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•108 The 100 Greatest Business Ideas of All Time

Here comes the twist

• Examine all the attributes of a theory Y company carefully, and think whether
your people would believe that that is how they are being managed.

• Try out giving face-to-face feedback to a member of staff whose behaviour is
not satisfactory soon.

Idea 63 – Peter Drucker, author of The Practice of
Management

‘In most areas of intellectual life nobody can quite agree who is top dog. In man-
agement theory, however, there is no dispute. Peter Drucker has produced
groundbreaking work in every aspect of the field.’

‘Good guru guide’, Economist, 25 December–7 January 1994.

If the assertion of the Economist is true, then many would say that The Practice of
Management is the greatest management book of all time. It is certainly a book of
huge range. It is based on much historical research and experience and for the hum-
ble management practitioner ‘all human life is there’. Indeed one of the assertions of
the book is that management and managers are at the epicentre of economic activ-
ity. So the book is important not only for the management process and practices it
advocates, but also for the central role management plays in twentieth-century soci-
ety.

Written in 1954, many of the theories discussed have survived the passage of
time, and some have now been proven very prescient. He is never very far away
from the first principles of business as he paints a picture of the nature and require-
ments of managers.