Book review: ‘Drucker & Me’ isn’t your usual management book

The first time I encountered the name Peter Drucker was at home, with me staring at the bookshelf. I was in grade school, and there was this thick softbound book with a yellow cover titled “Management” by Peter Drucker.

 

That it was a thick book—no doubt my sister’s textbook in her business management course in college—made me think he was someone important, for how can you write a thick book without making some sense?

 

Fast forward to college. Peter Drucker got mentioned again in some business subjects I had in college. He is the Father of Management, after all.

 

So when I heard that CSM Publishing was launching a book this month on one author's time spent with the late management expert, I got intrigued. “In the tradition of Tuesdays with Morrie” the blurb said. And what made it more interesting was it was penned by Texas entrepreneur Bob Buford, whose book “Finishing Well” I got to read, a book about making the second half of your life (the midlife onward) count. 

 

A successful businessman who once had a TV empire of his own, Buford could have written a book himself on how to run a winning venture.

 

But Buford decided to let readers in on what his own mentor, THE Peter Drucker, thought of his business, his management style, and what he could improve on. This new book lets us in on the things Drucker passed on to Buford in the course of their friendship spanning over two decades, over lunches, phone calls, and letters they had.

 

One such lesson is: "All work is for a team. No individual has the temperament and the skill to do every job." 

 

Another is the importance of planned abandonment—you have to let go of something that does not work out so you can focus on the thing that does. 

 

And still another lesson for managers Drucker shared with Buford goes: “With people, you focus on performance, not potential. You focus on what they can do—their strengths—not on what they might do sometime in the future. What they can’t do is someone else’s job.” Put simply, that means don't turn an oboe player into a violinist; focus on what a person CAN do.

 

Buford then devotes the second half of the book to Drucker’s influence on rethinking leading non-profit organizations. 

 

The management guru believes non-profits—like big church organizations à la “Purpose-Driven Life” author Rick Warren's “Saddleback Church”—have to be run in the same way as the private sector in the way they assess the performance of employees, keep their eye on their vision-mission, and “serve” their customers. This led Buford to form the Leadership Network to equip such leaders in the 21st century, and The Drucker Institute to ensure the management guru’s lessons and legacy live on.

 

Written in an engaging, personal, and non-textbookish way, “Drucker & Me” is a worthy read especially for leaders, both in business and in the non-profit sector. While Buford showed readers how the management principles can be applied in the church setting, the lessons are practical enough to be of use in any venture.

 

It’s like having a front-row seat to the many personal conversations between Drucker and Buford with their permission. And that's time well spent, isn’t it? — VC, GMA News

 

 

“Drucker & Me” is distributed locally by Church Strengthening Ministry. It’s available in major bookstores as well as at the Manila International Book Fair at SMX Convention Center in Pasay City from September 17-21.