One of the most admirable aspects of the work of Peter Drucker is its timeless quality. It will be endlessly applied now and in the future to projects, issues and strategies inside and outside the business world. This role-up-your-sleeves component is the focus of a terrific book published late last year, The Practical Drucker: Applying the Wisdom of the World’s Greatest Management Thinker, by William A. Cohen. I wrote about Cohen and his previous Drucker-related book, Drucker on Marketing: Lessons from the World’s Most Influential Business Thinker, in 2012.
Cohen has now written four books based on Drucker, based on both his intense, decades-long study and application of the master’s thought, and on a long personal friendship, going back to his days as Drucker’s first executive PhD student in the 1970s. Cohen, who is now president of the California Institute of Advanced Management, has led a multidimensional life that has included stints as a consultant, author and Air Force major general, thus exemplifying Drucker’s concept of living in more than one world.
The Practical Drucker is written in Cohen’s trademark direct and to-the-point style, with lessons on both running an organization, as well as leading a meaningful life, especially within the workplace. The latter includes chapters on self-development, office politics, and dealing with job loss. On the organizational side, Cohen presents practical applications in leadership, innovation, marketing, strategy and related areas. Like Drucker, Cohen is a keen student of history, so it is no surprise that an early chapter is devoted to “Drucker’s Favorite Leadership Book, ” the Kyropaidaia by Xenophon, circa 400 B.C. (Drucker wrote about this in his classic 1954 book The Practice of Management.)
There is a lifetime’s worth of tips and strategies in The Practical Drucker. But ultimately, the work and application is up to you; and the stakes are high. Consider the final words of Chapter 31, “The Mysteries of Supply-Side Innovation.” Cohen writes: “Can you apply supply-side innovation to your marketing or other duties? There’s a fortune to be made if you can.”
