Product Description
For nearly half a century, Peter Drucker inspired and educated managers--and powerfully shaped the nature of business--with his landmark articles in Harvard Business Review. Here, framed by a thoughtful introduction from HBR editor Thomas A. Stewart, is a priceless collection of Drucker's most significant work.

Through his unique lens, Drucker traces the evolution of the great shifts in organizations and the role of managers in the ongoing effort to balance change with continuity. He paints a clear, comprehensive picture of management thinking and practice--as it was and as it will be.

Revealing a celebrated thinker at his best, Classic Drucker offers a wealth of insights and practical guidelines for managers seeking to address today's thorniest organizational challenges. For example, you'll find selections on how to enhance your company's innovative prowess, make effective decisions, raise knowledge workers' productivity, remain engaged and productive during a long work life, know when the assumptions on which your business was founded must change, and get the data you need to execute your company's competitive strategy.

Doing what's right for your company will always be challenging. But thanks to the clear focus, broad vision, and practical wisdom of Peter Drucker, the task is now a little less daunting.

CUSTOMER REVIEWS (Average Customer Rating: 5.0 based on 5 reviews)

Truly a Classic...

Full disclosure: I'm a big Drucker fan

This book will need to sit on your bookshelf. It's a nice compilation of work Drucker has written over his many years. I've got this on my re-read list so basically every once in a while when I need business inspiration I walk over to the shelf and go through his sage advice.
September 17, 2008

Great management book

This is one of the best management books I've ever read. Despite the articles being written 10 - 20 years ago, they are still relevant. Drucker uses good examples to illustrate his points, and avoids the word "synergy."
September 24, 2007

Wisdom for the ages

I found the chapter on self-management alone to be worth the price of the book.
January 05, 2007

A compendium of business wisdom which should be in every business library collection

If the name of Peter Drucker sounds familiar, it should: he's inspired managers with his works for nearly half a century, with his articles in Harvard Business Review - gathered here for the first time under one cover and offering his best works to audiences of business learners. From how to remain productive throughout your work life and choose careers which are lasting to learning how and when to make changes, Classic Drucker is a compendium of business wisdom which should be in every business library collection.

July 04, 2006

Simplicity on the other side of complexity

To me, one of Peter Drucker's greatest strengths as a business thinker is his ability to cut to the proverbial "bone" when sharing an insight about an especially complicated subject. This unique talent illustrates what Oliver Wendell Holmes meant when observing that he didn't "care a fig about simplicity on this side of complexity" but greatly admired simplicity "on the other side of complexity." Given Holmes' observation, consider these three prime examples of "classic Drucker":

In 1963: "There is surely nothing quite so useless as doing with great efficiency what should not be done at all." (Managing for Business Effectiveness, page 83)

In 1995: "EVA [economic value added] is based on something we have known for a long time: what we generally call profits, the money left to service equity, is usually not profit at all. Until a business returns a profit that is greater than its cost of capital, it operates at a loss...By measuring the value added among all costs, including the cost of capital, EVA measures, in effect, the productivity of all factors of production." (The Information Executives Truly Need, page 107)

In 1988: "Information-based organizations, in other words, require clear, simple, common objectives that translate into particular actions. At the same time, however, as these examples dicate, information-based organizations also need concentration on one objective or, at most, on a few. Because the `players' in an information-based organization are specialists, they cannot be told how to do their work...So [such an organization] must be structured around goals that clearly state management's performance expectations for the enterprise and for each part and specialist and around organized feedback that compares [and contrasts] results with these performance expectations so that every member can exercise self-control. The other requirement of an information-based organization is that everyone takes information responsibility...The key to such a system is that everyone asks: Who in this organization depends on me for what organization? And on whom, in turn, do I depend?" (The Coming of the New Organization, page 133)

There several other excellent sources of Drucker quotations (e.g. The Daily Drucker) which I frequently consult. However, in the 15 Harvard Business Review articles which are assembled in Classic Drucker, there is a context within which the value of each insight is more clearly indicated. In the Introduction, Thomas A. Stewart (editor of the Harvard Business Review) cites three of Drucker's great gifts to his life work: "First was the talent for asking the right questions...His second gift was to see organizations whole...[Drucker's] third gift was the ability to reason equally well both inductively and deductively." All three gifts are clearly evident in each of the 15 articles.

Near the conclusion of an interview by T. George Harris in 1993, Drucker makes several points which seem even more relevant now: "'Democratic' bespeaks a narrow and legal organization. Nor do I use the buzzword `participative.' Worse yet is the `empowerment' concept. It is not a great step forward to take power out at the top and put it in at the bottom. It's still power. To build achieving organizations, you must replace power with responsibility."

During the months and years to come, decision-makers in all organizations (regardless of nature or size) would be well-advised to keep such basic business precepts in mind, not as simplistic solutions to immensely complicated problems but, rather, as fundamentally sound principles to keep in mind when attempting to solve such problems.

June 19, 2006

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The Essential Drucker: The Best of Sixty Years of Peter Drucker's Essential Writings on Management (Collins Business Essentials)
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The Effective Executive: The Definitive Guide to Getting the Right Things Done (Harperbusiness Essentials)
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The Definitive Drucker
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Management Challenges for the 21st Century
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The Daily Drucker : 366 Days of Insight and Motivation for Getting the Right Things Done
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