Management Challenges for the 21st Century

By: Peter F. Drucker

Narrated by: Mark Blum

New and revolutionary ideas and perspectives on the central management issues of tomorrow by the man Warren Bennis calls "the most important management thinker of our time".

In this major new work, Peter F. Drucker discusses how the new paradigms of management will change our basic assumptions about the practices and principles of management. Drucker explains "The New Information Revolution", discussing the information an executive needs and the information an executive owes. He examines knowledge-worker productivity, and he writes about the ultimate challenge of managing yourself and meeting the new demands on the individual in a longer working life and an ever-changing workplace.

Incisive, challenging and mind-stretching, Management Challenges for the 21st Century combines the wide practical experience, profound insight, sharp analysis, and enlightened common sense that are the essence of Drucker's writings.

(P) and ©1999 HarperCollins Publishers Inc., All Rights Reserved. Harper Audio, a division of HarperCollins Publishers

Critic reviews

"...The most important management thinker of our time." (Warren Bennis)
"Drucker explains why management practices as we know them...have lost their utility...and, lastly, how individuals can try to manage themselves in the years to come." (BusinessWeek)

Important for any manager (= anyone)

Drucker zooms out of the day to day management challenges to review where this world is going. Very broad. Not centralizing just on business management.
Important information and points of view for any manager and any individual living at this historic time.

Well Written, Well Read Novel

This is the first time that I've used an audio book for academic purposes. I must say that I truly enjoy listening to the information I was given from a narrator who was well spoken and easily understood. The author of the novel took a very practical approach in his evaluation of modern business then applied concepts that could greatly benefit aspiring and existing managers.

BUSINESS MANAGEMENT

Peter F. Drucker is a storied business management consultant (most famously as a consultant for General Motors) that taught business administration and sociology at Claremont University in California. He died at the age of 95 in 2005.

Drucker’s management insight reverses the power structure of profit and non-profit enterprises; i.e. management down changes to management up with organization leaders determining direction but employees (knowledge workers) controlling productivity and effectiveness.

Education is a critical component of Drucker’s philosophy of management. Drucker’s approach contradicts the present direction of educational reform that focuses on teacher accountability for educating students in the fundamentals of reading, writing, and arithmetic. Drucker promotes a Montessori like approach to education. Drucker believes in structuring education based on student interest rather than set curriculum. He lauds the growth of community colleges that focus on what students want to learn rather than what others think they should learn.

Peter Drucker has been an insightful sociologist and guru of American free enterprise in the twentieth century. Managers that choose to follow Drucker’s recommendations may improve their success by following his advice in the 21st century. If Drucker is correct, not only will productivity improve, Monday morning arrival at work will be interesting and fulfilling; rather than punishing.

I wish I had read this book when it was released

What did you love best about Management Challenges for the 21st Century?

Drucker is a quantum leap ahead of other management writers. His breadth of understanding of organisations and the changing social issues in society put this book in a special class. His views on future trends is very apt and puts much of the changes in the world into context. This is much more than a management book. Highly recommended.

Drucker for the Next Century

This book compiles several of Drucker's recent articles and interviews. Like all of his work and ideas, it is well worth your time and attention. Drucker is one author who always looks into the future with a realistic perspective, armed with lots of background information, and decades of experience with the business world.

u best read

he is always worth reading this is his third book I've read in two years

Truly important message

Where does Management Challenges for the 21st Century rank among all the audiobooks you’ve listened to so far?

I think the message itself is really important and as presentation was above the par, thought not the very best, this is was certainly worth of the time and money.

What did you like best about this story?

I happen to think very much alike Mr. Drucker and the tenets of his knowledge-work revolution are important, globally.

Was this a book you wanted to listen to all in one sitting?

Nope. I listened while driving on four parts.

Not really useful

I enjoyed, and some of the part have valuable information, but overal it is outdated, and I will not say, that this book was worth my time, and, maybe, money (don't remember how much I paid). If you intrested in history of progression of managment and operation of business, this book, may be useful for you.