Management: Tasks, Responsibilities, Practices by Peter F. Drucker

Management: Tasks, Responsibilities, Practices Reviews

• 
  Adam Wiggins

  This is the magnum opus of one of the greatest business minds of the 20th century, filtered and updated by one of his students five years after his death.
  
  It took me a year and a half to make it through this book. Each chapter was so dense with thought-provoking concepts that I couldn't read more than about one a week. The book's preface recommends reading each chapter as a standalone essay, which I agree with.
  
  The core hypothesis here is both simple and grand. Organizations (meaning for-profit companies, schools, hospitals, etc) are organs in the body of our society. The role of a manager is to make organizations perform. Therefore, a healthy society depends on the managers which populate its organizations.
  
  From that foundation, it becomes obvious why studying and improving the craft of management is not only worthwhile but perhaps even a moral imperative.
  
  I was surprised how much of the information here is directly relevant to management in an early-stage startup. Drucker was in his prime in the 1960s through the 1980s. Startup folks like me think we're throwing all the rules out, but perhaps the core principles of running an effective business are timeless.
  
  Note that Drucker did not spend much of his career as a manager. He was an economist, journalist, and business consultant. He observed, recorded patterns, and fed that back into practical use via his role as an advisor.
  
  This is a seriously weighty tome, and I probably made a bigger time investment reading it than any other book I've ever read. But what a payoff.
• 
  Gene Babon

  No manager worth her weight should be allowed to manage people, projects or businesses without a fundamental understanding of the teachings of
  Peter Drucker, The Man Who Invented Management. Management captures a lifetime of Drucker's principles in one legacy guide book on the practice of management.
  
  The original text was published in 1973. This revised edition integrates Drucker's findings from then until his passing in 2005 at age 95. At more than 500 pages it is comprehensive, yet easy to read. The material has stood the test of time remarkably well.
  
  While many of us consider ourselves "knowledge workers" in the Internet age, it was Drucker who coined the term—in 1959! The forward by Jim Collins puts this work into context: "The very best leaders are first and foremost effective managers." This book provides the road map to becoming effective in the workplace.
  
  Here are five nuggets that capture the essence of this work:
  
  ~ "One can divide the work of a manager into planning, organizing, integrating, measuring and developing people." Yet, how many of us excel at each of these tasks on a weekly basis, especially the responsibility of developing people?
  
  ~ "Not to innovate is the single largest reason for the decline of existing organizations. Not to know how to manage is the single largest reason for the failure of new ventures." Yet, what innovation have we introduced into our organization in the past 30 days, in the past 12 months?
  
  ~ In the industrial society schooling traditionally stopped when work began. In the knowledge society, it never stops. "The fastest-growing industry in any developed country may turn out to be the continuing education of already well-educated adults." Yet, how many of us have a plan for continuous learning?
  
  ~ "The most effective way to manage change successfully is to create it. This requires the organized abandonment of things that have been shown to be unsuccessful, and the organized and continuous improvement of every product, service, and process within the enterprise." Yet, how many of us can identify one product, service or process improvement we've contributed to our organization over the past 30 days, over the past 12 months?
  
  ~ "One does not 'manage' people. The task is to lead people. And the goal is to make productive the specific strengths and knowledge of each individual." Yet, how many of us know our own strengths, not to mention the strengths of those we work with?
  
  Five nuggets and I haven't summarized more than the first 80 pages!
  
  The modern workplace needs our help and the practice of management begins with each of us. How well we manage ourselves is a reasonable indicator of how well we might manage others, and "the very best leaders are first and foremost effective managers."
  
  Buy this book, read it cover to cover, place it on your desk at work and refer to it daily!
  
  For additional guidance on the topics of leadership and management access the following five-star reviews:
  
  ~
  Strengths-Based Leadership
  ~
  It's Your Ship: Management Techniques from the Best Damn Ship in the Navy
  
  Access Gene Babon's reviews of books on Business Leadership and Business Strategy at
  Pinterest.
  
• 
  Fahed Al Kerdi

  Without hesitation, I called Kotler's "Marketing Management" as the Bible of marketing, and using the same perspective, I will name this terrific book "The Bible of Management". There is not lecturer can teach management without using one of Drucker's publications, especially this book.
  I made a good use of the content of this book to quote some definitions about the social implementation of management literature, such like entrepreneurship.
  I have read the kindle version and it was well designed.
• 
  Toma

  Unfortunately it is way too theoretical. I had huge expectations about this book but although I am sure there are some hidden gems, I would say it is not worth the effort.
• 
  Moayad Taibah

  This book is a mixed bag for me. It did help me realize how management has changed in the age of information and knowledge workers and get a better understanding of how one is supposed to work alongside his team rather than try to keep a handle on all things himself. That said, a lot of this book felt like that last shot of a movie that has a sequel, panning above an an undiscovered mystery that you want to delve into but nope, you'll have to look for it elsewhere.
  
  I'll admit that it has been a while since I finished this book and the review may be a choppy due to that, but I'll do my best to cover the topics the author covered in this book. Drucker talks about the history of work and managing teams and how it has evolved from the olden days where one was kind of born into a career .vs. now where one's knowledge determines the field they end up working in and how these specializations affects management (after all, there's a limit to what a manager knows in all of the specializations that he/she may require).From there Drucker aimed to provide us with the tools to manage this new type of colleagues by taking into consideration their capabilities, personalities, and what they know best into factor when giving out assignment. He continues to what I believe to be the best chapter of the book, self management. In this chapter, Drucker enlightens you about what you need to know about yourself and how you can utilize the way you receive and use information while gauging your progress as time goes by.
  
  The book did provide me with a lot of insights, but as I mentioned it w
  Is a bit too shallow to truly grasp the core takeaways. I can't really blame the author that much for it, the title of the book gives a glimpse of how great of an undertaking it is, but I can't really say that I got to a concrete level of knowledge that can be applied. Perhaps case studies would have been the better way to go, and he did go with that method at times but it didn't feel it was done to the right level (with the exception of the personal management chapter).
  
  The narration was great but I played it at 1.25 the speed to get through the almost 20 hours of listening times without getting bored.
  
  I would recommend this book as a primer into management and it would provide managers with the basic principles that differentiate management of today (that is of knowledge workers) from days of the past when it used to be command and control.
• 
  Bob Wallner

  I listened to the Audio version of Management as so many people have listed this as THE BOOK on management. I had read this for my business undergrad, but by not being in the workforce, it didn't mean much.
  
  So much of my reading focus has been on leadership and leading people. This book reminds us that there is so much more to all businesses than simply Leading. Processes, Focus, Vision, etc need to be managed.
  
  Many reviews can get into the meat and potatoes of what Management is about. I would prefer to focus on two take-a-ways that I had from this.
  
  For years in my Continuous Improvement training sessions (TOC, Lean and now 6 Sigma) I was told that Taylorism or Scientific Management was a flawed system that would produce flawed results. I was never really explained why. All I got was it taught how to make people work harder not smarter. Drucker speaks highly of Scientific Management which peaked my curiosity. The next book I intend on reading is Principles of Scientific Management. I want to know first hand what it is about and what makes Taylor such an evil man so I can make my own decision.
  
  A few things that I disliked about the book (keeping it from getting 5 stars) were:
  1 - I strongly disagree with Drucker's philosophy that management should participate in 2-3 team projects during their career is very short sighted.
  2 - Building off of #1 I think that in the revised edition, there is real short-sightedness about what has made Japanese Management styles so effective. I know books have been written about this, but Management seems to gloss over this.
  3 - Finally Dr. Drucker places the emphasis on the "knowledge worker". I truly believe that the people doing the work on the floor hold THE KNOWLEDGE and are the true knowledge workers. I think too much that knowledge workers tend to spend their time in vacuums and don't interact with the people who will make or brake the system. To use an analogy...my experience with many knowledge workers is much like the spoiled child at the toy store - they want it their way or they are going to hold their breath.
  
  All in all this book is excellent. Ironically once I was done listening I started catching up on my podcasts. Two of them mention Dr. Drucker and one is LDRLB #503 with Dr. William Cohen author of The Practical Drucker.
• 
  Mohammad Noroozi

  What other readers have written here is absolutely true. Anyone who wants to manage others should read this book first.
  
  As I read through the book, I found myself thinking to myself over an over again "how did one person put together all this knowledge?" The whole book reads like a home maintenance manual in that it answers questions you didn't even know you had before you read through, or poses problems that you hadn't considered but are vital to the health of any organisation, and gives clear salient advice about how to make an enterprise acheiving.
  
  I noticed some other readers mention they thought Drucker was a bit repetitive with some points throughout the book. I have two comments about that. First, I felt he did a good job of underscoring how a previously made point still applies in a different situation and encouraging his readers to see the patterns he's obviously discovered in his career of consulting and study of management. Second, I felt a sense that I was being encouraged in the same sense that any hard driving coach continually repeats the fundamentals to their students. Drucker does the later very smoothly by continually ending chapters or sub-points by encouraging managers to take up hard challenges and make their business acheiving.
  
  I'll also echo some previous comments which say the book really should be read at a pace of maybe a chapter a day or even less. Taking time to ruminate on Drucker's ideas, seeing how it applies in organisations you know or participate in really helps the ideas settle and become a part of your own thinking.
  
  Finishing the book, I find that rather than feel satisfied, I feel that Drucker has touched enough on all these facets of successful management that I find my interest piqued and my reading list burgeoning with new additions. This is a great starting point and will likely lead to some excellent study tangents. I'm also very much looking forward to reading more books by Drucker over time.
• 
  Jurgen Appelo

  Great book, though a bit long. I took many, many notes, which shows I learned a lot from it. But the writing style was a bit dry.
• 
  Stephen Wong

  I read this about 18 years ago, from my dad's library. I saw the revised edition at the bookstore today. Yes, it's the classic tome. I believe it has influenced me in subtle ways. Worth a re-read.
• 
  Daniel

  This might be the most impressive and impactful book I'll ever read. Almost every single one of the 61 chapters (which feel like they are filled with multiple essays) came with eye opening but crisp statements.
  
  Organizations exist to serve society.
  The purpose of a business is to create and serve a customer.
  A key task for top management is to define the business and what it should be.
  Operations are growing and optimizing existing things while Innovation is creating the new.
  Managers, above all, must accept responsibility to make individual strengths productive and workers achieving.
  
  Maybe sounds basic to you, but with all the stories and examples, this transformed my way of thinking and filled many holes in my mind that opened up over the last years in my career.
  
  Very few people will read this book due to its length, but I believe every manager can learn a lot from this. Fully recommended.
• 
  Sooraj

  The longest academic book I have ever read, but absolutely worth it.
  How did our organizations, professions and our work begin and evolve to where we are today?
  What is the difference between businesses, services and innovative organizations.
  What are the different ways of producing work in organizations?
  What are the different ways of creating organizations?
  The answers to all these questions will definitely develop in you a new enriched perspective.
  
  Negatives:
  Very academic in nature, requires slow patient reading. Takes months to finish the book.
  Not the greatest English and grammer, not the greatest editing. One would need to read some sentences multiple times to guess what the author was trying to imply
• 
  Carina

  There are few outdated things in this book so it’s still applicable.
  
  My only complaint was this quote from the last chapter:
  
  ‘You have to know them so well you can go and say, “Mary, you think you ought to move up to this next job? Well, then you have to learn not to have that chip on your shoulder. Forget you are a woman; you are an engineer. And you have to be a little considerate. Do not come in at ten minutes to five on Friday afternoon to tell people they have to work overtime when you knew it at nine AM.”’
  
  I really don’t like this paragraph. “Forget you are a woman” is pretty terrible advice, and practically impossible.
• 
  Jorė

  Took me four years to read it through, but oh, how much Drucker has my heart!
  I've taken a book annoyed with some presentation where he was quoted. It seemed to be a case of putting just a quote without ever reading the actual work. Through the years I've collected my own fav ideas of Drucker and integrated them in my work because they just make so much sense. And that the book is finally finished doesn't mean I'm finished reading it. Planning to return many times to review what Mr. Drucker has to say. Really, I have a slight crush on his thinking.
  
• 
  Pulkit

  Had to read it as part of promotion requirements - the approach is very 20th century like but the world is a very different place now and the businesses have changed drastically. Not recommended for anybody.
• 
  Jacob O'connor

  
  This book is a beast. I should get college credit for reading it. It compares to Adam Smith's Wealth of the Nations, and this is the most satisfied I've ever been finishing a business book. Required reading.
• 
  Jason

  This is one of the best books I have ever read in any genre concerning any subject - period.
  
  Surprisingly readable given the density of the subject and overflowing with useful information.
  
  Not at all what I expected going into it.
• 
  Will West

  An amazing book. A must read. It will change the way you see business and the future. This man is brilliant and ahead of his time.
• 
  Tim

  Deservedly the best book on management for the knowledge economy.
• 
  David Pulliam

  Great read, we’ll worth your time, probably the best book I’ve read this year.
• 
  Henri

  Good basic book about management, but I can't help the feeling that in certain (management) jobs this is a bit outdated.