Advance Praise

“There is only one Peter Drucker. Elizabeth Edersheim brings to Peter’s work a fresh perspective casting it in current terms. This book is an invaluable contribution, reminding us that Drucker’s work is as fresh in the 21st century as the 20th.”

John W. Bachmann
Senior Partner,
Edward Jones

Elizabeth has synthesized Peter Drucker’s lifetime of wisdom into a lively and readable narrative that illuminates Peter’s enduring clarity, optimism and humanity — and leaves us with the inescapable conclusion that the father of modern management is more relevant and needed today than ever before.

Ira A. Jackson
Dean of the Drucker School of Management
Claremont Graduate University
Claremont, California

Peter Drucker was one-of-a-kind. He was relentlessly focused on the promise of the future and the potential of individuals. It is entirely fitting that one of his final requests was for a biography of his ideas rather than of his life.

Liz Edersheim has fulfilled this request with The Definitive Drucker. She has captured not only the essence of Drucker’s 39 books and seven decades of discovery and insight, but also the essence of Peter Drucker the man — the wise, funny, insightful, humble teacher who sat with so many of us in his living room asking questions and patiently giving us the time to catch up to where he had already leaped, the man who helped us see what he always described as “visible, but not yet seen.”

Through his example and his ideas, Peter will continue to be a force for good in the world for generations to come.

A.G. Lafley
Chairman of the Board,
President and Chief Executive
The Procter & Gamble Company

These stories are as close as you can get to the wisdom of Drucker and how his stunning intelligence can be applied to every modern organization.

Warren Bennis
Distinguished Professor of Management,USC,
author of On Becoming a Leader,
and Peter’s friend

Liz Edersheim’s first person biography of Peter Drucker puts the reader in his Claremont study for a tutorial on leadership. Her conversations with the “‘Father of Management'” are created into a very insightful seminar, with examples of leaders who followed – and ignored – Drucker’s wisdom.

Richard E. Cavanagh
President and CEO The Conference Board, Inc.

The Definitive Drucker brought back fond memories of long discussions with Peter Drucker and my partners in the founding of a new “knowledge-based” Wall-Street security firm in the early 1960s. Peter’s Delphi-like pronouncements were not always easy to decipher. His insights were brilliant, an early glimpse as to how Drucker became the single most influential observer of business in the 20th century. Edersheim refreshes and updates Drucker’s wisdom through the lens of her own contemporary experience as a consultant, a combination that is both exciting and provocative.

Richard Jenrette
Co-founder Donaldson, Lufkin & Jenrette, Inc.

One of the things that Drucker did very, very well was forcing you to think, think away from traditional lines of thought. This book forces the reader to think with Drucker’s ideas today.

Dan Lufkin
Co-founder Donaldson, Lufkin & Jenrette, Inc.

Dr. Edersheim has done a most impressive work to convey Drucker’s final word on management to us. It is full of practical advice. We are most grateful Edersheim.

Atsuo Ueda
author of “Introduction to Peter F. Drucker” (in Japanese),
representative of Drucker Workshop (Japan),
and Emeritus Professor of Institute of Technologists

A new and timely perspective on Peter Drucker’s philosophy, his legacy, and its powerful relevance to the leader of the future.

Frances Hesselbein
Chairman, Leader to Leader Institute

Elizabeth Edersheim has captured the essential Drucker in a way that demonstrates the current pertinence of his timeless wisdom. A must read for those who lead or aspire to lead organizations of any sort.

William H Donaldson
27th Chairman Securities and Exchange Commission
Co-founder Donaldson, Lufkin & Jenrette, Inc.

An excellent book that captures both the human side of Peter Drucker – how he thinks – how he lives and, of course, Edersheim’s thoughts as well. It has great value in capturing Peter’s thoughts in the last two years of his life. Peter obviously picked the right person.

Bob Buford
Chairman
Leadership Network and Founding Chairman of The Drucker Foundation

A very accessible book on the thoughts and practices of the greatest of all management gurus. It demonstrates, with its numerous contemporary illustrations from around the world, how Drucker’s wisdom transcends geography as well as time.

Nikhil Prasad,
Director
The Monitor Mumbai Office

“It is impossible to overstate Peter Drucker’s contribution to the field of management. He invented the field. He defined the terms and laid out the axioms. All that subsequent writers, scholars, and thinkers have done is to footnote his work.”

Michael Hammer
President, Hammer and Company,
and author of Reengineering the Corporation