The Drucker Difference: What the World's Greatest Management Thinker Means to Today's Business Leaders

Why Drucker's Ideas Matter More Now than Ever

“This book is an excellent way to understand how Drucker’s ideas apply to today’s dilemmas, be they theproblems faced by organizations, by governments, or by individuals.”
-from the Foreword, by Charles Handy

“This compilation of smart essays on the ‘Drucker difference’ illustrates how astonishingly wide the wings ofDrucker’s wisdom have spread. We all stand gratefully in his shadows, silent in awe.”
—Warren Bennis, Professor Emeritus, University of Southern California

“Peter Drucker is more than a ‘management writer.’ He literally created the foundation on which a FunctioningSociety rests. In The Drucker Difference, Peter’s closest colleagues extend and amplify his tour de force body ofideas and ideals. It is the next step forward.”
—Bob Buford, Chairman, The Drucker Institute, and Founder, Leadership Network

“Much has been written by and about my friend and mentor, Peter Drucker. But this book is different. It is writtenby those who knew and understood him as friends and faculty colleagues and reflects his thoughts andprinciples as they are currently being taught to those who will be making a difference for tomorrow.”
—C. William Pollard, Chairman Emeritus, The ServiceMaster Company

“Hats off to the Drucker faculty members for putting the tacit knowledge they gained from working together withPeter Drucker into explicit knowledge through the publication of this book.”
—Ikujiro Nonaka, Professor Emeritus, Hitotsubashi University, Japan, andXerox Distinguished Faculty Scholar, University of California at Berkeley

“The Drucker Difference is a unique book that enables present and future executives to capitalize onPeter Drucker’s wisdom and to comprehend that knowledge from an entirely new perspective.”
—Minglo Shao, Chairman, Bright China

About the Book:

Peter F. Drucker was one of the mostinfluential business thinkers in history. Consideredthe father of modern management, hewas concerned not only with the human sideof management, but also with the larger societalroles played by both companies and theindividuals within them.

If there has ever been a timewhen such thinkers are relevant, it is now.

The Drucker Difference casts new light onDrucker’s business philosophy, analyzing hismost important ideas in the context of today’sbusiness world. Through individual contributionsby professors from The Peter F. Druckerand Masatoshi Ito Graduate School of Management,it combines expert insight andcurrent scholarship to reveal how organizationsand executives can interpret and applyDrucker’s timeless ideas.

Today’s top business thinkers provide sixteenchapters analyzing Drucker’s views on themost critical issues of our time, including:

• Government, business, and civil society(Ira Jackson)
• The interplay of values and power withincompanies (Karen E. Linkletter andJoseph A. Maciariello)
• Applying collaboration to “knowledge work”(Craig L. Pearce)
• Drucker’s management vision (Richard Smith)
• Economic environment, innovation, and industrydynamics (Hideki Yamawaki)

Each contributor explains a single, classicaspect of Drucker’s work, examines its implicationsin today’s business environment, andapplies an up-to-date and contemporary interpretationof Drucker’s wisdom.

Covering everything from marketing andleadership to strategy and governance, TheDrucker Difference is both a timely newassessment and a valuable addition to the canonof Drucker literature.

Craig L. Pearce is Professor ofManagement at The DruckerSchool of Management. His researchon shared leadership hasbeen featured in The Wall StreetJournal. Pearce’s most recentbook is Shared Leadership, and his forthcomingbook is Share the Lead.
Joseph A. Maciariello is theHorton Professor of Managementat The Drucker School ofManagement. He coauthoredThe Daily Drucker and TheEffective Executive in Actionwith Peter F. Drucker and recently carried onDrucker’s legacy by revising two existingDrucker books: Management and ManagementCases.
Hideki Yamawaki is Professorof Management and AssociateDean at The Drucker Schoolof Management. His most recentbook is Japanese Exportsand Foreign Direct Investment:Imperfect Competition in International Markets.

The Peter F. Drucker and Masatoshi Ito Graduate School ofManagement is located in Claremont, California. To learn moreabout its mission and Peter F. Drucker’s work, please visitwww.drucker.cgu.edu or www.thedruckerinstitute.com.