The measure to the executive, Peter Drucker reminds us, is the ability to get the right things o what other people have overlooked, as well as avoiding what is unpraductive. Rectifies five talents as essent effectiveness, and these can be learned; in fact, they must be learned just as scales must be mastered by every plass stebint regardless of his natural gifts. Intelligence, imagination and knowledge may all be wasted in an executive job without the acquired habits of mind that convert these into results.
One of the talents is the management of time. Another is choosing what to contribute to the particular organization. And in knowing where and how to apply your strength to best effect. Fourth is setting up the right priorities. And all of them must be knitted together by effective decision-making.
How these can be developed forms the main body of the bock. The author ranges widely through the annals of business and government to demonstrate the distinctive skill of the executive. He turns familiar experience upside down to see it in new perspectiva. The book is full of surprises, with its fresh insights into old and seemingly trite situations.
Born in Vienna in 1909, Paten Drucker was educated in Austria and England. From 1929 he was newspaper correspondent abroad and an economist for an international bank in Londen. Since 1937 he has been in the United States, first as an economist for a group of British banks and insurance companies, and later as a management consultant to several of the country's largest companies, as well as leading companies abroad.
Drucker has since had a distinguished career as a teacher, first as Professor of Politics and Philosophy at Benningtun College, then for more than twenty years as Professor of Management at the Graduate Business School of New York University. Since 1971 he has been Clarke Professor of Social Science at Claremont Graduate School in California.
In addition to his management books, Peter Drucker is also renowned for his prophetic books analysing politics, economics and society. These books span fifty years of modern history beginning with The End of Economic Man (1939) and Managing in a Time of Great Change; Management: Tasks, Responsibilities, Practices; Innovation and Entrepreneurship; Managing for Rasults and The Practice of Management.