Practice of Management

by Peter F. Drucker

This classic volume achieves a remarkable width of appeal without sacrificing scientific accuracy or depth of analysis. It is a valuable contribution to the study of business efficiency which should be read with pleasure by anyone wanting information about the developments and place of management, and it is as relevant today as when it was first written.


Drucker provides fresh material and new ideas of the greatest interest to all applied economists and sociologists. For everyone actually employed in management, whether their work be administrative, technical or with personnel, this comprehensive study is indispensable.


*Written by one of the worlds leading management thinkers
*Awarded the Judges' Prize from the Financial Times/ Booz Allen and Hamilton Global Business Book Awards (21/5/1998).
*The Prize is given for 'a book which has stood the test of time as an important contribution to business thinking'. Published in 1954 this title has been in print ever since.

Genres: Business, Management, Leadership, Nonfiction, Economics, Entrepreneurship, Startup

408 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1954

About the author

Peter Ferdinand Drucker was a writer, management consultant and university professor. His writing focused on management-related literature. Peter Drucker made famous the term knowledge worker and is thought to have unknowingly ushered in the knowledge economy, which effectively challenges Karl Marx's world-view of the political economy. George Orwell credits Peter Drucker as one of the only writers to predict the German-Soviet Pact of 1939.

The son of a high level civil servant in the Habsburg empire, Drucker was born in the chocolate capital of Austria, in a small village named Kaasgraben (now a suburb of Vienna, part of the 19th district, Döbling). Following the defeat of Austria-Hungary in World War I, there were few opportunities for employment in Vienna so after finishing school he went to Germany, first working in banking and then in journalism. While in Germany, he earned a doctorate in International Law. The rise of Nazism forced him to leave Germany in 1933. After spending four years in London, in 1937 he moved permanently to the United States, where he became a university professor as well as a freelance writer and business guru. In 1943 he became a naturalized citizen of the United States. He taught at New York University as a Professor of Management from 1950 to 1971. From 1971 to his death he was the Clarke Professor of Social Science and Management at Claremont Graduate University.

Reviews

[Tomasz · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book was written 60 years ago and it feels like most of the Drucker's thoughts are still of the moment. Whats more, in many modern books about management you can notice that authors "discover america" again. For some insights it took decades until they were proved empirically and described wider therefore more commonly used. An example here can be "focusing on strengths and managing weaknesses" which is the key point in "First, break all the rules" book that is based on Gallup research of the best performing managers. Drucker repeats this throughout the whole book with different contexts.

There is one interesting part about preparing manager for his job (even from the early years of life). The most important things to focus on are:
- writing poetry and short stories (they teach person how to express himself, teach him words and their meaning and above all give him practice in writing)
- oral defense of "thesis" - should not be only once or twice but more often throughout the whole education
- acquiring ability to see the environment and to understand it through history and the political sciences
- learn economics and acquire tools of the economists

I'm very impressed by his knowledge and the way of thinking as for 1950s, and if there wouldn't be examples that purely refer to industrial era - it wouldn't be possible to feel "the age" of this book.
Book definitely for the second re-read in the future!


My favorite quotes:

"Improvement is not the matter of learning to read faster or public speaking. Manager needs to learn to know the language, to understand what words are and what they mean"

"What manager has to do can be learned - but not necessary always taught"

"Yesterdays good performance must become today's minimum; yesterday's excellence - today's common place..."

"If one can "get fired" for poor performance one must also be able to "get rich" for extraordinary performance"

"Purpose of organization - make common man do uncommon things"

"One does not become broader by seeing another speciality (narrow) -> one becomes broader by seeing the business as a whole"

"It is not enough that employee is satisfied, he needs to perform - and performance should be the main focus!"

[Shagun Tripathi · Rating 5 out of 5]

At the onset, I take his opportunity to mention that Drucker is, by far my favourite management writer and guru of all times and this book has been an excellent read. The reason is simple: he is direct, incisive in analysis and writes with unparalleled clarity. His erudition is observable in simplicity as opposed to complexity, a feat that his contemporaries will find difficult to achieve (I mention this because I am reading him after Barnard and Simon, both stalwarts of management, but none the closer to Drucker’s charismatic writing in my opinion). The instruments of his arguments are many and profound: anecdotes, reason, common sense and sometimes, blunt authority on management which only he can exercise in such convincing manner.

And even then, the greatness of Drucker’s intellectual contribution is that he does not reason with the reader. While this may be an unusual remark, so I will try to explain what I mean in the following manner: Drucker does not argue with the reader, he does not position himself as external to his audience and then debate from the standpoint of a highly experienced consultant and professor. Instead, he is one with the mind of the reader, his tone is the dialectic that we hear in our own mind; his commentary helps us organize the many conflicting ideas we have harboured from casually scrolling past the abundant and ill-explained management wisdom of our times. Where it is absolutely necessary, he resolves all ‘ifs’ and ‘buts’ with an authoritative stance that he asks his reader to accept at face value. When this is done, he masterfully and gently explains his stance and brings the reader to a new level of enlightenment, letting the reader feel the joy of discovery and power of his own reasoning. In fact, enlightening is a good adjective to describe all of Drucker’s work, in addition to prescient, diligent, conscientious analysis of the world around him.
In the “Practice of Management”, Drucker has written a comprehensive treatise that remains the management bible of the day- so much so that even practitioners have hear of it. Here I must stress a very important point: reading Drucker leaves one surprised at how well he knows the mind of the practitioner. He has an access to the problems, challenges, ethical dilemmas, aspirations and daily operations of the management executive which he studies with the sharp eye of the scholar. This book is labyrinthine in its coverage of management in every way. What is even more remarkable, is how his ideas are alive, relevant and important today and shall possibly continue to hold value in the coming decades. From defining a motive of the organization to explaining forecasting methods in the business cycle, from goal setting and leadership to developing managers , from the structure of organizations to employing the whole individual, a host of novel ideas have been covered in this book that are guiding principles of managements and organizations today. It is difficult to pin-point the highlights of the book, because in my experience, each page has been delightful remarkable and full of snippets of wisdom that so often appear as quotes in the world of management. There is no argument or debate on reading Drucker’s ideas, he leaves no leeway for contrarian ideas. He has meticulously considered and explained all conceivable scenarios and one is left amazed at the vast expanse of wisdom that is discovered through the read. It is necessary to take time out to digest Drucker’s ideas so that one may utilize their wisdom in professional manner.

My final thoughts on Drucker are an appreciation of his humanistic approach that does not conflict the financial goals of the organization. In my reading experiences with all other writers in management classics such as Taylor, Fayol, Mayo, Folett, Simon and Barnard, I have observe that each author had a choice of inclination between humanistic practices and profit. My impression thus was that the two were divergent objectives and that one could only be achieved at the cost of the other. I am therefore surprised and very impressed by how Drucker has woven the organization with its people, customers, innovation, marketing, leadership, profit and society into an integrated whole. A brief comment on his sociological outlook is that he aligns with the structural functionalism school of thought in sociology, explaining organizations with their organs and functions. “The Practice of Management” is a gripping read and suitable for the scholar and the practitioner alike, in its practical wisdom and scholarly intuition unparalleled by any other management classic I have read so far.

[grebrim · Rating 5 out of 5]

So everything people write about manangement was already known 50 years ago. That speaks both for Drucker and against decades of research on the matter. Read this if you're doing something that has remotely to do with management.

[أحمد · Rating 5 out of 5]

مجلة بيزنس ويك بتقول على بيتر دراكر إنه الشخص الذي اخترع الإدارة، وإظن إن دي مش مبالغة خالص، الكتاب ممتاز الحقيقة ... أغلب كتب الإدارة بتكون مكررة ومملة وساعات بتحول الإدارة لعلم خفيف لأغراض تسويق الكتاب، الكتاب ده مختلف تمامًا، بسيط، واقعي، حتى ده واضح من مجرد عنوانه The Practice of Management ، اللي هو مش علم الإدارة ولا أساسيات الإدارة ، ولا الهري ده .. الكتاب فعلًا بيتكلم عن ممارسة حقيقية للإدارة ، وبأسلوب مش ملل، مليان أمثلة لقصص شركات واقعية (زي فورد وسيزر وأي بي إم)، مع تحليل القصص ده وربطها بمواضيع الفصول.
الكتاب إتكتب سنة 1954 ومع ذلك لا يزال محتواه صالح ومفيد جدًا ... أظن إني هبدأ في قراءته للمرة الثانية قريبًا جدًا لإن مرة واحدة مش كفاية.
أنصح بيه أي حد بيفكر ينمي مهاراته الإدارية ونظرته للبيزنس عمومًا.

[Dmitry · Rating 2 out of 5]

(The English review is placed beneath the Russian one)

Данная книга Друкера не входит в число основных работ этого автора и возможно поэтому, она произвела на меня довольно слабое впечатление. Я согласен с одним англоязычным читателем, что книга была написана в 50-х годах XX века и предназначалась для людей живших именно в этот период времени, что означает, что книгу невозможно оценить, будучи в реалиях века XXI. Это сейчас мы понимаем, насколько сильно заблуждался Тейлор со своей концепцией научного менеджмента, но тогда, после Второй Мировой войны, люди в США считали идеи Тейлора правильными. Вот именно для таких людей и была написана эта книга, как и многие другие книги Друкера. Исходя из этого, мы можем сказать, что эпоха менеджмента по Друкеру пришла на смену тейлоровскому менеджменту. Сегодня, когда Друкера вспоминают как главного классика менеджмента, нужно помнить что он стал классиком именно в качестве альтернативы Тейлору и всему этому направлению в менеджменте. Однако сегодняшние студенты изучают менеджмент, в которых идеи Друкера являются обычным здравым смыслом, а научный менеджмент Тейлора рассматривается в главе «История менеджмента». Поэтому сегодня мало у кого возникнет WOW-эффект после прочтения книг Друкера. В любом случаи, начинать знакомство с книгами Друкера с этой книги я точно не советую.

Друкер пишет довольно скучно и расплывчато для сегодняшнего дня и, особенно, относительно сегодняшних проблем и вызовов, с которыми сталкиваются менеджеры. Да, по большому счёту он прав в своих рассуждениях о важности децентрализации власти или что в сегодняшнем бизнесе важен клиент, а не производство или о важности постановки целей и многое другое. Однако когда автор долго и нудно объясняет, почему Генри Форд был неправ, когда не признавал менеджеров как людей способных управлять компанией (из-за чего Генри Форд и привёл свою компанию к краю пропасти), мы понимаем, насколько устарела книга. Ну, кто сегодня в здравом уме будет утверждать, что менеджеры не нужны и всем должен управлять исключительно собственник? Такого человека мы не найдём в сегодняшнем мире управления предприятием. А в то время этот вопрос был актуален и именно поэтому Друкер посвятил так много времени этому вопросу. Другие описания проблем и решений также выглядят очень скучными и устаревшими.

Я читал книгу дважды и оба раза она практически никак не запомнилась. Автор взял слишком много тем и подошёл к их описанию довольно академично, либо попросту, скучно. Хотя начало у книги просто великолепное. Чуть ли не от каждого маркетолога можно услышать одну и ту же цитату Друкера, которую можно найти на первых страницах этой книги:

«Поскольку главной целью компания ставит себе создание клиента, любое коммерческое пр��дприятие выполняет две (и только две) основные функции: маркетинг и инновации. Это предпринимательские функции».

Я позволю себе добавить и другую цитату, которая располагается чуть выше только что приведённой. Это сейчас она кажется самоочевидной, но в то время она была в новинку.

«Основа бизнеса – это клиент, и от него зависит существование компании. Клиент обеспечивает компанию работой».

Правда, у меня такое чувство, что в странах СНГ к данному подходу ведения бизнеса ещё не пришли. С другой стороны, если корпорация, благодаря теневым сговорам с правительством, является монополистом, то такой компании нет особого смысла думать о клиентах, ибо покупатели будут покупать в любом случаи. Возможно, именно поэтому так часто можно обнаружить наплевательское отношение к клиентам в странах СНГ. Коррупция, которая разлагает не только все уровни власти, но и все сферы жизни общества.

В целом, несмотря на вышесказанное, я считаю, что Друкер понял ценность маркетинга раньше других специалистов и предпринимателей. И тут я имею в виду не аналитический инструмент маркетинга, а философию маркетинга или маркетинг как подход к управлению фирмой. Что я имею в виду? Маркетинг - это не отдел, а это способ управления предприятием и, причём любым предприятием. Как пишет Друкер, «маркетинг не только гораздо шире, чем продажа, его вообще нельзя считать узкоспециализированной деятельностью. Маркетинг охватывает весь бизнес, так как рассматривает всё с точки зрения конечного результата, то есть клиента. Таким образом, маркетинг должен пронизывать всю деятельность компании». По сути, все маркетологи конца XX века писали именно о таком маркетинге, а не о специалисте который придумывает, как ещё можно обмануть клиента, продав лёд эскимосам и песок арабам и устанавливая ценники, заканчивающиеся на цифру 9. Возможно, можно утверждать, что Друкер немного опередил своё время. В любом случаи, основные его идеи сегодня актуальны как никогда (а до некоторых стран они всё ещё не дошли).

Последнее что мне понравилось, это очень верное замечание насчёт лидерства. В книге автор очень много говорит о роли CEO, о командной работе, о правильном подходе к работникам (гуманном, уважительном подходе) и конечно же пишет о лидерстве и роли лидерства в менеджменте XXI века. Опять же, тут с ним я абсолютно согласен, и нахожу сказанное автором невероятно точным. Автор пишет следующее:

«Истинному лидеру чрезвычайно трудно подыскать замену. Настоящего лидера нельзя назначить или создать. Нет такого учебного заведения, в котором вас научат быть лидером».

Мне кажется многие авторы книг по лидерству, которые издаются даже сегодня, ещё не поняли этот простой истины, которая была высказана в далёких 50-х годах XX века.

Подводя итог после того как я дважды прочёл книгу, я хочу сказать, что книгу стоит читать лишь тем, кто собирается стать менеджером (управленцем) или кто уже им является. Хотя фраза «учиться на менеджера» звучит как-то странно, если честно. Да и будут ли руководители департаментов и тем более CEO фирмы тратить своё время на чтения этой и других книг, для меня всегда было крайне неясным. Думаю, это как раз та литература, которую стоит читать в студенческие годы, авось пригодится (я ни в коем случае не хочу принизить важность ни этой книги, ни других книг Друкера).

This book by Drucker is not one of the major works of this author, and perhaps that is why it made a rather weak impression on me. I agree with one English-speaking reader that the book was written in the 50s of the XX century and was intended for people who lived in that period of time, which means that the book cannot be appreciated in the realities of the XXI century. It is now that we realize how much Taylor was wrong with his concept of scientific management, but back then, after World War II, people in the United States thought Taylor's ideas were correct. It is for such people that this book was written, as well as many other books by Drucker. On this basis, we can say that the Drucker era of management replaced Taylorian management. Today, when Drucker is remembered as a major classic of management, it should be remembered that he became a classic precisely as an alternative to Taylor and all these trends in management. However, today's students are studying management in which Drucker's ideas are common sense, and Taylor's scientific management is covered in the History of Management chapter. Therefore, few people today will have a WOW effect after reading Drucker's books. I don't recommend starting your acquaintance with Drucker's books with this book.

Drucker writes rather dull and vague for today, especially regarding today's problems and challenges facing managers. Yes, by and large, he is right in his arguments about the importance of decentralizing power or that in today's business, it is the customer, not production, who is important or the importance of goal setting and much more, but when the author goes to great lengths to explain why Henry Ford was wrong in not recognizing managers as people capable of running a company (which is why Henry Ford brought his company to the edge of the abyss), we realize how outdated the book is. Well, who in their right mind today would argue that managers are not needed and everything should be managed solely by the owner? We will not find such a person in today's world of enterprise management. But, at that time, this question was relevant and that is why Drucker devoted so much time to this issue. Other descriptions of problems and solutions also look very boring and outdated.

I've read the book twice and both times it was virtually unmemorable. The author took too many topics and approached their description rather academically, or simply, boring. The beginning of the book is great though. You can hear the same Drucker quote from almost every marketer that can be found in the first few pages of this book:

“Because a company's primary goal is to create a customer, any commercial enterprise has two (and only two) primary functions: marketing and innovation. These are entrepreneurial functions.”

I will allow myself to add another quotation, which is just above the one just given. It seems self-evident now, but at that time, it was a novelty.

“The backbone of business is the customer, and the company's existence depends on it. The customer provides the company with work.

However, I have a feeling that CIS countries have not yet come to this approach to doing business. On the other hand, if a corporation, thanks to shadowy collusion with the government, is a monopoly, it makes little sense for such a company to think about customers because customers will buy anyway. Perhaps that's why it is so common to find negligent attitudes towards customers in CIS countries. Corruption, which corrupts not only all levels of government but also all spheres of society.

In general, despite the above, I believe that Drucker understood the value of marketing before other professionals and entrepreneurs. Here, I am not referring to the analytical tool of marketing but to the philosophy of marketing or marketing as an approach to managing a firm. What do I mean by that? Marketing is not a department but a way of managing an enterprise. As Drucker writes, “Marketing is not only much broader than selling, it cannot be considered a highly specialized activity at all. Marketing encompasses the entire business, as it looks at everything from the point of view of the end result, i.e., the customer. Thus, marketing should permeate the entire activity of the company.” In fact, all marketers of the late 20th century wrote about this kind of marketing, not about a specialist who figures out how else to deceive the customer by selling ice to Eskimos and sand to Arabs and setting price tags ending in the number 9. Perhaps, it could be argued, that Drucker was a bit ahead of his time. In any case, his main ideas are more relevant today than ever (and they have not yet reached some countries).

The last thing I liked was a very valid point about leadership. In the book, the author talks a lot about the role of the CEO, teamwork, the right approach to employees (humane, respectful approach), and, of course, he writes about leadership and the role of leadership in 21st-century management. Again, this is where I agree with him and find what the author says incredibly accurate. The author writes the following:

“A true leader is extremely difficult to replace. A true leader cannot be appointed or created. There is no institution that will teach you how to be a leader.”

It seems to me that many authors of books on leadership that are published even today have not yet realized this simple truth, which was expressed in the distant 50s of the XX century.

To summarize after having read the book twice, I would like to say that the book is worth reading only for those who are going to become a manager or who already are one. Although the phrase “studying to be a manager” sounds kind of strange, to be honest. Whether the heads of departments and, even more so, the CEO of the firm will spend their time reading this and other books has always been unclear to me. I think this is just the kind of literature you should read in your student years, just in case it comes in handy (I do not in any way mean to downplay the importance of this book or Drucker's other books).

[Richard · Rating 5 out of 5]

Most books on management are dull, repetitive, unoriginal, and full of self-promotion. Drucker's book is the original. This is the book to read if you want to learn about management, how it impacts people, how to do it better, and how it can go disastrously wrong.

[Maksymilian Marek · Rating 2 out of 5]

Mam bardzo mieszane uczucia wobec tej książki, w sumie sam się zastanawiam czemu ją przeczytałem, leżała na półce więc uznałem że przeczytam ale raczej to była strata czasu. Została napisana 70 lat temu i wtedy rzeczy które opisuje Drucker były w miarę nowe i odkrywcze, pytanie na ile przystają do dnia dzisiejszego. Na pewno nastawienie na decentralizacje i zarządzanie przez cele jest czymś do przemyśleń ale myślę że to znów książka typu przeczytaj za 20 lat jak będziesz miał ją do czego odnieść, bo niestety mało jest praktycznych przykładów w których on opisuje swoje teorie( jak były to były najciekawszą częścią książki). Widać że została napisana bardzo dawno, bardziej jako taki zbiór myśli niż uporządkowana forma bo trochę dziwacznie się czyta.

[Iain Hamill · Rating 4 out of 5]

To some extent a product of its time with the emphasis on the scientific management styles dominant in post-war America, but also directly applicable to management today, as Drucker highlights again and again how central human character is and how little that has changed since time began.

It was good to see the development and original context of his seminal “management by objectives” theory but I also really appreciated the closing chapters on the challenges and opportunities of the future.

The world is changing fast... but “there will be no new men to do these staggering tasks. The manager of tomorrow will not be a bigger man than his father was before him. He will be possessed of the same endowments, beset by the same frailties and hedged in by the same limitations. There is no evidence that the human being has altered much in the course of recorded history, certainly none that he has grown in intellectual stature or emotional maturity. The Bible is still the fullest measure of man’s nature. Aeschylus and Shakespeare still the best textbooks of psychology and sociology, Socrates and St Thomas Aquinas still the high-water marks of human intellect.” (Pg. 366)

[Arun Ramamurthy · Rating 5 out of 5]

One book that has been what you call as Original. A classic work, to be read by every management student, staff and almost any one in the corporate world. It is interesting that really nothing new has been added to management theory - is what I felt onreading this book first published in 1954.

[Nicole · Rating 3 out of 5]

While the specific examples are sometimes quaintly outdated, the general themes are still relevant.

And what would Drucker, supporter of writing and oration college courses, say about business school requirements today?

[Hongsno2522]

It's really a great book.

[Liz Skelton · Rating 3 out of 5]

I don't like his writing style but found his theories still pretty relevant today.

[Susie · Rating 1 out of 5]

Yes, yes, Drucker is brilliant and a management classic, but this book was drier than a sawdust sandwich and made me want to clean out my refrigerator in procrastination.

[Heather · Rating 2 out of 5]

As IF I actually read this. Last week of grad school classes. :throws hands up: I skimmed enough to write my paper. #senioritis

[Peter Krol · Rating 3 out of 5]

Much of this book was way over my head. But a few sections were astoundingly pertinent and helpful.

[Jordan · Rating 2 out of 5]

Upon final consideration I have decided I will be unfair to this book. It's important to note if you're being unfair and in my position I felt the best review I could leave for this book would be so. Let me tell you why it's going to be unfair. Because my review is going to be written today, here and now, in the 21st century. Because it has to be. There is no way I can go back to the days of 1954 and give this book the review it earned. So here's my review: this book isn't very good.

It's generally considered one of the better business books around and that's a genre I do usually enjoy. Admittedly it is dry material but the writing style presents it so matter of factly that it doesn't try to help. There are a decent amount of real world example to provide context but it all hinges on the time that it came out. This book spends 400 pages of the readers time and never really finds something to say. The business advice boils down to platitudes such as, "Manage by objectives and not by reports". Every single time the reader is waiting on legitimate insight it's kept from us. Or told to us in some way that shows it has no value. Lines that promise value such as "The first requirement of managemenet, clearly stated, is..." end up betraying us and not clearly stating any true path to management. This book offers little to a reader searching for legitimate knowledge on the running of a company.

The reason why it offers so little is largely due to the time. This book is more than 60 years old, but I'm not criticizing old books by any means. Specifically, the 1950's were a time that the US struggled and was overtaken by management in many other countries (see Out of the Crisis by Deming for a book with more to say but not without it's own faults). This books offers some benefit to the intended audience, the misguided american foreman of the mid 20th century. But it falls short in delivering a framework that actually provides a way for a company to succeed. Finally, the book falls victim to the time period of the 1950's and includes inappropriate cultural terms and stereotypes, several strange instances of taking misguided swings at communism, and an over reliance of Sears Roebuck as a reference.

It certainly does have it's bright parts. The section on company's needing to understand their business (by way of Sears adapting to in person stores over catalogues) and not just address today's needs is true. It also rails against this fear of automation displacing jobs as misguided in such an accurate way that it deserves to be in a much newer and much better book. We're also given insight that a company requires a cohesive vision of what problem it actually solves in the world.

These are all great points and that's all fantastic but the issue is it all seems too common sense and too common place to make for a great book. And I can't honestly say if the reason for that is because those ideas are common today because of writings like this book, or if it's always been known. Seeing as I can't go back and review this book when it first arrived on the shelf, I'll have to review it today and today it makes for a bit of a boring read.

[Yoly]

TL;DR; Good book, I will read the unabridged version at some point.

I bought this audiobook when I first subscribed to Audible back in 2001 but for some reason, I never listened to it. I’ve been going through my library in order to get to those books that I have forgotten about, and since I was looking for a quick read, I thought this would be a good one to pick up today.

This audiobook feels like a series of bullet points on a PowerPoint, but I found most of the things he said to be kind of important, so I went to Amazon to search for the e-book because I wanted a book to highlight some of the things mentioned, and noticed that it says it’s 420 pages long. The audiobook is 1 hour 30 minutes, so that means I got an abridged audiobook (I was young and stupid). So, I’ll rate it as such, I won’t say that I wish he had gone into more depth or that it felt like reading a PowerPoint. Eventually I will get to the full unabridged book because I enjoyed what I listened in this one.

This book was written more than 60 years ago, and while some of the things he said sounded dated, others you can still find in more modern business books.

It was kind of funny how he kept mentioning men: one-man job, multiple men, no man would want, all the men, blah blah. It’s all about the men! Then I noticed it was originally published in 1954, that explains a lot 😊

[Liz Broekhuyse · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book is worth it’s own weight in melotonin. If you want to be asleep within a few pages, this is the book for you. It’s a slow and laborious read, and its treatment of the role of women in the corporate world reflects the fact that it was written a loooong time ago.
That said, the basic concepts in the book still hold fast and I’d consider it essential reading for anyone contemplating a management role in a large organisation. It certainly taught me a lot about how management roles at different levels of an organisation are very different jobs, and crucially, what the hell they do all day.

[Krzysztof B · Rating 3 out of 5]

The book is a definitely a classic and worth reading. I am impressed how well the author knows the topic and he really changed the business world for better with his ideas. The concepts described here have been the foundations of the management discipline. I would even call them revolutionary for the middle of XX century, and often still valid now.
However, the book seemed boring to me at times, and too theorethical (even with all the examples included). It lacks the advice on practical management toolkits and the descriptions of real-life situations may be already not adhering to contemporary world.

[Hongbing Hua · Rating 5 out of 5]

In 1954, Drucker developed an epoch-making concept, Management by Objectives, which became his most important and influential idea. Under its influence, management was separated from economics, metrology, and behavioral science, becoming an independent academic discipline. What's more, Drucker's thinking promoted the establishment of the schools of business administration that can be seen in many universities.

[John Badger · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great explanation of management, I need to read more of his work. Management is speeding up other people’s work. It’s setting objectives, having measurements for them, motivating and enabling people. It’s making the parts sun greater than the whole. It’s organising work and dividing it into manageable tasks. It’s communicating and developing people, using delegation with objectives. The book covers many the aspects of management, and is written in simple style

[Tanya · Rating 5 out of 5]

Ок это 5-6 уровней иерархии
Лучше децентрализация
Может быть функциональное подчинение и филиальное
Управлять людьми должен менеджер, а не специалист по персоналу
Исходим из того, что человек хочет работать
Компании нужно, чтобы человек замотивированно работал, максимум того, на что он способен.
Человеку нужно, чтобы работа была осмысленной и приносила обществу пользу. Высокие стандарты производительности, компетентность в организации работы и управлении ею, заинтересованность менеджмента в качественном выполнении работы.
Макс производительность - организация работы (не конвейер Форда, а маленькие отдельные элементы, которые составляют какой-то процесс и поручаются одному человеку. В работе используются знания и нужно принимать решения)
В каждом из нас заложена духовная и психологическая потребность работать.
Чтобы приносить макс пользу компании, человек должен ощущать неудовлетворенность, т.е. испытывать потребность работать лучше (Противоречие с интересами человека)
Ничто так не деморализует как вынужденные простои в работе.
Участие в прибыли для работника - самое желательно. Однако первично стремление менеджмента сохранять рабочие места и поддерживать связь между успехом компании и защитой рабочих мест.
Менеджер:
1) ставит цели
2) выполняет организационную работу
3) старается создать у работников мотивацию и обменивается с ними информацией
4) проводит оценку
5) заботится о повышении профессионального мастерства своих подчиненных
* грамотное использование времени
* Часто общаются со своими руководителями
* Не обсуждают с подчиненными свои проблемы, но умеют сделать так, чтобы подчиненные рассказали им о своих
Выбор решения:
1. Соотношение риска к пользе от решения
2. Экономия усилий - лучшие результаты при минимальных затратах
3. Временной фактор - быстрые действия или не спеша. Иногда важно сделать первый решительный шаг. Изменение привычек - шаг за шагом.
4. Ограниченность ресурсов - необходимый уровень мастерства.
Менеджер это все же человек с опытом (постановки целей, планирования, оценки). Подготовка менеджера - для людей с опытом (МВА).
И все же главное качество менеджера - порядочность.

[cristian · Rating 5 out of 5]

Muy bueno para los que están viendo administración

Me gustó el libro lo recomiendo para los que están viendo administración y como el autor entiende que se debe llevar la gerencia de una empresa

[Todd Cheng · Rating 5 out of 5]

Other than a very male view of the organization this analysis remains timeless. Peter Drucker gave his entire life and cognitive skill to unfolding an understanding and sharing the practices of management.

[Carter · Rating 5 out of 5]

Peter Drucker's books, are earlier works, in the theory of business management. They are dated, in some sense, but the lessons taught have an eternal quality to them; many of the essentials have not changed. Recommended.

[Daniel · Rating 5 out of 5]

Filled to the brim with both philosophical and practical guidance on management, its purpose, tasks, and challenges. A few parts were a bit dated, but almost every chapter has insights you can translate to today's age. Brilliant.

[Dinibarmon Kungdo · Rating 5 out of 5]

The most important book to get a whole picture of management for me. It’s not just for learning, but more for practice in real life. Thanks for let me become a real entrepreneur. Highly recommend, especially for the CEO of startups.

[周 大為 · Rating 4 out of 5]

我覺得這本應該是彼得杜拉克管理思想的集大成之作，
我看的是中譯版的，我覺得太厚了，而且我不確定是否有翻譯得很好。

但是彼得杜拉克確實將「管理」這門學問說得相當細緻深入，
從中可以了解管理的重要性和管理的重要觀念。
唯一的小缺點是稍嫌龐雜，我覺得可以再提綱挈領一點。


我將個人書摘放在這裡：
https://philog8sophia.blogspot.com/20...

[Usman Bashir · Rating 4 out of 5]

I will recommend my class to read this book

[Wolfb · Rating 4 out of 5]

Great