The Drucker Lectures: Essential Lessons on Management, Society, and Economy

Previously unpublished talks from the Father of Modern Management

Throughout his professional life, Peter F. Drucker inspired millions of business leaders not only through his famous writings but also through his lectures and keynotes. These speeches contained some of his most valuable insights, but had never been published in book form―until now.

The Drucker Lectures features more than 30 talks from one of management's most important figures. Drawn from the Drucker Archives at the Drucker Institute at Claremont Graduate University, the lectures showcase Drucker's wisdom, wit, profundity, and prescience on such topics as:

• Politics and economics of the environment
• Knowledge workers and the Knowledge Society
• Computer and information literacy
• Managing nonprofit organizations
• Globalization

During his life, Drucker well understood that over the last 150 years the world had become a society of large institutions―and that they would only become larger and more powerful. He contended that unless these institutions were effectively managed and ethically led, the good health of society as a whole would be in peril. His prediction is unfolding before our eyes.

The Drucker Lectures is a timely, instructive book proving that responsible behavior and good business can, in fact, exist hand in hand.

Rick Wartzman is executive director of the Drucker Institute at Claremont Graduate University. By advancing the teachings of the late Peter F. Drucker, the Institute seeks to stimulate effective management and ethical leadership across all sectors of society. Wartzman is also a columnist for BusinessWeek online. His most recent book, Obscene in the Extreme: The Burning and Banning of John Steinbeck's The Grapes of Wrath, was picked as a Borders "Original Voices" selection and named by the Los Angeles Times as one of its 25 favorite nonfiction books of the year. It was also a finalist for the Los Angeles Times Book Prize in history.Wartzman is the co-author, with Mark Arax, of the bestseller The King of California: J.G. Boswell and the Making of a Secret American Empire, which was selected as one of the 10 best books of 2003 by the San Francisco Chronicle and one of the 10 best nonfiction books of the year by the Los Angeles Times. It also won, among other honors, a California Book Award and the William Saroyan International Prize for Writing.