Consulting Drucker: How to apply Drucker's principles for business success

by William A. Cohen

Peter Drucker is known worldwide as ‘ The Father of Modern Management’ . But he was also the world’ s most famous and successful independent consultant. The methods developed by Drucker remain highly relevant and continue to be used in organizations today. This book, written by the first executive PhD graduate of the program Drucker developed, is the first book to reveal in detail Drucker’ s methods and ideas as a consultant. Jack Welch noted that his success at GE was based on Drucker’ s consulting advice. Bill Bartmann, who became the 25th wealthiest man in America at one point, also credits Drucker’ s advice in helping with his success. This book is an encyclopaedia of Drucker’ s consulting approaches and how and when to apply them. It will enable executives and managers to gain new insight into Drucker’ s thinking and methods, and why they continue to have such tremendous influence over today’ s organizations.

288 pages, Hardcover

Published May 10, 2018

About the author

William A. Cohen, Ph.D. (Pasadena, CA) is an authority on leadership and strategy formulation and deployment. He gives speeches and seminars for the Industrial College of the Armed Forces, the Air War College, the FBI Academy, all four armed services, and corporations from Boeing to The Cheesecake Factory. He is the author of many books including The New Art of the Leader, The Wisdom of the Generals , and How to Make It Big as a Consultant (978-0-8144-7073-2).

Reviews

[Pang Khong Yun · Rating 5 out of 5]

An enlightenment reading on Peter Drucker's( the father of modern management) ideas on business and management. First, the book will introduce the background of Drucker and his philosophy. Generally, Peter Drucker believe that the basic function of any business is innovation and marketing. It is necessary for individual to understand the difference between marketing and sales. Marketing give what the customer demand, whereas sales tend to persuade the customer to buy. In short, perfect marketing make sales unnecessary. Peter Drucker stress the importance of integrity and ethical, he insisted that no such thing as "business ethic". Also, someone who blindly follow law do not necessary being ethical.( here the author state a few unfair law by the government to support his point). However there is ethics of social responsibilities (helping others even by violating the unfair law), which will gain respect among others. Drucker on consultant's ethics: 1)for first, do not harm 2)The mirror test( what kind of person you want to look yourself in the mirror). Drucker consulting approach emphasizing on asking questions, whilst questions can serve as a distraction for us to thing a problem in different perspective. Drucker 's five most important questions: 1)What is your mission 2)Who is your customer 3)What does the customer value 4)What are your result 5)What is your plan. The first three questions for a leader to his organization's planning: 1)What business are you in 2)What will be the business be in the future 3)What should it be in the future. One of Drucker famous quote "What everyone knows is usually wrong". Drucker want us not to blindly follow the computer's data and the public assumption. However, one should analyse the assumption by: 1)tracking the prime source 2)test its validity and reliability. Drucker want us to use ignorant to approach problem, continually asking and learning which eventually help us to identified the main problem. One should use left brain (conscious mind (logic and analysis)) and right brain(subconscious mind) to solve a problem. Drucker is more about the latter approach as he love to ask and THINK on a problem as his view on data analysis is merely a tool to assist and brain is much more superior than that. One should know risk cannot be avoided, so we have to choose the right risk. It is dangerous for one to intentionally avoid risk as they might forever standing on the same spot and finally being eliminate by time and culture. Drucker's control to select the right risk: 1)They had to be economical 2)They had to be meaningful 3)They must be appropriate to the nature on what one are measuring 4)Measurement must be congruence to the phenomenon measured 5)timely 6)simple 7)applicable with action. The author compare Drucker with Einstein which both using analytic approach( based on what observe, think and imagine in general to reach conclusion) to solve problem. While synthetic approach is more about testing the hypothesis. One should realized the purpose of the business is to create customers. Profit and profit maximization are important but by creating a solid base of customers, the profit will start to generate. In short, what drucker means is prioritize good services, high quality then come down to price. Drucker emphasize the importance of individual have high self confidence in order to success. With necessary confidence, one can bravely make decisions according to the ever changing real life situations. One can learn to develop self-confidence by mental rehearsal (mentally imagine the next action one wants to take again and again). One need to always plan for 'what if", always innovate, and willing to to abandon the old successful policy. Peter Drucker disagree with the Peter principle(one has their own limit). Drucker believe on one mistake by an individual do not mean that person is a failure, in fact one can always learn from their mistake and perform better. ( The author give a lot examples) In short Drucker insist that employees are the asset of company, leader need to see the ability and calculate the potential of these asset. The author also provide his view on the development on education with his preference on online teaching and Thayer's method ( learn yourself and ask questions in the class).Drucker on promoting or hiring people: 1)Think through the requirement 2)have multiple candidates 3)share intention with colleges to receive their opinion 4) mentor the chosen one. Lastly, there will be essay or testimonials regarding Peter Drucker and his approach. Overall, the book contain a lot of intriguing story and examples from military, education to business. An enlightening study on Druker's philosophy.

[JunRong Ng · Rating 4 out of 5]

The many examples and people’s experiences that the book provides brings drucker’s theory of management into reality.

However, i would only recommend the book if one has read the foundations of drucker’s management philosophy.

[Ronald J. · Rating 3 out of 5]

I liked it, only because I'm an enthusiastic student of Peter Drucker. But it's not Cohen's best book on Drucker. It seemed a bit rushed. But there's still some gems from Drucker's thinking.