The WORLD ACCORDING TO PETER DRUCKER

Rating:
Summary: Go to the source
Review: Anyone familiar with Peter Drucker's writings will probably be disappointed with this book. Drucker is a better and more provocative writer. Anyone not familiar with Drucker's writings probably won't appreciate the Drucker "world" and might even be deterred from reading Drucker himself, which would be a shame. The best part of the book discusses Drucker's relationship with Albert Sloan Jr. at GM. The worst part of the book has to be the irritating manner in which Beatty incorporates quotes and fragments from Drucker's writings. At times, Beatty's only contributions seem to be a horde of "ands," ubiquitous ellipses, and trite summations.

Rating:
Summary: Reasonably good look at the great man and his works
Review: I enjoyed some aspects of this book, especially the concise biography of Drucker at the start, but found it a bit dull overall. The author takes a good look at all Drucker's work, the developments in his thinking over his long and productive life, even his writing style, but it is all done in a rather dry, humourless, academic manner. It is clear that Drucker is a great thinker on management and society, but it doesn't always come across like that when reading the passages from his books that are quoted. I think the way the passages are quoted, in boxes separate from the main body of text, serves to decontextualize them, making some of them appear rather shallow and commonplace.

Having said this, The World According to Peter Drucker is still a worthy introduction to/critique of Drucker's writings and worth reading. It is largely concise and to the point, which helps given that it is not all that exciting.

Rating:
Summary: Superb Overview
Review: In this superb, slim 186-page volume, the author manages to capture the quintessence of Drucker's life-work on management. Drucker's neo-Weberian sociology, the search for the moral basis of capitalism, the influence of Schumpeter (the renegade Austrian economist), the roles of European intellectual currents, his spiritual underpinnings in Kierkegaard, and the social context of Drucker's thought and development--all are ably portrayed here, in all the richness of their context. Penetrating, insightful and never blinded by adulation, the book is also extremely well written. I read a chapter a night and was done inside a week. There are only 2 blemishes. First, he is a bit skimpy on some biographical details (*when* was Drucker born, for example?). Secondly, what in the world does "elide" mean? Here's the sentence: "...Drucker's bold reinvention of government...elides the cardinal difference between government and business...--democratic accountability." You can't even infer the meaning of this strange word from its context. Before I was even finished, I was able to use information in this book to choose (and purchase) 3 other Drucker classics. And excellent, valuable read--don't miss it.

Rating:
Summary: Superb Overview
Review: In this superb, slim 186-page volume, the author manages to capture the quintessence of Drucker's life-work on management. Drucker's neo-Weberian sociology, the search for the moral basis of capitalism, the influence of Schumpeter (the renegade Austrian economist), the roles of European intellectual currents, his spiritual underpinnings in Kierkegaard, and the social context of Drucker's thought and development--all are ably portrayed here, in all the richness of their context. Penetrating, insightful and never blinded by adulation, the book is also extremely well written. I read a chapter a night and was done inside a week. There are only 2 blemishes. First, he is a bit skimpy on some biographical details (*when* was Drucker born, for example?). Secondly, what in the world does "elide" mean? Here's the sentence: "...Drucker's bold reinvention of government...elides the cardinal difference between government and business...--democratic accountability." You can't even infer the meaning of this strange word from its context. Before I was even finished, I was able to use information in this book to choose (and purchase) 3 other Drucker classics. And excellent, valuable read--don't miss it.

Rating:
Summary: A Vivid Intellectual Portrait
Review: Jack Beatty creates what he calls an "intellectual portrait" of the world's most highly respected business scholar and teacher. What soon becomes clear, however, is that Drucker is a life-long learner with an insatiable curiosity about many subjects which are wholly unrelated to business per se. The book consists of nine chapters which, together, examine Drucker's multi-dimensional life since his birth in Vienna in 1909.

Correctly, Drucker has been described by Warren Bennis as "one of the few thinkers in any discipline who can claim to have changed the world: he is the inventor of privatization, the apostle of a new class of knowledge workers, the champion of management as a serious discipline." It is generally agreed that, until Drucker, the term "management" was not even in the formal nomenclature of business. Today, management consulting is a multi-billion dollar global enterprise which continues to experience ever-increasing growth. Drucker gave that enterprise a definition, a vision, and a rationale as well as many of its basic terms.

Beatty neither thinks nor writes as well as Drucker. (Who does?) His "intellectual portrait" is, however, an invaluable supplement to any of Drucker's books and articles.

For more than 60 years, Peter Drucker has made a positive and substantial difference in the personal as well as professional lives of so many others throughout the world. With all due respect to Peter Drucker's well-deserved recognition as a scholar of business, that "difference" is his most valuable contribution.

Rating:
Summary: Excellent Commentary on Drucker
Review: Jack Beatty has taken on a very difficult task here: Capturing the essence of the world's most successful and prolific business thinker and author. I think that he succeeded very well, and certainly added to my understanding of Peter Drucker's writing. Having read many of Drucker's articles and books, I was astonished to find out how many important works I had missed. I appreciate having Jack Beatty open my eyes. In the year since I first read this book, I have read more Drucker than in the last 20 years. This has been a good benefit from THE WORLD ACCORDING TO PETER DRUCKER. I am one of the people mentioned in the book, during the chapter about Professor Drucker's consulting practice, and I found Mr. Beatty has really captured the essence of the man in a way that no other books or articles do. I salute Jack Beatty for having made a great gift to us all, and urge you to buy, read, and use the book to guide your study of Peter Drucker.

Rating:
Summary: A Good Read!
Review: Peter Drucker's philosophies and theories have shaped management all over the world. Drucker is highly respected. He has always taught that people are an organization's most important resource. In 1954, Drucker virtually invented 'management.' Although, of course, management existed before, nobody had ever treated it as a distinct field.

Jack Beatty's book about Peter Drucker is not just another biography. Beatty criticizes Drucker in some areas and extols his virtues in others. The book is sometimes entertaining and consistently well written. Enough of Drucker's ideas are included to make you want to read his books. Most of the book summarizes Drucker's work chronologically. Company leaders who want their top people to learn about management should make this required reading. We [...] recommend this book to managers in all industries.


Rating:
Summary: save money, buy a Drucker original
Review: The GWU/Richmond book club found this book tedious and hard to read. The author seemed more intent on demonstrating his extensive vocabulary than in protraying Drucker. He (the author) came off as pompous, and lost several readers in the first chapter. Those of us who plowed through the book found the Drucker quotes to be, by far, the best part.

Rating:
Summary: If you have never heard of Drucker - Don't read this yet !
Review: Yes, Drucker's writings are far more impactful and persuasive that his words lose their impact even when quoted verbatim by Beatty !

However, if you are familiar with Drucker's works, this book will basically bring to memory points you may have forgotten.

But to learn in one book Drucker's vast writings, you may want to read Flaherty.