For sixteen months before his death, Elizabeth Haas Edersheim was given unprecedented access to Peter Drucker, widely regarded as the father of modern management. At Drucker's request, Edersheim, a respected management thinker in her own right, spoke with him about the development of modern business throughout his life-and how it continues to grow and change at an ever-increasing rate.

The Definitive Drucker captures his visionary management concepts, applies them to the key business risks and opportunities of the coming decades, and imparts Drucker's views on current business practices, economic changes, and trends-many of which he first predicted decades ago. It also sheds light onto issues such as why so many leaders fail, the fragility of our economic systems, and the new role of the CEO. Drucker's insights are divided into five main themes that the modern organization needs to, as Drucker would say, “create tomorrow” by

Connecting with customers
Innovating without abandoning what works
Developing lasting partnerships
Creating and retaining knowledge workers
Establishing disciplined decision making

Drucker's penetrating questions, posed to those seeking his advice, helped business, corporate, and political leaders throughout the 20th century to see their work in a new perspective, and create phenomenal innovation. Edersheim's extensive interviews with some of these luminaries, including Warren Bennis, Ram Charan, Bill Gates, George Gallup, Jr. and A.G. Lafley offer compelling commentary on Drucker's vast influence.

Delivering keen analysis and revealing insights into business, The Definitive Drucker is a celebration of this extraordinary man and his life's work, as well as a unique opportunity to learn from Drucker's final business lessons how to strategize, compete, and triumph in any market.

CUSTOMER REVIEWS (Average Customer Rating: 4.5 based on 15 reviews)

Discover His Distilled Business Wisdom

Timeless. That's the best word to describe the wisdom of Peter Drucker (1909-2005), widely considered the father of modern management. Born in Vienna, he chose the United States over Europe in 1937, because he believed that's where the future would be invented.

His insights helped shape companies throughout the 20th century, and still resonate today.Drucker coined the term "knowledge workers" in 1959-decades before personal computers and the World Wide Web-believing that intelligence would fuel the economy. In 1992, he wrote that only world-not Western-history and civilization now matter.

His thoughts on management, economics and politics filled nearly 40 books. But his last words on a variety of topics are in The Definitive Drucker by Elizabeth Haas Edersheim, who interviewed Drucker in the 16 months before his death.

When she asked him what he wanted to be remembered for, he replied simply, "Enabling a few people to get the right things done." His contribution, he said, was "to highlight the concept of the responsible and effective execution of management as work, function and responsibility."

Drucker asked clients challenging questions that forced them to derive their own solutions, Edersheim writes. General Electric CEO Jack Welch recounts one question that led to a sea change at GE: "If it's not your front room, can you make it somebody else's front room?" In other words, if a certain area is not your company's strength, can you outsource the work for the best possible outcome? This led GE down the path toward intelligent outsourcing.

The Definitive Drucker also features commentary from other corporate disciples, cites examples of Drucker's best thinking in action, and reveals some of his effective strategies-including how to work through challenges.

He saw himself as a "counteracter," Edersheim writes. "When people begin talking about problems, I say, `No, wait a minute. Let's first look at the opportunities,'" he told her.

This book is must reading for organizations of every size and to leaders at every level.

May 25, 2008

A story of the interview process

I enjoyed this book. The author shared her experience of going to Peter Drucker's home over a period of time to interview him and recounts having to contend with Peter's wife and the 2 hour limitations on his time thru her. The book presents his theories of business management and real life examples how companies employed them and where certain com[anies did not employ them.
September 22, 2007

Very good reading

I enjoy reading this book. It's a very useful abstract about the most important Drucker management ideas. I strongly recommend it.
August 09, 2007

Drucker as For-Profit Management Expert and Consultant for Large Companies with Newer Examples

I had the good fortune to spend one to three days a year with Peter Drucker from 1992-1999: He consulted with Carol Coles and me in developing research and consulting services for lowering the cost of capital, launching the 400 Year Project to accelerate global progress by 20 times during 2015 through 2035, and in writing about what the next generations of leadership best practices would be like. You can get a glimpse of that connection in Jack Beatty's book, The World According to Peter Drucker. I also will be writing more about Peter's ideas on and contributions to these subjects in the forthcoming book, Adventures of an Optimist.

I once asked Peter how he would guard his intellectual legacy after his death. He confidently replied that he had a very good plan and that all would be well. Having seen that this book was published after his death under the title, The Definitive Drucker, I'm not so sure he was right about protecting his intellectual legacy.

For the record, this book is not the definitive book on Peter Drucker. Why?

1. The book is almost totally devoted to his ideas about for-profit management as pursued by very large companies.

2. There is virtually no mention of his ideas about society in general.

3. His work on how to be effective executive is incompletely shared.

4. Dr. Haas Edersheim deliberately ignores the roots of Drucker's concepts as described in Adventures of a Bystander, which I believe is essential context for appreciating his observations.

5. The manner by which his nonprofit consulting experiences helped him formulate his for-profit ideas is ignored.

6. Almost all of my favorite anecdotes based on what Peter said to me about the companies described in this book are left out. Here's an example of the insights those anecdotes provide: Can anyone appreciate Drucker's tendency to revise his opinions to claim that he was the first to notice something without knowing that he insisted that I take most of my Dell examples out of The Irresistible Growth Enterprise because he was concerned that Dell wouldn't continue to prosper after 1999?

7. The full scope of his thoughts about for-profit management is ignored. For instance, his many questions and ideas about capital markets are mostly missing . . . except as they arise in the DLJ example of how he encouraged the founders to go public in the 1970s.

There is one excellent element about this book that makes it well worth reading: If you renamed this book, The Definitive Drucker as Consultant, you wouldn't be far off the mark. His consulting practice was mostly invisible to those who weren't his clients, but his approach is one that most consultants could learn much from. I was very impressed by the way that Dr. Haas Edersheim's interviews and writings captured the essence of Peter Drucker in a one-on-one situation. Although some of the earlier books about Peter addressed this topic, none did so as thoroughly and as well as this book.

Most business leaders today have read relatively little of Peter Drucker's writings. But most have read some of the so-called original management theories that are little more than a rephrasing of Peter's original designs while not acknowledging Peter's work at all. Where Peter always tried to pick the best example for a point he had to make, most business authors seem to be only able to write about recent examples that they have experienced. And many business book readers prefer it that way. Dr. Haas Edersheim's book fits that mold very well. She develops themes from some of Peter's long-time, large-company clients (like GM and GE), adds some of her own clients, and finds a few other examples that seem to fit what Peter has to say. For those who want to see some of Peter's work dressed up with more recent examples, this book is probably the best resource.

Even though English was a learned language for Peter, he wrote English like a talented, native-speaking novelist. Where Peter is quoted in the book, the beautiful language shines. Dr. Haas Edersheim, by comparison, writes like an academic/consultant and the experience is not always pleasant. She likes to force ideas into her metaphors (something Peter would never do), display lots of grids (something Peter couldn't imagine anyone wanting to do), and ramble on endlessly about things that could be stated quite simply (something Peter would use his ruthless self-editing to avoid).

Interestingly, Peter always told me that the impact of his books was quite minor compared to the effect of his essays in The Wall Street Journal and other mass media. Why? Lots of people read well-constructed essays in the mass media and few read more than a few pages in any business book. He also doubted if very much in the Harvard Business Review was really read and understood. I was shocked to see how little this book relied on his essays. Hopefully, someone will realize that those essays are the essential kernel of his influence and write about them in the future.

Dr. Haas Edersheim obviously is drawn to strategic questions and Peter, of course, founded the field of strategy for organizations. If that's your interest, you'll find this book to be quite solid.
May 28, 2007

Great Drucker as always, differently written.

I love two opposite characters of Guru of Management, Tom Peters and Drucker, both are absolute dream management gurus. Personally I am more inclined to Tom. But I started to read and re read Drucker as my management readings get more "mature".

This book is not written by Drucker, but made out of months of interviews with Drucker and other people. This book is ABOUT Drucker and his thinking as interpreted by Elizabenth.

It is easy to follow, alive and well narrated, and will be more interesting and insightful if you know who is who the writer interviewed and talked to.

The insights articulated is deep and profound, even that it often repeat what has been said in previour Drucker's books. If you have any interest in Drucker (that will be a lot of "you" there) this book will delight. I think this is the "Management Biography" that Drucker wanted to be remembered.

May 23, 2007

SIMILAR PRODUCTS

The Effective Executive: The Definitive Guide to Getting the Right Things Done (Harperbusiness Essentials)
by Peter F. Drucker

The Essential Drucker: The Best of Sixty Years of Peter Drucker's Essential Writings on Management (Collins Business Essentials)
by Peter F. Drucker

Wikinomics: How Mass Collaboration Changes Everything
by Taps Don, Anthony D. Williams

Classic Drucker: From the Pages of Harvard Business Review
by Peter Ferdinand Drucker

Know-How: The 8 Skills That Separate People Who Perform from Those Who Don't
by Ram Charan