Book Review: The Practice of Management by Peter F. Drucker

The Practice of Management by Peter F. Drucker. Harper & Row, 1954 This book is divided into 6 main parts: Managing A Business; Managing Managers; The Structure Of Management; Management Of Workers And The Worker; What It Means To Be A Manager; and a conclusion. In Managing a Business, Drucker stresses the importance of the customer , not economic or market forces, in defining a business. He suggests that it is the customer, not forces, that converts …

…to be moving in the same direction strategically. I did find his paternalistic view of the lower-level workers patronizing at times and his referral to managers as always being male was definitely an indication of the time the book was written. This should not detract however from some very valid points being made and some very useful suggestions on how I can raise my own performance in the workplace to that of a successful manager's.