The Essential Drucker

"The Essential Drucker" is one of those books that is tough to review because it covers so much great content with such a deep level of insight. What's most remarkable is that he covers the huge subject of management in a 350 page book but it's so packed full of information that it seems like the book should have been more like 1,000 pages. He covers subjects such as "Dimensions of Management" (Mission, Worker Achievement, and Social Responsibilities), transparency and responsibility in organizations, how to set and review standards for performance and promotion, how to manage through objectives and structured feedback, communications with subordinates and superiors, basic principles of hiring decision making (if you put a person in a position and they don't perform - that's your mistake, the soldier has a right to competent command, people decisions are the most important because they determine the capacity of the organization, and don't give new people major assignments because it compounds risk), entrepreneurial strategies (fast and hard, going where they're not, finding and occupying a niche, and changing the economic characteristics of a product, market, or an industry), design of experiments to assess management effectiveness, and even time management and personal development. Drucker spends the last bit of the book discussing the rise of the knowledge economy and the changes that it is going to bring. Although this was written a while ago, Drucker is mostly right on and has insights on the growing importance of personal development and the exponential growth in productivity of the knowledge worker. Interestingly, he also touches on the topic of "what should intelligent people do with their free time?" He suggests that more and more people are devoting significant amounts of times to non-profits, but aren't just ladling out soup at the soup kitchen, but instead are bringing their skills from work to the non-profit sector. He stresses that managers have a particularly important role to play in this sphere.<br/><br/>A great book. My only complaint is that because it's an amalgamation of Drucker's other works, there is sometimes slight overlap in his stories and by the end you'll be sick and tired of hearing about Alfred Sloan and General Motors (even though he was the man!)."