Dr. Peter Drucker, author of The Effective Executive and Management Challenges for the 21st Century,
received the Presidential Medal of Freedom from President George W. Bush."Dr. Peter Drucker is the world's
foremost pioneer of management theory. Dr. Drucker has championed concepts such as privatization, management by
objective and decentralization. He has served as a consultant to numerous governments, public service institutions
and major corporations. Dr. Drucker is a Professor of Social Sciences and Management at the Claremont Graduate
University in Claremont, California, which named its Graduate School of Management after him. He helped establish
and continues to serve as the Honorary Chairman of the Peter F. Drucker Foundation for Nonprofit Management in
New York City, which awards the Peter F. Drucker Award for Nonprofit Innovation. He is currently applying his expertise
to the management of churches and other faith-based institutions and to the reorganization of universities worldwide."
- White House Web site
The Presidential Medal of Freedom is the Nation's highest civilian honor. It was established by President Truman
in 1945 to recognize civilians for their service during World War II, and it was reinstated by President Kennedy
in 1963 to honor distinguished service.
Also among the honorees were Hank Aaron, Bill Cosby, Placido Domingo, Katharine Graham, Nancy Reagan, and A.M.
Rosenthal.
Peter F. Drucker was born in Vienna, Austria, in 1909. Educated in Austria and in England, Mr. Drucker holds
a doctorate in Public and International Law from Frankfurt University in Germany. He also has received honorary
doctorates from American, Belgian, Czech, English, Japanese, Spanish and Swiss universities. Since 1971, Mr. Drucker
has been Marie Rankin Clarke Professor of Social Science and Management at Claremont Graduate University in Claremont,
California, which named its Graduate Management Center after him in 1987.
In addition to teaching, Mr. Drucker currently acts as a consultant, specializing in strategy and policy for
both businesses and nonprofits, and in the work and organization of top management. He has worked with many of
the world's largest corporations and with small and entrepreneurial companies; with nonprofits such as universities,
hospitals and community services; and with agencies of the U.S. Government as well as with Free-World governments
such as those of Canada and Japan. In the past, Mr. Drucker has variously been economist for an international bank
in London.
Summary
In one volume a selection of the essential writings from Peter F. Drucker's sixty years of work on management.
The first selection of Drucker's management work from The Practice of Management (1954) to Management Challenges
for the 21st Century (1999), this book offers, in Drucker's words, "a coherent and fairly comprehensive Introduction
to management [and] gives an overview of my works on management and thus answers a question I have been asked again
and again: which of my writings are essential?"
The Essential Drucker contains twenty-six selections on management in the organization, management and the individual,
and management and society. It covers the basic principles and concerns of management and its problems, challenges,
and opportunities, giving managers, executives, and professionals the tools to perform the tasks that the economy
and society of tomorrow will demand of them.
