Peter Drucker

Managing the Nonprofit Organization has been my introduction to Peter Drucker's body of work, and I must say I am impressed.  Before I knew who he was, I was skeptical of his near universal acclaim as a great business thinker.  His great popularity led me to believe that he was some type A alpha-male businessman celebrity.  But I was wrong.  Drucker isn't a celebrity in the traditional sense.  He's not good looking or cocky.  He's one of the most genuine writers in the business-lit. field I've ever read.  Wise, softspoken and old-fashioned come to mind.  He skillfully mixes exposition on his theories of management with historical examples, personal anecdotes, old proverbs.  The result is clear, practical no-nonsense business wisdom.

Here are a handful of the takeaways I got from this book:

• Raise standards, and you not only have better performance and attract more people
• "What attracts people to an organization are high standards, because high standards create self-respect and pride...it is the job of the leader to set high standards"

• To operate effectively, non-profits must frame moral causes in economic terms
• "to believe that whatever we do is a moral cause, and should be pursued whether there are results or not, is a perennial temptation...[however] the nonprofit must set specific goals"

• Good executives make only as many decisions as they have to, and no more
• "the least effective decision makers are the ones who constantly make decisions"

• Always test new ideas.
• "At the full scale, even tiny and easily correctible flaws will destroy the innovation"

• Reward people for their performance, not their potential.  No "crown princes"
• "the worst thing an organization can do is limit its development is by importing society's class system into its own operations"

• Set high standards, even it requires people fail before they succeed
•  "One can always relax standards, but one can never raise them."

• Inspiration flows top down
• [giving advice to new teachers] "Make sure you don't lose the top 10% of the class.  If you lose those, you've lost everybody.  But if the top 10% are excited and learn, the average student will learn"