Three Recent books on Peter Drucker

Book Reviews, Feature ArticlesNo tags

Drucker on Leadership

A fresh look at vital lessons from “The Father of Modern Management”–exploring Peter Drucker’s teachings on leadership. As we approach what would have been his 100th birthday, the late Peter Drucker’s management principles continue to be studied and applied by managers all over the world. Though many seek his lessons on the central element of management-leadership-he in fact wrote relatively little under this actual subject heading. Now, for the first time, William A. Cohen, a former student of Drucker’s and a leadership expert and author in his own right, brings together Drucker’s reflections on leadership, culled from his 40 books and hundreds of articles. Explaining why there is so little know about Drucker’s ideas on leadership, this book is a must-read for students and fans alike looking to lead better in today’s world.

Strategic Drucker

Written by his former student, associate and personal friend, Robert W. Swaim, it pulls excerpts from Drucker’s numerous works into one single source, summarizing his astute views on strategy and business growth. Dr. Swaim also includes some exclusive views Drucker shared with him over their 30-year friendship on strategy and, in particular, on sales and marketing –views which have never been published. While Drucker was very good at describing what should be done, he often neglected how it should be done – this book therefore uniquely combines Drucker’s theories with practical application by taking his teachings beyond the concepts and providing some application tools and guidelines for ready implementation. The reader will also find that the author has integrated the work of other renowned contributors in the fields of strategy, marketing and innovation to reinforce and build on Drucker’s original work, making his prescribed tactics more relevant for managers and organizations in today’s dynamic environment.

A Class with Drucker

Long considered the world’s greatest thinker and writer on management, Peter Drucker’s teachings continue to inspire leaders everywhere. From 1975 to 1979, author William Cohen studied under the Great Man and became the first graduate of his doctoral program. What Drucker taught him literally changed his life. In a matter of a few years, he was recommissioned in the Air Force and rose to the rank of major general. Eventually, he became a full professor, management consultant, multibook author, and university president as well as maintaining a nearly lifelong friendship with the master. In A Class with Drucker, Cohen shares many of Drucker’s teachings that never made it into his countless books and articles, ideas that were offered to his students in classroom or informal settings. Cohen expands on Drucker’s lessons with personal anecdotes about his teacher’s personality, lack of pretension, and interactions with students and others. He also shows how Drucker’s ideas can be applied to the real-world challenges managers face today.