Product Description

Divided into four parts, the book offers searching analysis of the 'information revolution' and the knowledge society it has created. It goes to scrutinize the unprecendented demographic, economic and sociological transforms of recent times to present an outline of 'The Next Society' - which in turn points to a challenging, provocative and at times disturning view of the future.

Managing in the Next Society is a collection of Peter Drucker's most strikingly prescient articles. Salient and incisive as ever, Drucker ranges widely over the most critical issues facing business and society today to offer advice, admonition and instruction for proactive executives.

* A timeless classic from Peter F. Drucker, one of the world's leading management thinkers.
* Ranges widely over the most critical issues facing business & society today
* A bestseller in the Drucker Classic Collection

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #343280 in Books
• Published on: 2007-05-22
• Original language: English
• Binding: Paperback
• 248 pages

The Economist
'His breadth of vision, his internationalism and his sober realism
combine to make analysis of the present and prediction about the future
gripping'

Review
'His breadth of vision, his internationalism and his sober realism combine to make analysis of the present and prediction about the future gripping'
The Economist

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

Excellent Thoughts on Modern Society
This book is a collection of Drucker¡¦s thoughts on the nature of the 'Next Society and the demands that current trends shall have on the nature of management in the next fifty years. It consists of a series of articles and interviews taken at various times in Drucker's very illustrious career. The book contains priceless nuggets of insight into how society could evolve in the future and how these changes fit into the long term changes that have occurred since the Industrial Revolution.

According to Drucker, the dominant factor in the Next Society will be the rapid growth of the older population and the rapid shrinking of the younger generation. The impact of this aging of the population (in developed countries) is manifold:

- The growing number of older people will not keep on working as traditional employees, but will participate in the workforce in a different ways: as temps, outside consultants etc;
- Organisations will have to develop new ways to retain older workers and manage people at arm's length;
- The youth-determined homogeneous mass market that developed in most advanced countries in the 1950's and 1960's will become middle-age determined or split into a "youth" market and a middle-age one;
- Immigration will become a highly divisive issue as developed countries try to balance the need for skilled immigrants to make up for the short fall of younger workers with the disruptive effects of mass migration. In this regard, the United States-and to a lesser extent, Canada and Australia-seem to be more prepared than the rest of the developed world.

As the Next Society will be a knowledge society, its three main characteristics shall be:
- Borderlessness. Knowledge travels more effortlessly than money
- Upward mobility, available to everyone through ¡§easily¡¨ available education. Therefore, continuing education of already well-educated adults will be a major growth industry in the future;
- Potential for failure or success.

To my mind, it is not clear how easily "accessible" education will be. In a highly knowledge-driven economy, the cost and therefore availability of specialised knowledge is anything but easily affordable. Even with the cost reductions that the Internet affords, specialised knowledge will command a hefty price in the economy. Hence, upward mobility could increasingly be restricted to those who can afford the costs of (sending their children to the) Harvards, MIT's and Columbias in the future.

Drucker makes a few unsupported assertions that I seriously questioned. One of these was the assertion that "medical advances since antibiotics have had no impact on life expectancy...The greatest changes have been in the workforce". How can this be? I assume that Drucker's assertion was limited to the developed world because as a Nigerian, I find it difficult to believe that improvements in urban sanitation and marked reductions in infant mortality-at least in the West-have had little impact on life expectancies.

Drucker also points out that the new knowledge economy will rely heavily on knowledge workers. No surprises there. However, he qualifies this assertion by stating that the most striking growth will be in "knowledge technologists" - computer technicians, laboratory scientists, manufacturing assistants and paralegals. He does not state why this class of knowledge workers will outnumber "high" knowledge workers.

I thoroughly enjoyed reading this book since Drucker takes the long view, and attempts to put modern society into a historical context. The book got me seriously thinking about the factors that will shape my career in the next 30-40 years. It's a wonderful summary of Drucker's thoughts on the future.