Peter Drucker Book

Peter Drucker, the teacher/journalist/consultant/historian who popularized "management by objective" and identified the "knowledge society," was among the first to unapologetically treat management as a discipline. Peter Drucker, a volume in Dorling Kindersley's Business Masterminds series, looks at theories Drucker has detailed in his own works since 1939 and breaks them down in a way that's accessible to a general business audience. Robert Heller, the founding editor of Management Today magazine and author of several entries in the series, begins with a biography to help readers understand Drucker. He then divides Drucker's principles into five basic themes: organizing for success, the art of management, managing by objectives and self-control, harnessing the power of innovation, and responsible knowledge management, which he dissects concisely and explains clearly. In the final section, for example, Heller addresses the concept of moral responsibility by citing the origins and consequences of Drucker's "strictly limited faith in the power of free enterprise, which in his opinion is only as good as its contribution to society." As with other books in the series, "Masterclasses" are interspersed between these sections to distill theories into easily absorbed bits of practical advice. --Howard Rothman