Page 146 - The Drucker Lectures

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Knowledge Lecture V

1989

ood evening, Ladies and Gentlemen, and welcome to our
Glast session. And before—in case I forget—let me wish you
all a very, very Merry Christmas and a very happy New Year.
As you know, our last topic is you. So far, we have been up
in assorted stratospheres talking about major changes in society,
major changes in organization, and today we are going to discuss
what all this means for the people who not only do the work but
also have to live in this kind of world and society and organiza-
tion and have to achieve and make their careers and make their
contribution. And perhaps I’ll start with something that may kind
of surprise you. Let me say that whenever during the last, oh,
35 years anybody has asked me, “What is the best management
book?” I found it very easy to answer. I’ve always said, “It’s Alfred
Sloan’s My Years with General Motors.” I still say that, and the book
came out in 1964 when Sloan was 88, 89. And I have gone back
and referred to it and looked into it and read up in it, but I have
not really, for 35 years, read it very carefully until a few weeks ago.
Sloan’s publisher, Doubleday, came to me and said, “We are plan-
ning a new issue of that book, and would you be willing to write
the preface for it?” And in a weak moment, I said, “Yes.”
And so, I had to reread the book, and I was tremendously
impressed. It is probably the best book of case studies in business
management there is. Each chapter is a case study. And the thing

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