cover image The Practical Drucker: Applying the Wisdom of the World's Greatest Management Thinker

The Practical Drucker: Applying the Wisdom of the World's Greatest Management Thinker

William A. Cohen. Amacom, $25 (288p) ISBN 978-0-8144-3349-2

Cohen (Heroic Leadership), president of the Institute of Leader Arts, presents 40 lessons based on the ideas of management guru Peter Drucker, his former professor. Though Drucker has already covered this ground in several books, here Cohen promises to provide a sense of the "how" rather than the "what" concerning Drucker's innovative business practices. Despite the inclusion of practical chapters on subjects such as "Fear of Job Loss" and "How to Avoid Failure," these are exceptions and not the rule. Instead, we primarily find practical examples, stories, and anecdotes relating to chapter themes. It is in the included success stories of IBM, Enron, and others, that we find discussions of how these companies overcame challenges. Cohen also discusses social responsibility, moral integrity, and business ethics, but the latter discussion reads tersely and might raise more questions and objections than intended. Overall, though there are wonderful nuggets, Cohen doesn't quite succeed in producing a "how-to-do-it" book, offering instead a "how-it-has-been-done" book. (Nov.)