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The Drucker School and McGraw-Hill Announce the Release of Faculty-authored book, The Drucker Difference

Published on Thursday, October 01, 2009

The Drucker School and McGraw-Hill Announce the Release of Faculty-authored book, The Drucker Difference

Drucker faculty collaborate to analyze and highlight Peter Drucker’s multi-faceted legacy, revealing how organizations can re-interpret and apply his timeless ideas in today’s world

Claremont, California—The Peter F. Drucker and Masatoshi Ito Graduate School of Management announced today the release of The Drucker Difference: What the World’s Greatest Management Thinker Means to Today’s Business Leaders, published by McGraw-Hill.

The book's release is part of the Drucker Centennial, which marks the 100^th birthday of Peter Drucker, the father of modern management. The global celebration, which is being put on by the Drucker School and the Drucker Institute, will be crowned by a week of special events at Claremont Graduate University in November 2009.

“There are more than 1,000 business schools in America, but only one that is named for and anchored by the teachings of a great thinker, management guru, and social philosopher,” said Ira Jackson, Dean and Professor of Management at Claremont Graduate University. “This book, written by all of us on the Drucker School faculty, reflects our unique values-oriented approach to management as a liberal art, and conveys the essence of what we call The Drucker Difference.”

The book, which was co-authored by 16 Drucker faculty members, is the result of a spontaneous conversation that came out of a typical Drucker School faculty meeting in spring 2007, where a group of professors unanimously decided to develop a much-needed groundbreaking academic course together – one that builds upon and honors the intellectual foundations that Peter Drucker had laid out in his teachings – a truly transdisciplinary approach to management in the business world as we know it.

And so, an entirely new academic class titled the “Drucker Difference” was born —a 14-week course co-taught by Drucker faculty and visiting professors, who each teach one class per week based onDrucker’s philosophy and writings, extending these ideas through each professor’s own work. The course embodies Drucker’s living legacy, and The Drucker Difference book captures the essence of this course.

“This book is an excellent way to understand how Drucker’s ideas apply to today’s dilemmas,” wrote Charles Handy, author and philosopher, in the Foreword to the book. Handy sees Drucker’s philosophy as “deeply rooted in his humanistic theory of management – a view of organizations as if people mattered.”

Led by Drucker Professor Craig L. Pearce and his colleagues, Professor Joseph Maciariello and Drucker Associate Dean Hideki Yamawaki, the book’s 16 chapters are written from the perspective of each author’s teachings while holding true to the core foundation of Drucker’s wisdom. Each chapter covers an aspect of Drucker’s teachings – from Government, Business and Civil Society, to Economic Environment, Innovation and Industry Dynamics – reassessing and interpreting each through the lens of today’s ever-changing, turbulent business environment.

“By linking each professor’s work to the overall Drucker body of knowledge, each class builds upon and then extends this body of knowledge, thus creating a living Drucker philosophy,” said Professor Maciariello. “In the process, students are taught that individuals can develop both their character and their capacities as organizations to pursue their broader missions.”

The authors of this comprehensive work aspire to carry the Drucker message forward through their class lectures, writings, consulting and various civic engagements. Drucker’s perspective that people have value and the role of management is to provide a context in which people can flourish remains at the heart of the “Drucker Difference” academic course – which is now a graduate requirement for all MBA, EMBA and transdisciplinary students – and is also demonstrated in the living piece of work that is The Drucker Difference: What the World’s Greatest Management Thinker Means to Today’s Business Leaders.

"We are honored to be a part of the continuing Drucker legacy," says McGraw-Hill Vice President and Business Group Publisher Gary M. Krebs. "Drucker's teachings and wisdom have more relevance than ever in our current business climate. No doubt the course and the book will be staples that will educate and inspire for at least another century."

About the Book

The book’s chapter titles and authors include:

·         Management as a Liberal Art (Karen E. Linkletter and Joseph Maciariello)

·         Drucker on Government, Business, and Civil Society: Roles, Relationships, Responsibilities (Ira A. Jackson)

·         Leading Knowledge Workers: Beyond the Era of Command and Control (Craig L. Pearce)

·         Value(s)-Based Management: Corporate Social Responsibility Meets Value-Based Management (James S. Wallace)

·         Drucker on Corporate Governance (Cornelis A. de Kluyver)

·         Corporate Purpose (Richard R. Ellsworth)

·         Strategy for What Purpose? (Vijay Sathe)

·         The Twenty-First Century: The Century of the Social Sector (Sarah Smith Orr)

·         Economic Environment, Innovation, and Industry Dynamics (Hideki Yamawaki)

·         A Pox on Charisma: Why Connective Leadership and Character Count (Jean Lipman-Blumen)

·         Knowledge Worker Productivity and the Practice of Self-Management (Jeremy Hunter)

·         Labor Markets and Human Resources: Managing Manual and Knowledge Workers (Roberto Pedace)

·         Peter Drucker: The Human Economist (Jay Prag)

·         The Drucker Vision: Corporations, Managers, Markets, and Innovation (Richard Smith)

·         Drucker on Marketing: Remember, Customers Are the Reason You Are in Business (Jenny Darroch)

·         A Closer Look at Pension Funds (Murat Binay)

The Drucker Difference: What the World’s Greatest Management Thinker Means to Today’s Business Leaders retails for $29.95 and is available for purchase wherever books are sold, including Barnes and Noble, Amazon.com, Borders, and on McGraw-Hill’s website.

THE DRUCKER CENTENNIAL

For additional details about the Drucker Centennial, including times and exact locations for upcoming events, please visit www.drucker100.com. The Centennial also has a bevy of social media tools to keep you connected. You can find us on Twitter; check us out on YouTube; subscribe to our RSS feed; and go here for a video about Peter Drucker.