Peter Drucker: Shaping the Managerial Mind - How the World's Foremost Management Thinker Crafted the Essentials of Business Success(A Jossey Bass title)

While there have been several books about Peter Drucker and his life, this text presents a comprehensive synthesis and in-depth analysis of his works and insights on management. Drawing from over 40 years as a student, follower, and friend, John E. Flaherty has created a definitive account of Drucker's managerial achievements. An expert on management himself, Flaherty provides readers with a practical overview of Drucker's most important contributions to management and business strategy. He not only captures Drucker's fundamental management concepts and ideas but also shows how these principles have relevance for practitioners. For those new to Peter Drucker, this essential compendium is a crash course on his most profound discoveries on management, change, entrepreneurial endeavour, and executive effectiveness. For those who have read Drucker's extensive writings, this significant volume offers deeper insight into his more novel and far-reaching concepts. Filled with useful summaries and checklists of key lessons, it contains wisdom and experience for managers and students everywhere.

Table of Contents:
1. Introduction; 2. Formative Years; INVENTING MODERN MANAGEMENT; 3. The End of Economic Man; 4. The Future of Industrial Man; 5. Concept of the Corporation; 6. Establishing the Fundamentals; ON STRATEGY AND ENTERPRENEURSHIP; 7. Managing Change; 8. The Entrepreneurial Process; 9. Investing in Change; 10. Strategies for the Transitional Business; 11. Tactics and Transformation; ON EXECUTIVE EFFECTIVENESS; 12. Managing in the Knowledge Society; 13. Approaches to Effectiveness; 14. Leadership and the Job of the Executive; 15. Contribution, Commitment, and Concentration; 16. Managing Time, Strengths, and Communications; 17. The Decision-Making Process;.

About the Author :
JOHN E. FLAHERTY is professor emeritus of management at Pace University in New York City, where he was formerly dean of the Graduate School of Business and chairman of the Social Science Department. He first encountered Peter Drucker while auditing one of Drucker's management courses at New York University in the mid-1950s. Over the years, Flaherty has followed and kept notes on the material from Drucker's lectures, books, articles, conversations, and correspondence-many of which have found their way into Peter Drucker: Shaping the Managerial Mind.

Review :
"Flaherty has accomplished the impossible: making a systematic thinker out of me. I am particularly impressed by his skill in balancing chronology and themes, and that over a sixty-year time span. I have learned a great deal about my work from this book." (Peter F. Drucker) "If it is true that he created modern management, then Peter Drucker: Shaping The Managerial Mind is the Rosetta stone to his many writings." (Publisher's Weekly) "Peter F. Drucker is the organizational thought leader of the twentieth century. For the sake of our economy, our community, and our society, every citizen needs to be familiar with his work. John Flaherty's book is both an intellectual adventure and a practical guide to Peter Drucker's thinking. Peter Drucker: Shaping the Managerial Mind should be in the book bag of everyone hoping to lead change or build an effective organization." (Frances Hesselbein, chairman of the board, The Peter F. Drucker Foundation for Nonprofit Management) "At last! This much-needed comprehensive review of Drucker's thought will prove invaluable for those seeking a course in Drucker 101." (Sally Helgesen, author of The Web of Inclusion: Building a New Architecture for Great Organizations) "There is no doubt that Peter Drucker is our most significant contributor to the concept of modern management. There is also no doubt that John Flaherty has produced our most significant analysis of Drucker's contributions to date. The scope of this effort is extraordinary." (Leonard A. Schlesinger, senior vice president for development and professor of sociology and public policy, Brown University) "The author's research is extraordinary and certainly valuable not just for Drucker scholars but real-time strategists as well." (Journal of Business Strategy) "While Peter Drucker rightfully claims he didn't 'invent' management, he certainly and singularly created a field of human behavior, which takes management seriously, and made it not only a respectable field of intellectual inquiry, but also a seminal contribution to the practice of management. If there is one single thing that shines through all of Drucker's writings, it is that the business environment is a social community where the worker must no longer be viewed as a cost center, but as a vital human resource." (Warren G. Bennis, Distinguished Professor of Business, University of Southern California, and author of Organizing Genius) "[Peter Drucker is] our window into the best of humankind." (Thomas Petzinger, Millennium Edition editor, The Wall Street Journal, and author of The New Pioneers) "Peter Drucker is the quintessential thinker, lecturer, and writer. Dr. Flaherty has effectively fused and portrayed Drucker's philosophy in this fascinating book. His profound insights into Drucker's management philosophy and prolific writing are astonishing. The significance and direct meanings incorporated in this work will contribute to the reader's personal organizational results and achievements." (Roger E. Nortillo, president, Maher Terminals Logistic Systems, Inc.) "This book is an important contribution to understanding Peter F. Drucker and his enormous impact on twentieth century management thinking. It is easily readable and provides a unique insight to the thought process and analysis of an individual that many of us in the professional world have come to greatly respect and admire. Dr. Flaherty has done a wonderful job on a great subject." (Wesley W. von Schack, chairman, president, and CEO, Energy East Corporation) "There are a few things in life you can always count on, even when stocks rise and fall, companies disappear, and computers get outmoded in a heartbeat. These things are: that the sun will rise in the morning and that Peter Drucker will preside over everything we think and do about business. Peter is the father of management and, therefore, the father of us all. We can be thankful that he has spent nearly a century turning the transience of business into ideas that last." (Harriet Rubin, author of Soloing: Realizing Your Life's Ambition)