Inside Drucker's Brain (Hardcover)

~ (Author)
Key Phrases: broken washroom doors, purposeful abandonment, strategic inflection point, New York, Peter Drucker, Jack Welch (more...)

Editorial Reviews

From Booklist

*Starred Review* Editor and publisher Krames parlays six hours spent with the late father of management, Peter Drucker, into a book worthy of reading and rereading. In December 2003, Krames flew to Southern California in anticipation of two full days of conversation with the 94-year-old guru—and dozens of questions then scaled back to a little more than a half day and six queries. Nonetheless, the result is masterful. Fifteen chapters distill the essence of Vienna-born Drucker, snippets of his life, and a 360-degree appreciation of his prescience. One example is called “Execution First and Always,” which anticipates by many decades the publication of a full range of theories and tactics on the importance of implementation in business, from Larry Bossidy to Ram Charan. Although the importance of people and employees has always been acknowledged but not necessarily trumpeted in U.S. corporations, Drucker, via Krames, delivers a hard-nosed warning about the mandate to treat workers as partners, keep them in the loop, and to remember that, above all, people decisions are the most important decisions. Drucker’s life comes alive in the insertions of information, including his escape from Nazi Germany and the extent of his worldwide audience. A must-read for anyone in business, beginner or wizened pro. --Barbara Jacobs

Product Description

The most accessible guide to the essential ideas of “the inventor of modern management”.

In late 2003, ninety-four-year-old Peter Drucker invited Jeffrey Krames to his home for an unprecedented day-long interview. He spoke candidly about his seminal management principles, his enormous body of work (thirty-eight books over six decades), and the leaders he had advised over the years (including Jack Welch).

Krames used the insights he gained that day to create Inside Drucker’s Brain--a compact guide to the great man’s wisdom. Krames had no intention of writing a biography, but rather a book that would showcase Drucker’s most important ideas and strategies, and explain why they are just as useful today as they were decades ago.

Drucker’s biggest contribution was a mind-set, not a methodology. He focused on prodding managers to ask the right questions, to look beyond what they thought they knew, and to focus on tomorrow rather than yesterday. If anything, this mind-set is more valuable in the digital age than it was in the industrial age.

This user-friendly book will help readers grasp all of Drucker’s key ideas on leadership, strategy, innovation, personal effectiveness, career development, and many other topics.

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 224 pages
• Publisher: Portfolio Hardcover; Complete Numbers Starting with 1, 1st Ed edition (October 16, 2008)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1591842220
• ISBN-13: 978-1591842224
• Product Dimensions: 7.1 x 5.2 x 1.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 10.4 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (6 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #563,836 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

7 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The pleasure of a great man's company, October 16, 2008

By	Robert Morris (Dallas, Texas) - See all my reviews (TOP 50 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)

I have read and then reviewed more than 40 books by or about Peter Drucker (November 19, 1909-November 11, 2005) as well most of Jeffrey Krames's books. You can thus understand why I was so eager to read Krames's latest, Inside Drucker's Brain, in which he shares what he learned during an extended interview of Drucker in Claremont (CA) in late-December in 2003. As indicated in his earlier books (notably Jack Welch and the 4E's of Leadership, The Welch, and What the Best CEOs Know), Krames conducts rigorous and extensive research and thus was well prepared for what proved to be one of Drucker's last interviews. By then he was 94 when Krames arrived at his home "and he looked every one of those years. He appeared thin and frail. His glasses were thicker than I had imagined, and his hearing aids were very conspicuous. However, it did not take long to discern the sharp mind behind the bespectacled, aged face...He had his own agenda, and was anxious to get started."

Personal digression: How much I wish I could have had the opportunity to take social science and management courses from Drucker that he taught at what is now the Peter Drucker and Msatoshi Ito Graduate School of Management at Claremont University. For an eyewitness account, please check out William Cohen's A Class with Drucker: The Lost Lessons of the World's Greatest Management Teacher.

Although Krames indicates that, by the time they met, Drucker's physical health had deteriorated and he could no longer continue his classroom teaching, what Krames found inside Drucker's mind was an abundance of information, insights, and wisdom. Even at that advanced age, Drucker's focus was on timely and timeless issues of greatest importance to him. He indicated little (if any) interest in reminiscences. (Those who have elderly relatives can attest to how remarkable that is.) Ducker's intellectual curiosity remained insatiable as he shared with Krames (and with us) his thoughts about subjects such as these:

1. Barriers to effective execution (Chapter 2)
2. Minimizing failed policies, unsound methods, and bad habits (Chapter 3)
3. "Eight Realities" for every manager (Chapter 4)
4. Dominant characteristics of "naturals" (Chapter 5)

Note: In Drucker's view, a "natural" sets the right priorities, inspires others, and knows how to make "life-and-death situations. Naturals do not micromanage people to death. They understand intuitively that autocratic leaders are not effective and part of the problem."

5. Establishing and then strengthening business "partnerships" (Chapter 6)
6. "Abandoning" organizational waste and obsolescence (Chapter 7)
7. Building on people's strengths (Chapter 8)
8. The traits and habits (i.e. critical factors) of the "ideal leader" (Chapter 9)
9. Why Jack Welch was the right leader at the right time for GE (Chapter 10)
10. Why people decisions are the most important questions (Chapter 11)
11. Why Drucker thinks so highly of Jeff Bezos (Chapter 12)
12. The changing role of information in a business environment (Chapter 13)
13. An effective leader's core competencies (Chapter 14)
14. Determining what a customer-centric business must become (Chapter 15)

Note: In Chapter 15, Krames provides what he calls "A Short Course on Innovation" based on three of Drucker's core beliefs: Without a customer, there is no business; customer needs are constantly changing; and, companies must be "organized for innovation" (top to bottom) in order to respond effectively - and profitably - to whatever its customers' needs may be.

15. Important turning points in Drucker's life (Epilogue)

Others will have their own reasons for holding Krames's book (and its subject) in high regard. Here are three of mine. First, at no time while I was reading this book did it seem to me that Krames was shaping, manipulating, filtering, "massaging," or in any sense misrepresenting what Drucker shared with him. In fact, it took Krames about a year to listen to the tape recordings and then listen again to portions of them, a process complicated by Drucker's thick accent and hearing problem. To ensure that his account would be as authentic as possible, Krames also re-read several of Drucker's books, including one of my own personal favorites, Adventures of a Bystander, once described by Drucker as being (contrary to the subtitle of the British version) "no more 'a history of our times,' or even of 'my times,' that it is an autobiography." Credit Krames with a brilliant job of transcribing, organizing, and then presenting material so that his function is that of a bystander rather than of a self-serving link between Peter Drucker and those who read the book.

I also admire the fact that, when providing direct quotations from dozens of sources that express sometimes quite complicated concepts, Krames carefully creates an appropriate context for each. In his books and also, apparently, in his classroom discussions, consulting sessions, and personal conversations, Drucker had a tendency "for repetition, digression, and for bringing in unfathomable ideas that at times distracted [others] from his main thesis. It was as if his mind raced forward as he wrote [and spoke] and he had to work to keep up." Hence the importance of Krames's preparations prior to the extended interview and then of his post-interview efforts. I do not recall a single quotation in the entire book (whatever its source) for which Krames does not create a context.

Finally, I greatly appreciate having direct access (via Krames) to Drucker near the end of his life just as I greatly appreciate having access (via Cohen) to a much younger Drucker, then in his prime as a classroom instructor. Throughout his life, Drucker granted very few interviews, preferring to focus on his work rather than discuss it. There is still so much about his "life and times" that we will never know. With all due respect to Krames and others who have also written important books about Drucker, I remain convinced that the best way to get inside his brain is to read and then re-read what he has written. However, what Jeffrey Krames makes possible is to feel as if we are in Peter Drucker's presence, and Krames achieves that in ways and to an extent no one else has. Thank you.

3 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Disappointing, March 2, 2009

By	CEO (Global) - See all my reviews

Hoping to gain a good overview of Drucker's most important concepts I picked this book and was disappointed. Krames had only one day with Drucker to interview him and spent part of that day running errands with him rather than talking. The author therefore focuses too much on the very few new things Drucker told him that day and I sensed an intense competition and almost jealousy towards "The Definitive Drucker" by Elizabeth Haas Edersheim and "The Essential Drucker" by Drucker himself. While some of the content is very interesting, I felt the book badly written at times which was surprising for an accomplished author like Krames. Net, net I would choose another Drucker book before this one.

4.0 out of 5 stars Jeffrey Krames does a great job of delving into the mind of Drucker, April 23, 2009

By	Mark Deo "Mark Deo" (Torrance, CA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Inside Drucker's Brain (Hardcover)

Jeffrey Krames does a great job. Excellent insight through extended interviews. One of my favorite Drucker books. Very fascinated by "Turning points" in Drucker's life.