Book Review: The Drucker Lectures: Essential Lessons on Management, Society and Economy

Knowledge productivity was then considered as the border on achieving management as Peter F. Drucker’s said during his timne. He argued that someday, the society will work through their knowledge and not with their backs. It is good enough that Rick Wartzman clearly shown, with this book, the ideas and insights of Drucker on his talks and lectures. The book revealed today’s situation as what Drucker described during his time.

As quoted from Drucker on the beginning pages of the book, “Knowledge has to be improved, challenged, and increased constantly, or it vanishes.”, the book helped its readers to increase their knowledge, to be more engaged with the society and to be more productive constantly. The book explained the ideas of Drucker which is good enough because readers could easily visualize their current situations and realize what they are doing with their lives.


With the help of this book, people will learn, thus increase their knowledge. Wartzman thought of the book as a “tool” on achieving Drucker’s idea that knowledge would give big part on achieving proper management in the future.

Proper words have been used to explain clearly the points of the author to the people. Wartzman discussed the explanations of the different lectures of Drucker very well by extracting the real meaning Drucker has. It is good that Wartzman organized the lessons per chapter. Another factor which added to the goodness of the book is its systematic ways of identifying the essentials from not. Also, he made the book entertaining to its readers by relating them from the time during Drucker. The book let its readers feel like bringing the past today and having Drucker as an adviser or professor on a management class. One part that supports Wartzman feeding the imagination of its readers is when he briefly narrated the life of Peter F. Drucker at the beginning chapter of the book.

History helps the people on understanding today. It is also good that Wartzman relate the management of the past and the present. Through his ways of discussing today’s situation by dealing the past first, the readers can clearly see the differences of the both times and realize how knowledge affects the management of productivity the people have.

The book helped its readers to understand their current situations. It revealed them some reality points which unfold some questions in their mind. The book answered why poverty do exists and how management could cure or help the society today. Good management has something to do with the improvement of the societal status. As what has been discussed in the book, it affects the man’s way of thinking, action and response on the issues (problems) they would encounter. Wartzman can be considered as good writer as he explained, through this book, the visions and perspective of Drucker who is known as someone who has significance with his words.

The knowledge being taught before such as Peter F. Drucker’s lessons helped a lot as it serves as a tool of knowing the root cause of the current issues people experience today. The book reached its goal on touching human minds by bringing the past to the present.

 Nursing Administration

As a nurse manager, a lot of qualities should be applied on the workplace. To have a good management of people and good management of productivity, having the idea and knowledge of the skills about management is the best tool in order to have a developmental organization. As a nurse manager, being visionary is a very important aspect. For planning, relating it with Wartzman, dealing with the organization’s history would help me to strategic plan for my organization, making sure that it is process oriented, with purpose, and future directed. In organizing and staffing, setting goals for my staff on a daily weekly monthly basis and making sure that they will meet these goals. In directing, I know that as nurse manager I should promote teamwork within my staff as we also have to work with doctors, dieticians, pharmacists, and other healthcare professionals. In evaluation, performance of my staff in the workplace is an important factor to deal with, making sure that they provide good quality care to patients should be emphasized. I believe that performance evaluations is a great tool wherein I as a nurse manager has the opportunity to connect in a deeper level with my staff, making sure that I deal with one nurse at a time, for them to have a better understanding in the unit and for me to have a better understanding on their position and concerns. Being a good listener, taking suggestions from the staff which I know will enhance the work quality of my team are factors in building a good positive relationship with them.

To sum it up, being a nurse manager should have a vision to make things better and be committed enough to see that all the organizational goals are met in a span of time and by having a good management on the organization and giving emphasis on patient safety and quality care