The Effective Executive: The Definitive Guide to Getting the Right Things Done (Harperbusiness Essentials)

by Peter F. Drucker

From 1980 through 2003, the investment firm Edward Jones retained Peter Drucker as consultant, adviser, and teacher for its top executives. During that time, the company grew from 200 offices in 28 U.S. states to more than 9,000 offices throughout the United States, Canada, and the United Kingdom. Early on, Edward Jones’s Managing Partner wrote to Drucker that he and his team had read Drucker’s 1973 classic, Management: Tasks, Responsibilities, Practices, so many times that “our copies are literally worn out.” Drucker replied: I have only one negative comment, but a pretty important one. Stop talking about “Druckerizing” your organization. Indeed, stop reading in very dubious sources. The job ahead of you is to “Jonesize” your organization—and only if you accept this would I be of any help to you. Otherwise I would rapidly become a menace—which I refuse to be. For Edward Jones, this translated into using Drucker’s teachings not to become a generically “effective” company, but rather to more effectively carry out the company’s distinctive mission of democratizing investing and financial planning.