The Definitive Drucker
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The Definitive Drucker

Challenges for Tomorrow's Executives – Final Advice from the Father of Modern Management

Elizabeth Haas Edersheim
McGraw-Hill, 2006
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Recommendation

Peter Drucker is called the "father of modern management" for good reason, according to this accessible volume of his business lessons by management consultant Elizabeth Haas Edersheim. She demonstrates that Drucker's theories were the perfect combination of calculated common sense, and genuine concern for the human side of consumers and employees. His teachings struck the right balance between big-picture dreaming and detail-oriented drudgery. This study strikes a similar balance. Edersheim offers details of Drucker's personal life that make his sweeping rules of management all the more compelling. She deftly applies Drucker's business lessons to today's ever-shifting landscape of globalization and fragmentation. getAbstract recommends her book to marketers and managers who want to learn from the best.

Summary

Rules from Peter Drucker's Desk

Management guru Peter Drucker died in November 2005 at age 95. During his remarkable career, he wrote dozens of books, and inspired countless business and political leaders.

Born in Vienna in 1909, Drucker witnessed Europe's economic collapse in 1930. The implosion made a deep impression on him. He saw that business wasn't just a way to make money, but a method of ensuring democracy and societal stability.

His management disciples included Winston Churchill, Mexican President Vicente Fox, Sony founder Akito Morita, Intel founder Andy Grove, Microsoft's Bill Gates and General Electric's former CEO Jack Welch.

Drucker's key business tenets include:

  • Serve the customer – "The purpose of a business is to create and serve a customer."
  • Act, don't just talk – Management takes hard work, sweat and practice. "Plans are only good intentions unless they immediately degenerate into hard work," Drucker wrote.
  • Ask the right questions – Drucker made complex matters simple by asking probing questions to drill down to the essential issues.
  • Bring the outside in – Corporations ...

About the Author

Strategy consultant Elizabeth Haas Edersheim works with Fortune 500 companies and private equity investors. She holds a doctorate in operations research and industrial engineering. She also wrote McKinsey's Marvin Bower.

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