Synopsis
The nation's top management guru offers advice to executives for thriving in the global business environment of the future, covering such topics as team building, cutting costs in retail, changes in the U.S. economy, and doing business in Japan.
Reviews
Bestselling management guru Drucker's latest offering is a grab bag of articles published since 1991, though he states that every piece was written with this book in mind. Extending the insights of his Post-Capitalist Society (1993), he stresses that information has emerged as the executive's key resource and a company's bedrock; as a consequence, he recommends that teams replace traditional boss-subordinate relationships. With his trademark cogency and clarity, Drucker offers invaluable practical insights for managers at all levels. One piece enumerates the "five deadly business sins"; another argues that every company operates according to its own theory of business?a set of assumptions about its environment, mission and core competencies?that needs to be made explicit and monitored. Drucker probes the impact of the information revolution on retailing, sets forth guidelines for family-controlled businesses and urges policy changes to assist nonprofit organizations. He calls upon the federal government to institute periodic performance critiques of every federal agency and program. He is at his provocative best in arguing that we can revive our national economy only by forging an aggressive global economic policy that jettisons protectionism and gives international trade priority over domestic problems.
Copyright 1995 Reed Business Information, Inc.
Drucker is the foremost management thinker of our time and also a keen social observer and prolific writer. His Post-Capitalist Society (1993) deftly analyzes a future in which the workplace will be dominated by the "knowledge worker," a phrase Drucker coined 35 years ago. This most recent book is a collection of Drucker's writing that has appeared since 1991 in such periodicals as the Atlantic Monthly, Foreign Affairs, and Harvard Business Review all, says Drucker, with the intent of eventually being anthologized. Each article is noteworthy. "A Century of Social Transformation," "Really Reinventing Government," and "The End of Japan, Inc." are typically seminal, filled with Drucker's insights. In contrast to his forward-looking, startlingly accurate New Realities (1989), this book's 25 pieces and two interviews deal with "changes that have already irreversibly happened." Drucker offers them up as a challenge to executives who he hopes will take action to help "make the future." David Rouse
The worldview of management guru Drucker is carefully thought out and simply composed, which makes his works easy to digest. Similar to his Managing for the Future (LJ 1/92), this book is a collection of essays and articles previously published in well-known periodicals since 1991. Drucker selected pieces that received positive responses and made them into chapters arranged by four topics: management, information-based organization, the economy, and society. In some instances, a few essays were lengthened, and the epilog was written strictly for the book. Executives and longtime Drucker aficionados will particularly enjoy having these well-regarded essays in one package. Highly recommended for all business collections.
--Rebecca A. Smith, Harvard Business Sch. Lib.
Copyright 1995 Reed Business Information, Inc.
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