gives advice on knowing your own strengths and values, your time and, intriguingly, the second half of your life. The third part on society encompasses the coming of the entrepreneurial society and citizenship through the social sector.

* A timeless classic from Peter F. Drucker, one of the world's leading management thinkers.
* wide-ranging book,looks at management, the individual and society
* A bestseller in the Drucker Classic Collection

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #29955 in Books
• Published on: 2007-05-24
• Original language: English
• Binding: Paperback
• 288 pages

People Management
"...required reading for management students and practitioners
alike ... a highly readable single volume survey of concepts that would
otherwise involve reading nearly 30 separate books ...this is an extremely
useful and thought-provoking compendium. Read 'The Essential Drucker' and
become an instant expert on this most durable of management writers."

Review
"...required reading for management students and practitioners alike ... a highly readable single volume survey of concepts that would otherwise involve reading nearly 30 separate books ...this is an extremely useful and thought-provoking compendium. Read 'The Essential Drucker' and become an instant expert on this most durable of management writers."
People Management

"This is effectively a whole business library and refresher MBA course in one readable volume that wears its enormous wisdom lightly enough to make good holiday reading. It is stuffed with practical & inspirational advice, as useful to owner-managers of small businesses as to blue-chip board directors or administrators of non-profitmaking organisations"
Carol Kennedy, Director

About the Author
Born in Vienna in 1909, Peter F. Drucker was educated in Austria and England. From 1929 he was a newspaper correspondent abroad and an economist for an international bank in London. Since 1937 he has been in the United States, first as an economist for a group of British banks and insurance companies, and later as a management consultant to several of the country's largest companies, as well as leading companies abroad. Drucker has since had a distinguished career as a teacher, first as Professor of Politics and Philosophy at Bennington College, then for more than twenty years as Professor of Management at the Graduate Business School of New York University. Since 1971 he has been Clarke Professor of Social Science at Claremont Graduate School in California. In addition to his management books, Peter Drucker is also renowned for his prophetic books analysing politics, economics and society. These books span fifty years of modern history beginning with The End of Economic Man (1939) and including The Practice of Management; Innovation and Entrepreneurship; Managing in the Next Society; Management Challenges in the 21st Century; The Effective Executive and The Essential Drucker.

Customer Reviews

The Grandfather of Management Science Speaks for Today.
For a long time I had been intending to read something of Drucker. He is, after all, the grandfather of management science. But I kept putting it off, for I am a busy executive and need answers to my current management problems. The old man, I thought, would have less to tell me then, say, Roberts in "The Modern Firm" (which is an excellent book) or some of my internal reports.

"The Essential Drucker" it seemed, would be the right way to do my duty to history. Here I could quickly peruse a medley of the Drucker's outdated thoughts, and move on.

Oh how wrong I was.

Drucker's writing is as fresh and relevant today as when first written. His prescient insights foreshadow many recent works. Indeed, I found all of Tom Collins in the first few chapters; condensed and not said in quite the same way, of course, but the essential insights were the same. Drucker has reminded me that fundamental truths are timeless.

And there is something else I especially like; the tone. Drucker writes like a commander. He has confidence - not a blaring promotional edge - but a sense of solidity and authority that comes from saying things meaningful, clear, practical, logical; things from someone with his feet firmly on the ground.

Don't miss this book if you are not sure of where to start with Drucker. It may whet your appetite for more Drucker.

Summary of Peter Drucker's For-Profit Management Advice
Before going further, let me note that this book is mislabeled. The excerpts in this book are from only ten of Professor Drucker's more than 30 management books. Although there is some reference to nonprofit management (where he spent half of his time), this volume does not encapsulate all of his ideas in that sphere. Many of his early ideas about society are also missing.

As great as his ideas about management are, his observations about how to think are even more valuable. The book contains no material from his autobiography, Adventures of a Bystander. You cannot hope to fully appreciate this material until you read that book.

What the book does contain is a fairly easy to follow series of 26 excerpts from the ten books, organized into three sections: Management, Individual, and Society. These books date back to 1954, so you get an overview of part of his work over the last 47 years. This overview will mainly be valuable to managers who have read very little Drucker, since there is essentially no new material in the book. The excerpts are also not connected by any transitions, so there is no additional perspective available from the book's organization.

Here are the sources of the chapters:

The New Realities, Chapters 1 and 26;

Management: Tasks, Responsibilities, Practices, Chapters 2, 3, 5, and 18;

Managing for the Future, Chapters 4 and 19;

Management Challenges for the 21st Century, Chapters 6, 15, 21;

Managing in a Time of Great Change, Chapters 7 and 23;

Practice of Management, Chapter 8;

Frontiers of Management, Chapter 9;

Innovation and Entrepreneurship, Chapters 10-12, 20, and 24;

The Effective Executive, Chapters 13, 14, 16, and 17; and

Post-Capitalist Society, Chapters 22 and 25.

If you are not familiar with Professor Drucker, he is generally considered to be the first person to think systematically about what management is and needs to become. He was also the first to identify that we were moving into a knowledge-based society where the focus of work and the ways that work is organized would have to be totally transformed. His definition of what a business must do is the most often quoted one around: "The purpose of a business is to create a customer." Innovation and marketing are the prime tasks. The book is especially deep in references to his seminal thinking on how to innovate and to operate entrepreneurial businesses. He was also the first twentieth century thinker to see the connection between management of for profit and nonprofit organizations, and that both types of organizations are needed in growing numbers for a sound society. This book is also deeply presents his thinking about the social responsibility of business.

I am still impressed by how substantial his imprint is on all management books that I read. Whether or not Professor Drucker is cited, credited, or admired in these books, almost all of them are simply restatements or elaborations on his fundamental concepts. I hope this edition of his work will help extend his influence further into the future with new generations of executives and managers.

After you finish reading these landmark ideas, I suggest that you think about one element of the book from the individual section. What values do you want to bring to your work? Are you succeeding? If yes, congratulations! How can you accomplish more? If not, what can you change to make those values come to life?

Use your work as a canvas upon which to paint a better world, as Professor Drucker has!

Essential managment, Essential Drucker
The most innovitive managment book I have ever read, compelling Ideas and amaizingley simple yet effective ways to implement the essential skills of managment. Why oh why havent i thought of this! This is a must to read for anyone in a supervisory or managment position. 10/10