In this classic text, Peter Drucker studies how modern-day managers, whether in business or public service, can perform effectively. He takes an international view, exploring management problems in Great Britain, Western Europe, Japan, and Latin America, and suggests how these problems can be tackled.

The interactions between manager, the institution and the social and cultural environment are penetratingly examined, and the book is enhanced by telling examples from a wide spectrum of experience.

The essence of management is performance. And it is the management and managers of our institutions - business and government, educational and multinational - that will determine our future. The purpose of this landmark study is to prepare today's and tomorrow's managers for their tasks and responsibilities and to enable them to meet the formidable challenge ahead.

'...if I were allowed only one book on management to take with me on my desert island, I would certainly take this one.' The Director '..Drucker brings to bear a nimble pen, an agile mind and a rare dose of common sense.' The Daily Telegraph

Born in Vienna in 1909, Peter F. Drucker was educated in Austria and England. From 1929 he was a newspaper correspondent abroad and an economist for an international bank in London. Since 1937 he has been in the United States, first as an economist for a group of British banks and insurance companies, and later as a management consultant to several of the country's largest companies, as well as leading companies abroad. Drucker has since had a distinguished career as a teacher, first as Professor of Politics and Philosophy at Bennington College, then for more than twenty years as Professor of Management at the Graduate Business School of New York University. Since 1971 he has been Clarke Professor of Social Science at Claremont Graduate School in California. In addition to his management books, Peter Drucker is also renowned for his prophetic books analysing politics, economics and society. These books span fifty years of modern history beginning with The End of Economic Man (1939) and including The Practice of Management; Innovation and Entrepreneurship; Managing in the Next Society; Management Challenges in the 21st Century; The Effective Executive and The Essential Drucker.