Managing for Results

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Summary: A "what to do" book on managing the existing business
Review: Peter F. Drucker is probably the greatest management thinker of the 20st Century. He has been Professor at New York University and at 83 years old still teaches at the Graduate Management School of Claremont University, California. This book is split up in three parts, each consisting of three-to-eight chapters. In the Introduction, Drucker clearly explains the thinking behind this "what to do" book: "It tries to develop a point of view, concepts and approaches for finding what should be done and how to go about doing it."

Part I - Understanding the Business - consists of eight chapters and stresses analysis and understanding. It deals with what Drucker terms "business realities", or the situation most likely to be found in any business at any given time. It discusses the relationship between results, resources, efforts, opportunities and expectations. It further discusses cost centers and cost structure, but also methods for understanding the business from the "outside". Chapter 8 - This Is Our Business - can be seen as a summary for this first and longest part of the book.

Part II - Focus on Opportunity - focuses on opportunities and leads to decisions. It discusses the opportunities and needs in each of the major economic dimensions of a business: making the present business effective, finding and realizing business potential, and making the future of the business today. In particular, this last issue has become a Peter F. Drucker-trademark.

The final part of the book, Part III - A Program for Performance, discusses how to translate insights and decisions into purposeful performance. This sounds simple but it is not. Through fairly short chapter, Drucker explains that key decisions have to be made regarding the idea and objectives of the business, choice of excellences, and points of focus. It also requires a number of strategic choices. Last, but not least, Drucker also discusses the managerial structure required for reaching the right performance. The Conclusion rephrases the thesis on the individual executive and his commitment, in particular on the commitment of top management.

This book was originally published in 1964, but it is still very readable. Yes, perhaps some of the examples are outdated but nevertheless. It draws on Drucker's experience as a consultant with all types of businesses and industries, and this shows itself into the hundreds-and-hundreds of examples throughout the book. And although Drucker makes management sound very simple, he knows that it is not. However, the tools and techniques that he offers in this book are very usable and will save you enormous amounts of time. Highly recommended to all readers interested in management. The book is written in simple business US-English.

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Summary: The key to understanding the economics of any business!
Review: This book is very unique by its very applicability across businesses and across time. The focus of the book is to explain the economic realities behind business decisions and explain how to go about systematically analyzing your your business result areas, the inferences to draw upon, and the strategies to plan and implement.

The real force of this book becomes apparent by the very applicability of it in today's scenario of great economic and social change. Concepts like the result areas of business, and managing knowledge as the ONLY crucial economic resource of an organization are most relevant today. The book also explicitly details strategies that can be developed depending on each individual organization in times of change.

This book is a great asset to every manager! I recommend it as one of the best and most comprehensive books on business analysis and strategy.

Rating:
Summary: good
Review: This relates good basic, but not necessarily obvious rules for getting results. There is some overlap with other Drucker books. But his stuff is worth reading twice, so I'm not complaining. He does seem to contradict himself, however, when he writes that what he's relating can be learned by most anyone. Then elsewhere he relates how "generals" are quite rare, suggesting leaders are born, not made. So, I'm not quite sure what to think of his take on that. But otherwise, he is the management guru of our time, and worth reading.