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Management: Tasks, Responsibilities, Practices (Paperback)
by Peter F. Drucker
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Management, Business |
| Market price: ¥ 268.00
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¥ 248.00
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| MSL Pointer Review:
One of the most thorough texts on the discipline of management, from which born the famous Drucker quote: "There is only one valid definition of business purpose: to create a customer." |
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Author: Peter F. Drucker
Publisher: Collins; Reprint edition
Pub. in: April, 1993
ISBN: 0887306152
Pages: 864
Measurements: 8.0 x 5.3 x 2.0 inches
Origin of product: USA
Order code: BA00039
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- MSL Picks -
Because its purpose is to create a customer, the business enterprise has two – and only these two - basic functions: marketing and innovation. Marketing and innovation produce results; and all the rest are "costs." – Peter F. Drucker
Management is an organized body of knowledge. "This book," in Peter Drucker'swords, "tries to equip the manager with the understanding, the thinking, the knowledge and the skills for today's and also tomorrow's jobs." This management classic has been developed and tested during more than thirty years of teaching management in universities, in executive programs and seminars and through the author's close work with managers as a consultant for large and small businesses, government agencies, hospitals and schools. Drucker discusses the tools and techniques of successful management practice that have been proven effective, and he makes them meaningful and easily accessible.
On June 21, 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.
Target readers:
Executives, managers, entrepreneurs, government and non-profit leaders, professionals, academics, and MBAs.
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Peter F. Drucker was considered one of management's top thinkers. As the author of more than 35 books, his ideas have had an enormous impact on shaping the modern corporation. In 2002, he was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom. During his lifetime, Drucker was a writer, teacher, philosopher, reporter, consultant, and professor at the Peter F. Drucker and Masatoshi Ito Graduate School of Management at Claremont Graduate University.
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From the Publisher:
Management is an organized body of knowledge. "This book," in Peter Drucker's words, "tries to equip the manager with the understanding, the thinking, the knowledge and the skills for today’s and also tomorrow's jobs." This management classic has been developed and tested during more than 30 years of teaching management in universities, in executive programs and seminars and through the author's close work with managers as a consultant for large and small businesses the tools and techniques of successful management practice that have been proven effective, and he makes them meaningful and easily accessible.
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The Purpose of a Business
To know what a business is we have to start with its purpose. Its purpose must lie outside of the business itself. In fact, it must lies in society since business enterprise is an organ of society. There is only one valid definition of business purpose: to create a customer.
Markets are not created by God, nature, or economic forces but by businessmen. The want a business satisfies may have been felt by the customer before he was offered the means of satisfying it. Like food in a famine, it may have dominated the customer's life and filled all his waking moments, but it remained a potential want until the action of businessmen converted it into effective demand. Only then is there a customer and a market. The want may have been unfelt by the potential customer; no one knew that he wanted a Xerox machine or a computer until these became available. There may have been no want at all until business action created it – by innovation, by credit, by advertising, or by salesmanship. In every case, it is business action that creates the customer.
It is the customer who determines what a business is. It is the customer alone whose willingness to pay for a good or for a service converts economic resources into wealth, things into goods. What the business thinks is produces is not of importance – especially not to the future of the business and to its success. The typical engineering definition of quality is something that is hard to do, is complicated, and costs a lot of money! But that isn't quality; it's incompetence. What the customer thinks he is buying, what he considers value, is decisive – it determines what a business is, what it produces, and whether it will prosper. And what the customer buys and considers value is never a product. It is always utility, that is, what a product or service does for him. And what is value for the customer is, as we shall see (in Chapter 7), anything but obvious.
The customer is the foundation of a business and keeps it in existence. He alone gives employment. To supply the wants and needs of a customer, society entrusts wealth-producing resources to the business enterprise.
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The Two Entrepreneurial Functions
Because its purpose is to create a customer, the business enterprise has two – and only these two - basic functions: marketing and innovation. Marketing and innovation produce results; and all the rest are "costs."
Marketing is the distinguishing, unique function of the business. A business is set apart from all other human organizations by the fact that it markets a product or service. Neither church, nor army, nor school, nor state does that. Any organization that fulfills itself through marketing a product or service is a business. Any organization in which marketing is either absent or incidental is not a business and should never be managed as if it were one.
The first man in the West to see marketing clearly as the unique and central function of the business enterprise, and the creation of a customer as the specific job of management, was Cyrus H. McCormick (1809 – 1884). The history books mention only that he invented a mechanical harvester. But he also invented the basic tools of modern marketing: market research and market analysis, the concept of market standing, pricing policies, the service salesman, parts and service supply to the customer, and installment credit. He had done all this by 1850, but not till fifty years later was he first widely imitated even in his own country.
In the Far East marketing arose even earlier – also without finding imitators for a very long time. Marketing was invented in Japan around 1650 by the first member of the Mitsui family to settle in Tokyo as a merchant and to open what might be called the first department store. He anticipated by a full 250 years basic Sears, Roebuck policies: to be the buyer for his customers; to design the right products for them, and to develop sources for their production; the principle of your money back and no questions asked; and the idea of offering a large assortment of products to his customers rather than focusing on a craft, a product category, or a process. He also saw that the social changes in his country at that time had created a new class of potential customers, an urbanized new gentry and a new bourgeoisie. On these foundations he and his successors not only built what is to this day Japan's largest retail business, the Mitsukoshi chain of department stores. They also built one of the largest of Japan's manufacturing, trading, and financial combines, the Mitsui Zaibatsu.
The economic revolution of the American economy since 1990 has in large part been a marketing revolution. Creative, aggressive, pioneering marketing is still far too rare in American business – few businesses are even abreast of the Sears of 1925, let alone the Sears of 1970. Yet 50 years ago the typical attitude of the American businessman toward marketing was "the sales department will sell whatever the plant produces." Today, it is increasingly, "It is our job to produce whatever the market needs." However deficient in execution, the attitude has by itself changed our economy as much as any of the technical innovations of this century.
In Europe selling was not really accepted as a core function of business until well after World War II. Export sales were highly valued – a holdover from 18th century mercantilism which considered domestic consumption to be antisocial but selling abroad highly patriotic and meritorious (a good bit of this belief still lingers on in Japan and underlies Japanese government attitudes and policies).
But selling was undignified. Before 1914 an export sales manager could get an officer's commission in the Prussian Army; he was a "gentleman." But a domestic sales manager was unacceptable and despised. As late as 1950 there were big Italian companies whose export sales managers sat on the board of directors as members of top management while no one, literally, was responsible for domestic sales – even though the domestic market accounted for 70% of the company’s business.
This traditional European social prejudice against market, customer, and selling was, by the way, an important reason for the popularity of cartels in Europe. No one needs to worry about markets and sales – at least not in the short run – if an industry divides up the business through a tidy, tight cartel.
The shift from this attitude to one which considered marketing as a central business function – though perhaps not yet as the central function of business – is one of the main reasons for Europe's explosive recovery since 1950.
The marketing approach was first introduced into Europe in the 20s by an English retail chain, Marks & Spencer. Despite Marks & Spencer's success – in less than 15 years, from 1920 to 1935, the firm became Europe's largest, fast-growing, and most profitable retailer – few followed it until well after World War II. Since then the marketing revolution has swept Europe – leading practitioners are such companies as Philips in Holland, Unilever, and Fiat.
In Japan, similarly, few imitated Mitsui. The marketing revolution in Japan perhaps did not start until Sony, a brash newcomer, began to market in the 1950s, first in Japan, then worldwide. Until then most Japanese businesses were product-oriented rather than market-oriented, but they learned amazingly fast. The economic success of Japan in the world markets since the 50s, and with it the Japanese economic miracle, rests squarely on an acceptance of marketing as the first function of business and its crucial task. (Chapter 6: What Is a Business)
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An American reader (MSL quote), USA
<2006-12-26 00:00>
This book is only one of its kind! Written well over years ago, even today it is of utmost relevance to all businesses. Recently we have come across so many "management gurus" who propagated different theories which ordinary business managers cannot relate to. One is never sure what the assumptions have been in such studies, nor does one know the extent of their applicability to the ordinary business.
But with Peter Drucker, you are always sure! Go for this book if you want to have a real insight into the challenges a company faces and the right questions to ask to overcome those. An absolute must read for anyone serious about business management! |
The Economist (MSL quote), USA
<2006-12-26 00:00>
He covers a great deal of ground. His style is crisp, often arresting… A host of stories and case histories from Sears Roebuck, Marks & Spencer, IBM, Siemens, Mitsubishi, and other modern giants lend color and credibility to the points he makes… Most wide-ranging and comprehensive. |
Choice (MSL quote), USA
<2006-12-26 00:00>
A landmark in management studies… The material coverage is important to all managers regardless of functional area and size of organization. |
Mike Hoag (MSL quote), USA
<2006-12-26 00:00>
This is the book on how to make a business WORK! I am president of a small company and immediately took the ideas and practices out of this book and applied them to great success. This is not a quick read, and every item will not pertain to each individual person, but the observations presented explained a huge number of obstacles I was facing. If you are trying to manage any form of modern organization, buy this book and spend the time reading it. It made me a huge Drucker fan. |
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