Essential Drucker



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Paperback
368 pages
ISBN 9780060935740 Published Aug. 2003
HarperBusiness
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Essential Drucker
The Best of Sixty Years of Peter Drucker's Essential Writings on Management
By Peter F Drucker 

Related Blog Posts
Today is the Day
Posted Feb. 5, 2009 5:25 p.m. by todd-sattersten
In 100 Best - 800 CEO Read Blog

Jack and I have been working on an idea for about two years. We thought it made sense to put our knowledge about business books into a book of our own.

Today, The 100 Best Business Books of All Time was released by our wonderful friends at Portfolio.

Taking some of the advice from the books we have chosen, we are going to do what Zig Ziglar and Jeffrey Gitomer talk about in both of their books.

We are going to "ask for the order". What I mean is that you have been a follower of 800-CEO-READ for any period of time, you know what we are about: we sell business books and promote great ideas.

Our book is our best effort yet at helping you find the books solutions to the problems and challenges you face, while presenting opportunities you may not have considered before.

We want each of you to buy a copy of The 100 Best.

There are many places you can do that - Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Borders, or your local indie bookstore.

You can also order it from us. You'll pay the full retail price of 25.95, but you will get a bag of extras that are only available through 800-CEO-READ:

  • You'll received a shiny, hardcover of The 100 Best Business Books of All Time autographed by both Jack and Todd

  • We will include a copy of "Conversations about The 100 Best Business Books of All Time". This is an audio CD that Jack and I did, which has 12 tracks, each about 6 minutes in length, where we talk about the books and the key concepts in each of the chapters of The 100 Best.

  • You will receive a copy of In The Books 2008, our annual publication whose purpose is to highlight the best of the year in the genre of business books.

  • After placing your order, we will email you "the lost chapter" from The 100 Best (it was not really lost, we ran out of room in the book). We have compiled a 39 page chapter of Industry Books that everyone in business should read. This chapter comes in a simple to download pdf document and shares all of the design characteristics of the original book.

So, order your copy of The 100 Best.

If you need to hear from some others, here are a few:

You can find the entire list of the 100 books at 100bestbiz.com. You can also download the introduction to The 100 Best and two sample reviews from The Essential Drucker and To Engineer Is Human.

A compelling offer, followed by testimonials, and finished off with free samples of the final product.

How can you resist? :)



Peter Who?
Posted June 9, 2006 5:34 a.m. by todd-sattersten
In Start-ups - 800 CEO Read Blog

I have been getting on a kick lately to get people to read more classic business books. I classify these as books which are just as relevant as ever and can be read over and over.

I have been asking people lately if they have read anything by Peter Drucker and I am shocked by the number of people you have never read anything written by the Father of Modern Management. While I was getting my MBA, we were never assigned to read anything by him. I sit here shaking my head wondering how this can be.

I decided to do some more research. Last week, we asked the inBubbleWrap crowd two questions having to do with Drucker.

First, we asked if they knew who Peter Drucker was. It was hard to give you an exact answer by I would say 15% of the people did not know he is was. I don't consider that too bad considering the often reported polls showing people's lack of knowledge on current events and world geography.

The second question we asked was "Have you read any books by Drucker?". The following is a list of all the books that people listed and the number of times they were mentioned in the answers.

The Effective Executive - 52


The Essential Drucker - 45


The Daily Drucker - 28


Managing for The Future - 21


Innovation and Entrepreneurship - 18


The Practice of Management - 16


Management: Tasks, Responsibilities, Practices - 11


Managing The Non-Profit Organization - 11


Adventures of a Bystander - 6


Managing in Turbulent Times - 5


Management in the 21st Century - 4


The End of Economic Man - 4


The Age of Discontinuity - 3


Temption To Do Good - 3


Classic Drucker - 2


Drucker On The Profession of Management - 2


Concept of the Corporation - 1


Effective Executive in Action - 1


Future of Industrial Man - 1

It was good to see one of Drucker's complete works beat the two "best-of" books. For my money, I would recommend The Effective Executive and Innovation and Entrepreneurship (both of which I am going back and reading again).

We have some plans for bringing back some of the classics. Stay tuned for that...



Forbes' 20 Most Influential Business Books
Posted April 21, 2006 3:52 a.m. by todd-sattersten
In Lists - 800 CEO Read Blog

In the Forbes' article that Tom referred to yesterday, the writer Dan Ackman pointed to a list of business books the magazine put together in 2002. Forbes calls these The 20 Most Influential Business Books. As you look down the panel experts, you'll notice our own Jack Covert was among those called to contribute. Since this was put together before the blog was born, I thought we should get it put up here.

They also organized the books and you will find some good commentary under the topics of management, narrative, biography and investing.



Lisa Berkowitz on Peter Drucker
Posted Nov. 18, 2005 5:52 a.m. by kate
In Current Events - 800 CEO Read Blog

I've always had a thing for older, brilliant men, so when Peter Drucker entered my life fifteen years ago, I thought I died and went to heaven.

Drucker was a very low maintenance author, and, unlike other business gurus, shunned the spotlight. Peter would simply call me occasionally to check on reviews or request books. He would start every conversation by identifying himself. "This is Peter Drucker," he would say slowly and methodically, as if that distinctive Viennese accent could possibly belong to anyone else.

I had the privilege to work with Peter on The Effective Executive, Post-Capitalist Society, Managing In Turbulent Times, Management Challenges in the 21st Century and The Essential Drucker. His authenticity and genius are breathtaking. I may not have an MBA from Harvard, but the experience gave me something much more precious, and something money can't buy. I truly found religion in business through my exposure to Drucker in print and in person. Now it's he who is in heaven with the other management gods.

--

Written By:

Lisa Berkowitz

President

Berkowitz & Associates

Former Associate Publishing Director and VP of Marketing and Communications for HarperBusiness



Robert May on Peter Drucker
Posted Nov. 18, 2005 3:32 a.m. by kate
In Current Events - 800 CEO Read Blog

I read a lot of books, particularly business books. What I dislike about many of them is that the authors have tunnel-vision. Business is complex, and a one-size-fits-all approach is rarely successful. Authors that present their business ideas as a panacea ignore the importance of context in business decision making.

Peter Drucker had no tunnel-vision. His writings, when taken in small excerpts, can often seem confusing and contradictory, but a wide survey of Drucker writings reveal that is not the case. Drucker simply realized that there is never an absolute answer that business is about tradeoffs, and that context is important when making business decisions.

So why read Drucker? Because it is the best way to learn how to think about business. His books give you insights into his mind and thought process. Instead of teaching you to apply the same approach across a variety of problems, Drucker shows you how to analyze a business problem and make good solid decisions that take all the major factors into account. He points out the counterintuitive nature of many business solutions, and he is a master at balancing the needs of the various stakeholders involved.

If you have never read Peter Drucker, I would suggest beginning with The Daily Drucker, The Effective Executive, or The Essential Drucker. To close, I will leave you with a few of major favorite Peter Drucker quotes.

Management by objectives works if you first think through your objectives. Ninety percent of the time you haven't.

Plans are only good intentions unless they immediately generate into hard work.

So much of what we call management consists of making it difficult for people to work.

There is nothing so useless as doing efficiently that which should not be done at all.

Thank you Peter Drucker, for you contributions. Your examples of disciplined thought and lifelong learning are something to which we should all aspire.

--

Written By:

Robert May

May has an MBA from the University of Kentucky. He is a consultant and entrepreneur.

You can read his blog at www.businesspundit.com.






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