Peter Drucker's Five Most Important Questions

Book description

Enduring Management Wisdom for Today's Leaders From Peter F. Drucker.

Peter Drucker's Five Most Important Questions provides insightful guidance and stirring inspiration for today's leaders and entrepreneurs. By applying Drucker's leadership framework in the present context of today's leaders and those who lead with them, this book is an essential resource for people leading, managing and working in all three sectors—public, private and social. Readers will gain new perspectives and develop a solid foundation upon which to build a successful and bright future. They will learn how to focus on why they are doing what they're doing, how to do it better, and how to develop a realistic, motivational plan for achieving their goals. This brief, clear, and accessible guide — peppered with commentary from distinguished management gurus, contemporary entrepreneurs and dynamic millennial leaders —will challenge readers and stimulate spirited discussion and action within any organization, inspiring positive change and new levels of excellence. In addition to contributions from Jim Collins, Marshall Goldsmith, and Judith Rodin, the book features new insights from some of today's most influential leaders in business (GE and Salesforce.com), academia (Harvard Business School and Northwestern University), social enterprise (Levo League, Pencils of Promise and Why Millennials Matter) and the military (United States Military Academy), who have been directly influenced by Drucker's theory of management.

Table of contents

  1. Title Page
  2. Copyright
  3. Foreword
    1. Notes
  4. Introduction
    1. Notes
  5. About Peter F. Drucker
  6. Why Self-Assessment?
    1. The Five Most Important Questions
    2. Planning Is Not an Event
    3. Encourage Constructive Dissent
    4. Creating Tomorrow's Society of Citizens
    5. Notes
  7. Question 1: What Is Our Mission?
    1. It Should Fit on a T-Shirt
    2. Make Principled Decisions
    3. Keep Thinking It Through
    4. What Is Our Mission?
    5. What Is Your Mission?
    6. Millennial Takeaway
    7. Notes
  8. Question 2: Who Is Our Customer?
    1. Identify the Primary Customer
    2. Identifying Supporting Customers
    3. Know Your Customers
    4. Who Is Our Customer?
    5. Customers at the Center of Everything!
    6. Millennial Takeaway
    7. Notes
  9. Question 3: What Does the Customer Value?
    1. Understand Your Assumptions
    2. What Does the Primary Customer Value?
    3. What Do Supporting Customers Value?
    4. Listen to Your Customers
    5. What Does the Customer Value?
    6. Creating Customer Value: How Well Is Your Brand Helping Customers?
    7. Millennial Takeaway
    8. Notes
  10. Question 4: What Are Our Results?
    1. Look at Short-Term Accomplishments and Long-Term Change
    2. Qualitative and Quantitative Measures
    3. Assess What Must Be Strengthened or Abandoned
    4. Leadership Is Accountable
    5. What Are Our Results?
    6. What Are Our Results?
    7. Millennial Takeaway
    8. Notes
  11. Question 5: What Is Our Plan?
    1. Goals Are Few, Overarching, and Approved by the Board
    2. Objectives Are Measurable, Concrete, and the Responsibility of Management
    3. Five Elements of Effective Plans
    4. Build Understanding and Ownership
    5. Never Really Be Satisfied
    6. What Is Our Plan?
    7. Planning for Sustainability: The Story of Mi Casa
    8. Millennial Takeaway
    9. Notes
  12. Transformational Leadership
    1. Millennial Takeaway
  13. The Self-Assessment Process
    1. Notes
  14. Suggested Questions to Explore*
    1. Question 1: What Is Our Mission?
    2. Question 2: Who Is Our Customer?
    3. Question 3: What Does the Customer Value?
    4. Question 4: What Are Our Results?
    5. Question 5: What Is Our Plan?
    6. Notes
  15. Definitions of Terms
    1. Note
  16. Additional Resources
  17. About the Contributors
  18. About the Frances Hesselbein Leadership Institute
  19. Acknowledgments
  20. End User License Agreement

Product information

  • Title: Peter Drucker's Five Most Important Questions
  • Author(s): Peter F. Drucker, Frances Hesselbein, Joan Snyder Kuhl
  • Release date: March 2015
  • Publisher(s): Jossey-Bass
  • ISBN: 9781118979594