The Essential Drucker

by Peter F. Drucker

Father of modern management, social commentator, and preeminent business philosopher, Peter F. Drucker has been analyzing economics and society for more than sixty years. Now for readers everywhere who are concerned with the ways that management practices and principles affect the performance of the organization, the individual, and society, there is The Essential Drucker -- an invaluable compilation of management essentials from the works of a management legend.

Containing twenty-six selections, The Essential Drucker covers the basic principles and concerns of management and its problems, challenges, and opportunities, giving managers, executives, and professionals the tools to perform the tasks that the economy and society of tomorrow will demand of them.

Genres: Business, Management, Leadership, Nonfiction, Buisness, Entrepreneurship, Self Help

358 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2000

About the author

Peter Ferdinand Drucker was a writer, management consultant and university professor. His writing focused on management-related literature. Peter Drucker made famous the term knowledge worker and is thought to have unknowingly ushered in the knowledge economy, which effectively challenges Karl Marx's world-view of the political economy. George Orwell credits Peter Drucker as one of the only writers to predict the German-Soviet Pact of 1939.

The son of a high level civil servant in the Habsburg empire, Drucker was born in the chocolate capital of Austria, in a small village named Kaasgraben (now a suburb of Vienna, part of the 19th district, Döbling). Following the defeat of Austria-Hungary in World War I, there were few opportunities for employment in Vienna so after finishing school he went to Germany, first working in banking and then in journalism. While in Germany, he earned a doctorate in International Law. The rise of Nazism forced him to leave Germany in 1933. After spending four years in London, in 1937 he moved permanently to the United States, where he became a university professor as well as a freelance writer and business guru. In 1943 he became a naturalized citizen of the United States. He taught at New York University as a Professor of Management from 1950 to 1971. From 1971 to his death he was the Clarke Professor of Social Science and Management at Claremont Graduate University.

Reviews

[Tanya · Rating 5 out of 5]

I'm a total business book nerd- but I really enjoyed this one. Some of my favorite quotes:

If communication fits in with the aspirations, the values, the purposes of the recipient, it is powerful. If it goes against his aspirations, his values, his motivations, it is likely to be received at all or at best to be resisted.

Waste as little effort as possible on improving areas of low competence"

"commitment to contribution is commitment to responsible effectiveness"
Most suppliers don't think of pricing as a strategy. Yet pricing enables the customer to pay for what he buys rather than for w ...
" for reports and procedures, when misused, cease to be tools and become malignant masters."

"It should have been obvious from the beginning that management and entrepreneurship are only 2 different dimensions of the same task"

"It is clear that organization is not an absolute. It is a tool for making people productive in working together."
"There is only one valid definition of business purpose: to create a customer"


An organization is an organ of society and fulfills itself by the contribution it makes to the outside environment.

The great majority of people tend to focus downward. They are occupied with efforts rather than with results. They worry over what the organization and their superiors "owe" them and should do for them.And they are conscious above all of the authority they "should have." As a result, they render themselves ineffectual.

To ask, "What can I contribute?" is to look for the unused potential in the job. And what is considered excellent performance in a good many positions is often but a pale shadow of the job's full potential of contribution.

Commitment to contribution is commitment to responsible effectiveness.

The understanding that underlies the right decisions grows out of the clash and conflict of divergent opinions and out of the serious consideration of competing alternatives.

Indeed, charisma does not by itself guarantee effectiveness as a leader. John F. Kennedy may have been the most charismatic person ever to occupy the White House. Yet few presidents got as little done.

But precisely because an effective leader knows that he, and no one else, is ultimately responsible, he is not afraid of the strength in associates and subordinates.

An effective leader knows that the ultimate task of leadership is to create human energies and human vision.

Effective leadership is not based on being clever,; it is based primarily on being consistent.

There is no known way to teach someone how to be a genius.

Incompetence, after all, is the only thing in abundant and never-failing supply.

The essence of management is to make knowledge productive.

Innovation and entrepreneurship are thus needed in society as much as in the economy, in public-service institutions as much as in business.

What we need is an entrepreneurial society in which innovation and entrepreneurship are normal, steady, and continual.

The correct assumption in an entrepreneurial society is that individuals will have to learn new things well after they have become adults - and maybe more than once.

The community that is needed in post-capitalist society- and needed especially by the knowledge worker- has to be based on commitment and compassion rather than being imposed by proximity and isolation.

"Free market" tomorrow means flow of information rather than trade. It also means that the center of gravity, and the center of power, will be the customer.

[Gene Babon · Rating 5 out of 5]

Reading The Essential Drucker is like listening to a boxed set from your favorite recording artist in vinyl format. The music is timeless and so is the business advice of Peter Drucker.

Here are a hand-selected dozen of The Greatest Hits you will experience during this journey through six decades of mastering the art and science of management:

There is only one valid definition of business purpose: to create a customer.

Because its purpose it to create a customer, the business enterprise has two -- and only these two -- basic functions: marketing and innovation.

Results exist only on the outside. The result of a business is a satisfied customer.

Customers pay only for what is of use to them and gives them value. Nothing else constitutes "quality."

The aim of marketing is to know and understand the customer so well that the product or service fits him and sells itself.

Being at least as good as the [industry] leader is a prerequisite for being competitive.

The [business] leader's first task is to be the trumpet that sounds a clear sound.

There is no correlation (unless it be a negative one) between performance as a bench engineer and performance as a manager.

Not to innovate is the single largest reason for the decline of existing organizations. Not to know how to manage is the single largest reason for the failure of new ventures.

An innovation, to be effective, has to be simple and it has to be focused. It should do only one thing; otherwise, it confuses. If it is not simple, it will not work.

Not enough people have at least one first-rate skill or knowledge area.

Waste as little effort as possible on improving areas of low competence.

Ask your leadership team how familiar they are with the business teachings of Peter Drucker. Receiving a response like "Who is Peter Drucker?" is like hearing "Who were The Beatles?"

Access Gene Babon's reviews of books on Business Leadership and Business Strategy at Pinterest.

[Craig · Rating 5 out of 5]

The plain-spoken stark insights in this book made me feel like I was reading philosophy although the subject matter is management. He really has pioneered a theoretical discipline of "management" and I found his thinking to be both pragmatically informative AND intellectually stimulating. Anyone interested in Organizational Behaviour or Management, or perhaps even economic organizational thought, should get a good dose of Peter Drucker--and I felt like I got that in this excellent compilation. He is an unquestionably brilliant thinker and even reading a few pages is worth the knowledge gained from doing so. I particularly liked his insights in the early chapters about profit incentives and how the microeconomic approach is both correct but flawed. Sometimes he doesn't offer an alternate explanation to problems--he just thoroughly outlines why the present ones are becoming obsolete. I loved this book!

[TarasProkopyuk · Rating 5 out of 5]

Никогда ни перестану удивляться, как можно столь сложную дисциплину, такую как менеджмент, сделать одновременно столь понятной и доступной и при этом углубиться до его основания, к самому его фундаменту. Питер Друкер на всю жизнь мне будет лучшим примером того как представить сложнейшие темы простыми и понятными словами.

Что касается глубины и качества самой книги, то это вообще отдельная тема. Такое впечатление что Друкер как рентген мог сканировать и видеть то, что другим не подвластно и делал это легко и непринужденно. Но при этом, я уверен, что Друкер пришел к такому мастерству не сразу. Это результат того, что он посвятил свою жизнь любимому делу и полностью отдался ему. С 1939 и до самой смерти (2005 г.) профессор Друкер написал, вдумайтесь, 39 книг и сотни статей в Harvard Business Review и The Wall Street Journal. Он как никто заслуженно признан одним из самых влиятельных теоретиков менеджмента XX века.

О самой книге очень сложно говорить, потому что боюсь, что не смогу передать насколько она совершенна и в результате кто то решит что книга не столь важна, что её стоит прочесть. Поверьте, стоит!

Единственное что скажу о ней, что она представляет собой сборник материалов из 10 книг Друкера. Сам он говорит о ней так: "... не только лучшее, на мой взгляд, введение в дело, которому я посвятил всю свою жизнь. Это не просто антология, о которой любой автор может только мечтать. Я уверен, что это действительно уникальное, логически последовательное введение в теорию управления, охватывающее базовые принципы, проблемы, задачи и возможности менеджмента".

Обязательно прочитайте эту книгу Питера Друкера и влюбитесь в работы автора так как это и сделал и я! Оно этого стоит!

[Keith · Rating 5 out of 5]

The chapters in this book come from books and essays that were previously published. The preface identifies where the chapters came from.

I finished reading "The Essential Drucker" today. I started reading it over a year ago and my reading in it languished. During that period of not reading it, I managed to pick up a second copy at a used book store. Even though I wasn't currently reading it, I have found his writings to be solid. Then, a few weeks ago I picked it up and began reading in earnest. Since it had been so long since I read the first few chapters, I started from page 1.

It has been a fascinating adventure to read it. I have been continually amazed that articles he wrote roughly 25 years ago stated the very problems that are vexing us today, and as a "Management Consultant" he gives his recommendations on which direction to go.

In many places it caused me to think about things in new ways, in other places I was caused to think about issues more deeply than before. In all of the chapters I held a red pen in my hand to mark paragraphs that were interesting. Reasons for marking them varied - sometimes I wanted to share what I had read. Other times I felt he expressed something particularly well, in other places there were snippets of information that I hadn't known and wanted to remember.

Just about every chapter now has it's share of red pen marks delineating what I found to be the more notable passages.

[Duaa · Rating 4 out of 5]

'كتاب لكل من يريد البدء في فهم مفهوم وفلسفة الإدارة الحديثة' هذا ما يمكنك أن تختصر به هذا الكتاب
فعند قراءتي له استطعت الحصول على خلاصة أعمال دراكر خلال مايزيد عن ستين عاماً من الجهد حول علم الإدارة الواسع بطريقة سهلة قريبة وواضحة ومختصرة للمبتدئين في هذا العلم في مايقارب ال 400 صفحة فقط
حيث تدرج دراكر بإيصال أهم أساسياته وأفكاره في ثلاثة أجزاء ابتدأ الجزء الأول بحديثه عن الإدارة كمفهوم عام وأحدث أساليبها واستكمل الجزء الثاني بحديثة عن المدراء الأفراد وأهم ما يجب أن يتمتع ويقوم به المدير وأنهى الكتاب بالجزء الثالث والأخير بحديثه عن المجتمع وإدارته وتأثير الإدارة فيه
وجدت نفسي في هذا الكتاب أمام كم هائل من المعلومات المتلاحقة وهذا ما جعلني أقوم بقراءته على فترة زمنية طويلة نسيباً ولكن ما ازعجني فعلاً فيه كثرة الأمثلة التي ذكرت بالاسم فقط (ولكنك ستتغاضى عن هذا الأمر بسبب أن الكتاب هو اختصار من باقي مؤلفات دراكر) فكنت أتمنى لو تم إيضاحها في الهوامش .. بالإضافة أنني لاحظت تأثر واهتمام دراكر الكبير بدراسة شركة General Motors والذي يبدو واضحاً جداً في الكتاب
ببساطة كتاب مفيد وقيّم :) واستمتعت بقراءته جداً

[Tyson Titensor · Rating 3 out of 5]

The person who recommended this book gave me a list of chapters he found worthwhile. I decided to ignore his advice and just read the whole thing. I probably should have just read the recommended chapters as some sections were much better than others. Fortunately, it's easy to skim through the slow parts. Worthwhile for sure.

[Tõnu Vahtra · Rating 4 out of 5]

“Not to innovate is the single largest reason for the decline of existing organizations. Not to know how to manage is the single largest reason for the failure of new ventures.”
Highlights of Drucker's management body of knowledge created during 60 years, published almost 20 years ago... means the contents have to be taken with certain reservations (i.e. introducing the knowledge worker as a new phenomena). There are many ageless principles in this book as it's still very often cited by management books published in present day, yet I would say that the principles covered in Effective Executive have aged the best (so definitely recommending to read that book out of Drucker's many books).

“Every enterprise requires commitment to common goals and shared values. Without such commitment there is no enterprise; there is only a mob. The enterprise must have simple, clear, and unifying objectives. The mission of the organization has to be clear enough and big enough to provide common vision. The goals that embody it have to be clear, public, and constantly reaffirmed. Management’s first job is to think through, set, and exemplify those objectives, values, and goals. Management”

“To be sure, the fundamental task of management remains the same: to make people capable of joint performance through common goals, common values, the right structure, and the training and development they need to perform and to respond to change.”

“Success always makes obsolete the very behavior that achieved it. It always creates new realities. It always creates, above all, its own and different problems. Only the fairy tale ends, “They lived happily ever after.”

[Lance McNeill · Rating 5 out of 5]

Evergreen Lessons from one of the most influential Management thinkers of 21st century

I was surprised to see so much information in this book still applicable to business, management, government and society today as it was when it was written.

[Nicholas · Rating 2 out of 5]

I don't think I gave this book a fair shake. I don't think I was focusing on it very well. It was just really boring. Read Innovation and Entrepreneurship. That book rules.


Quotes:

"The fundamental task of management remains the same: to make people capable of joint performance through common goals, cmmon values, the right structure, and the training and development they need to perform and to respond to change. But the very meaning of this task has changed, if only because the performance of management has converted the workforce from one composed largely of unskilled laborers to one of highly educated knowledge workers."

"Management is not exclusively business management. It pertains to every human effort hat brings together in one organization people of diverse knowledge and skills."

"In fact, social innovation - as this chapter tries to make clear - may be of greater importance and have much greater impact than any scientific or technical invention."

"Management is about human beings. Its task is to make people capable of joint performance, to make their strengths effective and their weaknesses irrelevant."

"There will always, one can assume, be the need for some selling. But the aim of marketing is to make selling superfluous. The aim of marketing is to know and understand the customer so well that the product or service fits him and sells itself."

"With respect to the definition of business purpose and business mission, there is only one such focus, one starting point. It is the customer. The customer defines the business. A business is not defined by the company's name, statutes, or articles of incorporation. It is defined by the want the customer satisfies when he or she buys a product or a service. To satisfy the customer is the mission and purpose of every business. The question, What is our business? can, therefore, be answered only by looking at the business from the outside, from the point of view of customer and market. All the customer is interested in are his or her own values, wants, and reality. For this reason alone, any serious attempt to state "what our business is" must start with the customer's realities, his situation, his behavior, his expectations, and his values."

"Success always makes obsolete the very behavior that achieved it. It always creates new realities. It always creates, above all, its own and different problems."

"Good intentions are no substitute for organization and leadership, for accountability, performance, and results."

"To make elimination of of an impact into a business opportunity should always be attempted. But it cannot be done in many cases. More often eliminating an impact means increasing the costs. What was an "externality" for which the general public paid becomes business cost. It therefore becomes a competitive disadvantage unless everybody in the industry accepts the same rule. And this, in most cases, can be done only by regulation - that means by some form of public action."

"If the investment is successful - and especially if it is more successful than we expect - what will it commit us to?"

[Max Nova · Rating 5 out of 5]

The Essential Drucker" is one of those books that is tough to review because it covers so much great content with such a deep level of insight. What's most remarkable is that he covers the huge subject of management in a 350 page book but it's so packed full of information that it seems like the book should have been more like 1,000 pages. He covers subjects such as "Dimensions of Management" (Mission, Worker Achievement, and Social Responsibilities), transparency and responsibility in organizations, how to set and review standards for performance and promotion, how to manage through objectives and structured feedback, communications with subordinates and superiors, basic principles of hiring decision making (if you put a person in a position and they don't perform - that's your mistake, the soldier has a right to competent command, people decisions are the most important because they determine the capacity of the organization, and don't give new people major assignments because it compounds risk), entrepreneurial strategies (fast and hard, going where they're not, finding and occupying a niche, and changing the economic characteristics of a product, market, or an industry), design of experiments to assess management effectiveness, and even time management and personal development. Drucker spends the last bit of the book discussing the rise of the knowledge economy and the changes that it is going to bring. Although this was written a while ago, Drucker is mostly right on and has insights on the growing importance of personal development and the exponential growth in productivity of the knowledge worker. Interestingly, he also touches on the topic of "what should intelligent people do with their free time?" He suggests that more and more people are devoting significant amounts of times to non-profits, but aren't just ladling out soup at the soup kitchen, but instead are bringing their skills from work to the non-profit sector. He stresses that managers have a particularly important role to play in this sphere.

A great book. My only complaint is that because it's an amalgamation of Drucker's other works, there is sometimes slight overlap in his stories and by the end you'll be sick and tired of hearing about Alfred Sloan and General Motors (even though he was the man!).

[Jason Braatz · Rating 2 out of 5]

"Essential" isn't the word I'd use for this book ; it's a hodgepodge of Drucker's other books, apparently with guidance from a Japanese translator and I could hardly keep my eyes open on some chapters. I've not read Drucker's previous works though I'm certain they were great for their time. Peter Drucker does do a great job as a prognosticator in certain areas, and what you read here (some of it written in the late 1990s) is actually unfolding today within a business and a socioeconomic context. That said, there are some ideas that he's way off on (Post-capitalism? I'd argue that the pendulum is easily swinging towards a globalist capitalism - quite opposite of his idea). The first 2/3rds of the book are dated "essentials" of what he deems a manager should do. Almost like a job description from 1974, it's laborious & tedious. If you want an introduction to how Drucker is an author, I suppose this works. It does give the reader a good sense of how the gentleman thought. However, it's otherwise useless.

[Bob Wallner · Rating 4 out of 5]

I know that Drucker is one of the foremost authorities on 20th century Management.
I know that his contemporaries consider Drucker a genius.
I personally simply have a hard time following his writings, and this book was no exception.

The Essential Drucker compiles a "Reader's Digest Version" from his top works on management and leadership. Covering topics such as his famous predictions on knowledge work economy to the entrepreneurial spirit of the future employee. Drucker dives into managing and leading these people. A good portion of the book is dedicated to how in the knowledge worker economy volunteerism will continue to rise pioneering new methods of management and leadership.

It does amaze me how accurate many of Drucker's observations were. The Essential Drucker is a good opportunity to dip your toes into many of the key areas that are still relevant in today's economy.

[Morteza Nokhodian · Rating 5 out of 5]

overall, I liked the book. However, as someone in the entrepreneurial field, I was learning many of the concepts in the field and that makes you a bit resistant to some points. However, as a general rule book, I would say it's great for everyone who is dreaming to start a company or manage a group of people.

[Antanas · Rating 5 out of 5]

Every manager’s advisor. For me it’s not a book that you start at the 1st page and finish at the last page after some time. It’s a book that you always come back to find advice, solution or inspiration about people and business management.

[Billy Taylor · Rating 4 out of 5]

The Essential Drucker is a classic worth reading every couple of years. The concept transcend industries and business cycles. The read or re-read with help focus on the “knowing-doing gap” we all suffer from.

[Joshua R. Taylor · Rating 4 out of 5]

A fabulous tour of not just management, but the role of organisations in the present and how an individual can fit into that role. However there were times where I questioned how well the content has aged, having been published in 2001 -- I would be curious as how the late Peter Drucker may have updated some of his views in light of the past 20 years. This collection of essays is split into three sections: management, the individual and society; each decreasing in size and increasing in senility as the book goes on.

Overall a really interesting essay collection which I would recommend to anyone working today. Now I know that a book on 'management' sounds dryer than Jacob's cream crackers covered in hot sand, but trust me when I say that it's interesting. Why? It is incredibly relevant to the way we work and live today.

Read on for a summary/commentary/whatever:

Management. My opinion of 'management' throughout my jobs so far has varied wildly but has understandably produced some sour relationships. My conclusion: none of them were excellent at the job and I feel like I could've done it better, however I also concede that it's easy to say this from outside the job. My main complaint was that they never reiterated over the organisations' missions and objectives and instead tried to be army officers. Management in their minds was undoubtably still about 'telling people what to do, only when I want to or my employers want to'. This also includes management who shrugs their responsibility, but then still feels entitled to authority in certain areas of purely personal interest.

The ideal manager for the contemporary office worker, Drucker argues, mostly concerns themselves with defining what success looks like and putting people into the contexts where they are most capable of success. It's worth pointing out that this is not just for management in the business context, but in non-profit and public sector organisations too. Every organisation needs management, either by dedicated managers or staff under different titles, to unify people's efforts.

Drucker also argues that the social impact of a company should be put foremost in the minds of executives, whether private or public sector. This certainly raised my skeptical eyebrow, and I'm still not sure if his argument is fantastic or pie-in-the-sky. He states that since any organisation , including businesses, necessarily exists in society. This means that the business requires a well-functioning society in order achieve its mission fully (hmmm, gambling, alcohol, ..., but ok). So therefore the company must ensure not to socially damage society in the areas in which it is already granted responsibility. This final part is quite key since Drucker believes that to put extra unrelated responsibility on a company, say to a car manufacturer to build social housing, is very undesirable because it then grants extra authority to that car manufacturer in an area they likely have little competence in. He also covers corporate morality, arguments for regulation, and the manager's dilemma between company survival and social benefits.

The Individual. Drucker makes many comments that seem to anticipate the term 'T-shaped person'. He claims that an effective individual has a broad understanding of their organisation and its context. They must also have a key strength, which they have identified, and is always searching for where that strength will push a company towards its mission. Following on from that he advocates for people to be have high mobility both within and without organisations, at least if they want to maximise the effects they have in society.

He also puts forth some ideas about decision making. He sees that every decision has to produce some kind of artefact, like a rule or a principle alongside tasks. Each decision brings upon cognitive load, so decisions should only be made for generic and persistent situations. Always consider: what would happen if we decided nothing?

Society. As stated earlier, this section is a footnote compared to the other two. Drucker mostly wonders whether we are in the middle of slow but radical change in the structure of society. Capitalism is waning as knowledge has become more critical than capital for getting things done, 'work smarter, not harder' is a more radical and contemporary phrase than we might think and it applies everywhere. Knowledgism may appear at face value to just be an extension of capitalism, but knowledge has a very different behaviour. The proletariat of the 20th century often could not uproot their means of production from the factory floor when changing employer, but many workers today can since our means of production are our own mental capabilities.

He sees the already reduced responsibility of government (in the pre-9/11 world of the late 1990s) will wane further as organisations become the key units of society. This he believes is a positive trend, since the 20th century has proved (hmm) that the welfare-state does not achieve its purpose effectively. He sees a new 'social sector' of non-profits and NGOs arising which shall better fit the purpose of a welfare state.

[Charlane · Rating 4 out of 5]

Full of experience about people in business, in managing a business... he is right, one leads people as a manager! A must read if you are in any business.

[VENKATRAMAN C K · Rating 5 out of 5]

read this every year.

[Srinath · Rating 4 out of 5]

A-Z on Management, atleast for a beginner

[Monique · Rating 3 out of 5]

Okay breathe, whew Spring semester down and I can say goodbye to Perter F. Drucker, the man whose sixty years of management experience has dominated my life since January. I have read, cited, quoted and paraphrased this man so much I feel like I know him, or definitely how he feels about management from starting a business, hiring, planning, testing, implementing innovation, the manager as an individual and how they lead an organization. I can start and go through each chapter but I won’t—LOL I will hit on some of my favorite hmm ten sentiments from the book which I feel resonated the most with me and for which I can base this book as a recommendation for pre-MBAs, business lovers, managers and anyone who wants to understand how managers think and why…
Chapter 1: Management as a Social Function and Liberal Art------“Management developed into a discipline pertaining to every human effort that brings together in one organization people of diverse knowledge and skills.”
Chapter 2: The Dimensions of Management-----------“Social responsibilities of management require justification as being good for society.”
Chapter 3: The Purpose and Objectives of a Business------“Innovation is the converting of society’s needs into opportunities for profitable business.”
Chapter 9: Picking People-The Basic Rules.------“Effective managers do not focus on weaknesses as you cannot build on weaknesses, what matters is the ability to do the job despite weaknesses.”
-------“Executives with lack of effort on people decisions risk poor performance and organization respect.”
Chapter 13: Effectiveness Must be Learned------“Intelligence, imagination and knowledge are essential resources but only effectiveness converts them into results.”
-------“Four realities of Executives beyond their Control:
1. Time; 2. Little Room to Enact Change; 3. Confined to Organizational structure; 4. Too internal to see unbiasedly.”
Chapter 14: Focus on Contribution---------“Effective people focus on contribution and stress responsibility.”
-------“Organization is a means of overcoming the limitations mortality sets on what any one person can contribute.”
-------“Four basic requirements of effective human relations: Communications, Teamwork, Self-Development, Development of Others
Chapter 19: Leadership as Work----------“The definition of leader is one who holds trust, and has followers” ----------“Effective leaders know that no one else but them is ultimately responsible.”
Chapter 20: Principles of Innovation---------“Innovators are not risk takers they try to define risks they have to take and to minimize them as much as possible.”
Alright so I think that about does it..prefacing this review as a must read with the disclaimer that his work is admittedly outdated relying heavily on examples of organizations that are no longer in business such as Polaroid and the necessity of written communication as this was before email and, kinda sexist as ALL his manager pronouns refer to men and hey it was the early 50s or so I get it…I can honestly say that I learned a lot as I have never yet been a manager and so taking this class and meeting Drucker has truly opened my eyes….hmm reading reading….

[Khalid Hajeri · Rating 4 out of 5]

The iconic writings on business management condensed into one volume!

“The Essential Drucker” is a collection of carefully selected content from the late great business philosopher Peter F. Drucker’s books prior to the year 2001. Although some parts of the writings can feel somewhat dated by nowadays’ standards, the majority of the works are easily applicable to the modern world of management in business.

The book is sectioned into three parts: Management, The Individual, and Society. Each section explains how management works on a business level while also incorporating historical examples on how the skills are successfully applied, as well as how not to apply them. Some personal examples from the late author’s own life are also found, although not as many as you would expect. This book explores more philosophical explanations on how management works; hence the topic is deeply discussed with readers as though they are in a lecture setting with Mr. Drucker.

The author also shares his own predictions on what management will look like in the future. Some of what he predicts are coming into fruition, whereas other statements where he claims certain things will never happen in management strategy are already apparent and duly utilized where appropriate. Due to the writings in this book mainly focusing on the management challenges of the 20th century, the flawed predictions are to be expected. But they read as interesting time capsules into the times Mr. Drucker lived his life in, and it is fascinating to find out how he suggests his management techniques for both his present time and in the upcoming future world.

Overall “The Essential Drucker” deserves a reading if you want to explore the main points on how to use management in your daily work and business life. The book is also a great resource for business history covering mostly the 20th century, and a very philosophical point of view on business management that is seldom taken into account by other writers of the topic.

[RJ · Rating 4 out of 5]

Peter Drucker has a certain reputation in the business of business philosophy, and The Essential Drucker (TED) doesn’t disappoint. These are the greatest hits from decades of writing: an eminently quotable collection of practical advice and abstract philosophy for the humans powering the knowledge economy.

The balance of the wisdom that Drucker dispenses is aimed at practical steps that managers–and in the knowledge economy, everyone is a manager–can employ to futher their work. Focus objectives, metrics, and energy on achieving results outside the organization. Forget heroic entrepreneurs and genius innovators; focus instead on the raw ingredients of success–clear objectives, focus, hard work and perseverance–that anyone can develop. Work smart. Lead at your own level, whatever it is. And always, always keep learning.

The increasingly abstract chapters towards the conclusion of the book offer some of its most scrumptious nibbles, as Drucker traces out an intriguing (if debatable) vision for education, social enterprise, and fulfillment within post-capitalist society. Like any survey, there are chapter of TED that won’t be for everyone. Managers hungry to improve their craft will devour the first half but may find less use for musings over their place beneath the sun. Theorists will delight in the latter but face a considerable slog to reach it.

And TED is not a new book. The earliest chapters date to 1996; the most recent to 2001. For all of its familiar–and notably prescient–ideas, both ideas and language feel dated at times. The explosion of technology and the lingering effects of the great recession leave the reader to wonder how its conclusions might have been adjusted to the new reality. Faith in entrepreneurship and the indomitable human spirit are well and good. Will they survive the explosion of information that’s defined the past 15 years? That’s a question for another book.

— https://rjzaworski.com/2017/09/the-es...

[Ahmad Abdelbari · Rating 5 out of 5]

Quotes from the book:


-Not to innovate is the single largest reason for the decline of existing organizations. Not to know how to manage is the single largest reason for the failure of a new ventures.

-the most productive innovation is a different product or service creating a new potential satisfaction, rather than an improvement.

-innovation may be finding a new uses for old products. A sales man who succeeds in selling refrigerators to Eskimos to prevent food from freezing would be as much of an innovator as if he had developed brand-new processes or invented a new product. To sell Eskimos a refrigerator to keep food cold is finding a new market; to sell a refrigerator to keep food from getting cold is actually creating a new product. Technologically there is, of course, only the same old product; but economically there is innovation.

-innovation is not invention. It is a term of economics rather than of technology. Nontechnological innovations-social or economic innovations- are at least as important as technological ones.

-innovation is converting society's needs into opportunities for profitable business.

-any serious attempt to state"what our business is" must start with customer's realities, his situation, his behavior, his expectations, and his values.

-Market domination produced tremendous internal resistance against any innovation and thus makes adaptation to change dangerously difficult.

- management in other words, will increasingly have to be based on the assumption that neither technology nor end use is a foundation for management policy. They are limitations. The foundations have to be customer values and customer decisions on the distribution of their disposable income. It is with those that management policy and management strategy increasingly will have to start.

-companies can practice price-led costing, however, only if they know and manage the entire cost of the economic chain.

-executives need the following tools to make informed judgments: foundation information, productivity information, competence information, and information about the allocation of scarce resources.

-leadership rests on being able to do something others cannot do at all or find difficult to do even poorly.

-to manage core competencies the first step is to keep careful track of one's own and one's competitor's performances, looking especially for unexpected successes and for unexpected poor performance in areas where one should have done well. The successes demonstrate what the market values and will pay for. They indicate where the business enjoys a leadership advantage. The non successes should be viewed as the first indication either that the market is changing or that the company's competencies are weakening.

-every organization needs a way to record and appraise its innovative performance.

-innovative performance assessment:
1-which of them were truly successful?
2-how many of them were ours?
3-is our performance commensurate with our objectives? With the direction of the market? With our market standing? With our research spending?
4-Are our successful innovations in the areas of greatest growth and opportunity?
5-how many of the truly important innovation opportunities did we miss?why?because we didn't see them? Or because we saw them but dismissed them? Or because we botched them?
6-how well do we convert an innovation in to a commercial product?

-scarce resources: capital and performing people

-one innovates where one understands

-entrepreneurial management in the new venture has four requirements:
1-focus on the market
2-financial foresight, and especially planning for cash flow and capital needs ahead.
3-building a top management team long before the new venture actually needs one and long before it can actually afford one.
4-it requires from the founding entrepreneur a decision in respect to his or her own role, area of work, and relationship.

-businesses are not paid to reform customers, they are paid to satisfy customers.

-an old bankers' rule of thumb, according to which forecasting cash income and cash outlays one assumes that bills will have to be paid 60 days earlier than expected and receivables will come 60 days later.

-entrepreneurial judo (important chapter)
-creative imitation: waits until somebody else has established the new, but only "approximately". Then it goes to work. And within a short time it comes out with what the new really should be to satisfy the customer, to do the work customers want and pay for. The creative imitation has then set the standard and takes over the market.

-creative imitators do not succeed by taking away customers from the pioneers who have first introduced a new product or service; they serve markets the pioneers have created but do not adequately service. Creative imitation satisfies a demand that already exists rather than creating one.

-creaming or the tendency to cream a market is to get the high-profit part of it. It causes smaller customers to be receptive to competitors. Creaming is a violation of elementary managerial and economic precepts. It is always punished by loss of market.

-manners are the lubricating oil for an organization

-waste as little effort as possible on improving areas of low competence

-unless a decision has "degenerated into work", it is not a decision; it is at the best a good intention.

-unless one has considered alternatives, one has a closed mind.

-We perceive, as a rule, what we expect to perceive. We see largely what we expect to see, and we hear largely what we expect to hear.

-leadership does matter, of course....it has little to do with "leadership qualities" and even less to do with "charisma". It is mundane, unromantic, and boring. It essence is performance.

-what individuals have learned by the age of 21 will begin to obsolete 5 to 10 years later and will have to be replaced-or at least refurbished- by new learning, new skills, new knowledge

[Derek · Rating 4 out of 5]

I don't agree with all of Drucker's conclusions or his predictions, but I am sure that's because of my superpower of hindsight and not due to a better understanding.

He thinks Nonprofits are great. I have never worked with a large scale nonprofit to comment on this. But if I were to throw in my own two cents, I imagine that the large ones looks just like cooperate America but with more free labor.

I don't really see where he's going with this post-capitalism with the entrepreneurial society. Something, somewhere is going to bring about the next great social and economic change, but beside gesturing towards GPT3 I've got nothing.

Most of my favorite parts of this books are sections taken from others that I've read of his, and due to this comment being selfish I'm not going to get into a circle-jerk about me likening something that I liked before.

I'm glad I read it, and I am looking forward to going back through the Effective Executive.

[Blake · Rating 2 out of 5]

When Drucker stays in his lane and discusses business management there are some concrete insights for running a business in the modern day, chapters 7, 11, and 13 are highlights of this. However, too often the book focuses on politics, macro-economics, and historical insight that the author is ill-equipped to discuss. It ranges from the absurd (his categorization of who is charismatic mainly to explain away the rise of totalitarianism) to agenda pushing (the “fall of the welfare state”) to naive, (corporations growth will be limited by maximum ability to grow, companies will self regulate in environmental areas, income inequality being a myth). In those areas particularly, the book feels excessively dated. Anyone interested in his management opinions will be better off reading specific chapters or essays as others have noted.

[Ihor Burlachenko · Rating 4 out of 5]

The book mainly talks about how to manage a business. Even though it was published in 2000, the events it covers in the examples go back to the middle of the past century and earlier. This fact, at the same time, is an advantage and a disadvantage of this book. It was interesting to see how many ideas were tested over time, and the historical context provided me with additional points in time I can now extrapolate from. At the same time, some of the judgments and decisions that were relevant back then are less relevant nowadays and should be taken with a historical perspective in mind. Saying that Drucker's thinking framework, wisdom, and philosophy deserve recognition. I'm pretty sure that many of those who got here to read feedback about the book will enjoy it.

[Hill Krishnan · Rating 5 out of 5]

What if you get a chance to learn 60 years of wisdom of management from the “Father of Modern Management” in simple language in just 3.5 hours?
3 quick takeaways:
1. Every organization needs management to improve performance and results and it’s not just for profit organization (the latter will be business management). If humans come together to achieve a goal then it must be managed (e.g. volunteers for American Red Cross must be managed).
2. Every aspect of the organization must have objectives (eg: marketing objectives)
3. Profit is not the only goal but contributions to society as well (e.g: not to create negative externalities! hope some CEOs take this point to heart).

[Tiago · Rating 5 out of 5]

I was pleasantly surprised. For a 20-year-old book that was written based on the author's prior 60+ years of experience in business, this is still very relevant today, and it even called out trends we are still seeing unfold.

The breadth of topics covered in the book is massive. Management - what it is, purpose, impact; innovation and entrepreneurism; how to be an effective executive (and why all knowledge workers are executives); organizing a business; continuous learning and changing careers; the role of companies in societies and government; and much more.

I enjoyed this book, it made me see businesses and organizations and even society in a different light.

[Arthur Ghazaryan · Rating 4 out of 5]

Դրաքերի աշխատանքների հավաքածու է։ Շատ հետաքրքիր է կազմակերպության դերի բացահայտումը պետության, մարդու և իրականության կոնտեքստում։ Նա ցույց է տալիս դրանց փոխազդեցությունը տարբեր ոլորտներում։ Հետաքրքիր է նաև բյուրոկրատիայի ստեղծման վտանգը և դրա վտանգավոր հետևանքները։
Ինովացիաների` գրքում նկարագրված հատկությունները ևս ուսուցողական են։ Ով է մտավոր աշխատակիցը, ինչպիսի ստրատեգիաներ կան բիզնեսում, ինչպիսին է լինելու ապագա աշխարհը։
Դրաքերի մյուս գրքերում այս բոլոր թեմաները ավելի մանրամասն են նկարագրվում։