Editorial Review:
Long considered the world’s greatest thinker and writer on management, Peter Drucker’s teachings continue to inspire leaders everywhere. From 1975 to 1979, author William Cohen studied under the Great Man and became the first graduate of his doctoral program. What Drucker taught him literally changed his life. In a matter of a few years, he was recommissioned in the Air Force and rose to the rank of major general. Eventually, he became a full professor, management consultant, multibook author, and university president – as well as maintaining a nearly lifelong friendship with the master. In A Class with Drucker, Cohen shares many of Drucker’s teachings that never made it into his countless books and articles, ideas that were offered to his students in classroom or informal settings. Cohen expands on Drucker’s lessons with personal anecdotes about his teacher’s personality, lack of pretension, and interactions with students and others. He also shows how Drucker’s ideas can be applied to the real-world challenges managers face today. Now every reader can benefit from Drucker’s thoughts on such topics as: * what everybody knows is frequently wrong * why everyone should approach problems with their ignorance * top executives should stay no longer than six years * some so-called menial tasks can only be done by the boss * what everyone needs to be an effective manager * why self-confidence is a necessity Enlightening and intriguing, A Class with Drucker will enable anyone to gain from the timeless wisdom of the inspiring man himself.
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What Peter Drucker taught his students  2008-08-13
William Cohen studied with management guru Peter Drucker while working toward his Ph.D. in executive management at Claremont Graduate School (now the Peter F. Drucker and Masatoshi Ito Graduate School of Management). The lessons he learned from Drucker, he says, were life-changing, and in this book he aims to transmit to his readers the great man's wisdom. In fact, Drucker took a somewhat different approach with his students from the one in his books and articles. Thus, Cohen builds upon and reinterprets many of Drucker's insights and concepts. getAbstract particularly recommends this book to managers who are already Drucker fans and want to learn more - the book is really more like a CD of unreleased recordings by a great artist of the past than like an album of covers by a lesser artist.
A Difficult Topic! 2008-07-04
William Cohen is the first graduate of Claremont University's PhD in Management program; Peter Drucker was his lead instructor. The value of the book is that it contains a few good insights from the best known management consultant; the downside is that the book is mostly filler, and the topic's inherent difficulty.
The inherent difficulty in studying the field of management is that it is impossible to create an all-inclusive management control panel for monitoring - a conclusion propounded by Drucker himself. Key variables differ in each situation - eg. an executive's personality, the importance of future products vs. improved current offerings, etc. Drucker's unique contribution was an ability to cut through the morass of each firm's uniqueness at a high level, and offer valued recommendations to various firms, from G.M. to G.E.
Nonetheless, some Drucker generalizations are uniquely applicable. These include:
"The first task of any business management is to decide what business it is in." (Allows focus.)
"What everyone know is frequently wrong." (Drucker illustrated this maxim by relating how Kaiser, lacking knowledge of how the English quickly built transport ships during WWII, developed a much quicker system. On the other hand, history is also replete with examples where ignorance was a serious flaw.)
"Continuing what led to past success will invariable lead to future failure - the environment will eventually change." (Examples include the explosion of energy costs, A.F. drones becoming available, the Internet and computers, new environmental laws, etc.)
"If you weren't already in the business, would you enter it today? If not, what are you going to do about it?"
"Great advances in any field rarely come from a single discipline. Rather, they come from advances in one discipline being transplanted to another sphere." (A likely example will be improving health care costs and quality through application of the Toyota production system.)
"Outstanding performance is inconsistent with the fear of failure."
Watch out for global competitors.
"CEO's are overpaid - should be in the range of 20X the average worker. Unions have become unaccountable for costs and performance."
Recommends written objectives for managers. (MBO)
"Self-development is up to the individual."
"Lead, don't manage. Don't use Theory X, nor a permissive form of Theory Y (creates chaos)."
A look at Drucker in the classroom from one of his students 2008-05-29
Peter Drucker is revered as a management guru and his books and articles have been a mainstay in business reading for decades. Even if you have read some of his books, don't you think you should read more? But maybe you have read everything and wish there was something more. We see similar market hunger from the devotees of artists and musicians who have died. These folks look for anything not released or some draft versions of works.
William Cohen was working on his executive Ph.D. at Claremont when he studied with Drucker. While most of us know Drucker from his writings, and a much smaller number from presentations, a minuscule number of people were able to sit in his classrooms. Cohen has combed his notes and recollections to put together 19 chapters of what it was like to study with Drucker as a student and the lessons he learned from him.
It is an interesting enough book and Cohen does make contributions of his own. Just don't mistake this for a book BY Drucker and you will be just fine. While I would recommend starting with Drucker's classic works, this is a good supplement to the great man's direct offerings for those who want even more.
Reviewed by Craig Matteson, Ann Arbor, MI
Quick and Easy Education  2008-04-15
I became an entrepreneur and business owner after I graduated school, so I never took business courses - especially at the graduate level. My customers have taught me some, I had some mentors and family advice, but mostly I have learned from by either making mistakes or having successes in my stores. And I am a firm believer in learning from books.
Business books seem to be about 80-20. 80% stinkers, 20% valuable. And then every so often that 20% turns out to have real gem. This book from Dr Cohen is a gem, with a lot of good, practical advice I can apply immediately to improve my bottom line. If you believe in continuing your business education with books, get this one. The advice is Peter Drucker's, and Dr Cohen fully credits the ideas to him, but I credit Dr Cohen for making these lessons readable, understandable, and easy to apply. Bravo!
Any business library needs A CLASS WITH DRUCKER. 2008-01-05
Author William A. Cohen was a struggling young Air Force officer with no academic experience when he entered Drucker's PhD program in management, becoming the first graduate of Drucker's doctoral program. He used his newfound insights to further career and to gain a deeper insight into Drucker's approach and personality: A CLASS WITH DRUCKER reflects his experiences, expanding upon Drucker's lessons, revealing the teacher's personality through personal anecdotes, and providing fine tips on how Drucker's management tools continue to be applied in everyday business circles. Any business library needs A CLASS WITH DRUCKER.
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