Management: Tasks, Responsibilities, Practices

Domain specific know-how is obviously essential to effective management. In this book, Peter Drucker discusses non-domain-specific know-how for management. Even though the book is long at 861 pages, it is NOT wordy and he makes every sentence count. Insightful, practical, straight-forward and meaningful (to me) discussion topics included job design, organizational design, growing and selecting managers, improving organizational productivity, strategy, and managing innovation.

I had originally rented this book from the library with an intention of zipping through it to obtain a general idea and feel for the concepts presented. I found myself constantly stopping to take notes and unable to finish the entire book during the loan period. After renewing twice and hardly making it a quarter of the way through I decided I would have to purchase the book. As the General Manager of a small business with no formal training and little prior experience in managing a company this was the best investment I could have ever made. I'd recommend you take notes as you read in order to get the most of this book. Read it a second time a year after you finish it.

This is a heavyweight tome with clear insight. Every manager should read this. For example, Drucker writes what strategy planning is not: a box of tricks; nor modelling; nor forecasting; nor masterminding the future. Methodically, he explains what it is: Analytical thinking & commitment of resources to action. Drucker is famous for his simple questions which resonated across the corporate world for 50 years, and was especially influential with Jack Welch at GE. In this book Drucker poses these questions as the framework for creating a business strategy: *What is our business? *What will it be? *What should it be? ...And the killer: *If we were not committed to this today, would we go into it? Written in '73. Valid today.

this book is just great. i find it a straightforward and no frills book. yet reading it makes business interesting and encouraging. a truly indispensable reference and guide to management, better than any textbook i have come across in terms of giving clarity to the big picture. for that i have huge respect and admiration for peter drucker. peter drucker is just "the man" in management in my book.

This is the book on how to make a business WORK! I am president of a small company and immediately took the ideas and practices out of this book and applied them to great success. This is not a quick read, and every item will not pertain to each individual person, but the observations presented explained a huge number of obstacles I was facing. If you are trying to manage any form of modern organization, buy this book and spend the time reading it. It made me a huge Drucker fan.