What Would Drucker Do Now?: Solutions to Today’s Toughest Challenges from the Father of Modern Management

An in-depth look at today’s most pressing business issues through the eyes of Peter Drucker—the father of modern management

“Channeling Peter Drucker to tackle some of this century’s most difficult topics, What Would Drucker Do Now? is a veritable treasure trove of fascinating reading. Drucker’s insights were nothing short of remarkable, and Rick Wartzman pays high tribute to that fact while adding a few of his own.”

—Marshall Goldsmith, author of the New York Times bestsellers MOJO And What Got You Here Won’t Get You There

“Rick Wartzman has accomplished what I didn’t think was possible: a tapestry of ideas drawn from Wartzman’s observations and personal experiences, woven together with the wisdom of the most important management thinker of this or any other age.”

—Warren Bennis, Distinguished Professor of Management, the University of Southern California, and author of the recently published Still Surprised: A Memoir of a Life in Leadership

“Peter Drucker’s thinking has had an enduring impact on consumer-driven companies like Macy’s. . . . [What Would Drucker Do Now?] serves as a compendium of the very best ideas that can help all of our companies win in a highly competitive marketplace for products, services, and customer experiences.”

—Terry Lundgren, Chairman, President, and CEO, Macy’s Inc.

“This collection of essays . . . will broaden you as a manager, a leader, and as a human being. . . . Rick Wartzman has done the world a great service by collecting the most incisive observations of a beautiful mind and linking them to problems that face leaders and organizations everywhere.”

—Brian Walker, President and CEO, Herman Miller, Inc.

“If Peter Drucker is the master, Rick Wartzman is the prized pupil. Drucker would be delighted to see his theories applied in such a cogent, thoughtful fashion.”

—Jim Weddle, Managing Partner, Edward Jones, and consulting client of Peter Drucker

About the Book:

As technology, globalization, and business innovation advance at breakneck speed, the question “What would Drucker do now?” becomes more relevant by the day. More than anyone of his time, Peter Drucker understood how the individual, the organization, and society are interrelated. And no one better recognized and articulated the challenges facing all three—or came up with more practical solutions to those challenges.

Since 2007, the Drucker Institute’s executive director, Rick Wartzman, has been asking what Drucker would do on a regular basis— in his popular online column for Bloomberg Businessweek. In each piece, Wartzman introduces a current issue and provides a view of it through the eyes of Peter Drucker, based on his deep knowledge of Drucker’s ideas and ideals.

What Would Drucker Do Now? culls Wartzman’s best, most timely columns into a single volume, offering a perspective on business and society you won’t find anywhere else. Featuring more than 80 articles, the book is organized into seven thematic sections:
Management as a Discipline

The Practice of Management

Management Challenges for the Twenty-First Century

On Wall Street and Finance

On Values and Responsibility

The Public and Social Sectors

Art, Music, and Sports




Covering everything from the federal bailout of GM and the scandal at Goldman Sachs to the roles religion and race relations play in a well-functioning society, What Would Drucker Do Now? explores a range of subjects as broad as Drucker’s remarkable mind. Wartzman provides a smart, original, and provocative look at a world being buffeted by change and in which all organizations—private, public, and nonprofit—are searching for answers. What would Drucker do now, indeed?