The Five Most Important Questions You Will Ever Ask About Your Organization
The Five Most Important Questions You Will Ever Ask About Your Organization book cover

The Five Most Important Questions You Will Ever Ask About Your Organization

Price
$13.99
Format
Paperback
Pages
144
Publisher
Jossey-Bass
Publication Date
ISBN-13
978-0470227565
Dimensions
5.4 x 0.6 x 8.2 inches
Weight
5.6 ounces

Description

“I rarely read long tomes of hundreds of pages but this book is great; it’s short and sharp and is good practical brain food.” (B2B Marketing, October 2015) From the Inside Flap With Peter Drucker's five essential questions and the help of five of today's thought leaders, this little book will challenge readers to take a close look at the very heart of their organizations and what drives them. A tool for self-assessment and transformation, answering these five questions will fundamentally change the way you work, helping you lead your organization to an exceptional level of performance. PRAISE FOR The Five Most Important Questions You Will Ever Ask About Your Organization "The Leader to Leader Institute has done a great service in bringing us this monograph. Good leaders come up with answers, but great leaders ask the right questions—and this wonderful work helps all leaders do exactly that." — Jim Collins , author, Good to Great and the Social Sectors "An amazing resource that can help even the most successful organizations become more successful!" — Marshall Goldsmith , author, What Got You Here Won't Get You There , winner of the Harold Longman Best Business Book of 2007 "Peter Drucker's Five Most Important Questions continue to be the indispensable questions an organization must ask itself, regardless of size or sector, if it is determined to be an organization of the future." — Kathy Cloninger , CEO, Girl Scouts of the USA "At a time when the need for more effective management and more ethical leadership is the moral equivalent of global warming, Drucker's common sense and courage should be modeled by everyone." — Ira A. Jackson , dean, Peter F. Drucker and Masatoshi Ito Graduate School of Management, and board member, The Drucker Institute "Nobody, not even Socrates, has ever asked better questions than Peter Drucker. All the personality, all the wisdom is here to make your work dramatically more effective." — Bob Buford , author, Halftime and Finishing Well , and founding chairman, Peter F. Drucker Foundation for Nonprofit Management With Peter Drucker's five essential questions and the help of five of today's thought leaders, this little book will challenge readers to take a close look at the very heart of their organizations and what drives them. A tool for self-assessment and transformation, answering these five questions will fundamentally change the way you work, helping you lead your organization to an exceptional level of performance. PRAISE FOR The Five Most Important Questions You Will Ever Ask About Your Organization "The Leader to Leader Institute has done a great service in bringing us this monograph. Good leaders come up with answers, but great leaders ask the right questions―and this wonderful work helps all leaders do exactly that." ― Jim Collins , author, Good to Great and the Social Sectors "An amazing resource that can help even the most successful organizations become more successful!" ― Marshall Goldsmith , author, What Got You Here Won't Get You There , winner of the Harold Longman Best Business Book of 2007 "Peter Drucker's Five Most Important Questions continue to be the indispensable questions an organization must ask itself, regardless of size or sector, if it is determined to be an organization of the future." ― Kathy Cloninger , CEO, Girl Scouts of the USA "At a time when the need for more effective management and more ethical leadership is the moral equivalent of global warming, Drucker's common sense and courage should be modeled by everyone." ― Ira A. Jackson , dean, Peter F. Drucker and Masatoshi Ito Graduate School of Management, and board member, The Drucker Institute "Nobody, not even Socrates, has ever asked better questions than Peter Drucker. All the personality, all the wisdom is here to make your work dramatically more effective." ― Bob Buford , author, Halftime and Finishing Well , and founding chairman, Peter F. Drucker Foundation for Nonprofit Management First established as the Peter F. Drucker Foundation for Nonprofit Managment, the Leader to Leader Institute 's mission is to strengthen the leadership of the social sector. In collaboration with its partners in the private and public sectors, the Institute furthers its mission by providing social sector leaders with the essential leadership wisdom from all sectors and the resources needed to lead for innovation and to build vibrant organizations. Peter F. Drucker is known as the "father of modern management," and is a best-selling author of thirty-two books including the best-seller The Effective Executive. He is world-renowned thinker on leadership and management and his work has been featured in every major business periodical.xa0A consultant to senior executives for more than fifty years Drucker passed away in 2005. Since Drucker's death, interest in him, his concepts and his books has only grown. His ideas continue to be as relevant today as they were when he first voiced them. Jim Collins, Philip Kotler, Jim Kouzes, Judith Rodin and Kash Rangan are all well established thought leaders themselves, some with multiple best-sellers. Read more

Features & Highlights

  • With Peter Drucker's five essential questions and the help of five of today's thought leaders, this little book will challenge readers to take a close look at the very heart of their organizations and what drives them. A tool for self-assessment and transformation, answering these five questions will fundamentally change the way you work, helping you lead your organization to an exceptional level of performance.
  • Peter Drucker's five questions are:
  • What is our Mission? with Jim Collins
  • What is our
  • Mission
  • ? with
  • Jim Collins
  • Who is our Customer? with Phil Kotler
  • Who is our
  • Customer
  • ? with
  • Phil Kotler
  • What does the Customer Value? with Jim Kouzes
  • What does the
  • Customer Value
  • ? with
  • Jim Kouzes
  • What are our Results? with Judith Rodin
  • What are our
  • Results
  • ? with
  • Judith Rodin
  • What is our Plan? with V. Kasturi Rangan
  • What is our
  • Plan
  • ? with
  • V. Kasturi Rangan
  • These essential questions, grounded in Peter Drucker's theories of management, will take readers on a exploration of organizational and personal self-discovery, giving them a means to assess how to
  • be
  • --how to develop quality, character, mind-set, values and courage. The questions lead to action. By asking these questions, readers can focus on why they are doing what they are doing in their work, and how to do it better. Designed for today's busy professionals, this brief, clear and accessible book will challenge readers to ask these provocative questions and it will stimulate spirited discussions and action within any organization, inspiring positive change and new levels of excellence, helping all to envision the future of theirs' or any organization.

Customer Reviews

Rating Breakdown

★★★★★
60%
(188)
★★★★
25%
(78)
★★★
15%
(47)
★★
7%
(22)
-7%
(-22)

Most Helpful Reviews

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Great Questions, Not Much Depth

If you are looking for a quick overview of a good strategic and planning process fueled by asking the right questions, this is the book for you. It includes all the great information we've come to expect from Peter Drucker.

Unfortunately, if you are looking ideas on how to implement this at your company, you will come up short. It's long on theory and short on application. While I really liked its not-for-profit focus, the average company will probably still require a consultant with some expertise in this area in order to bring it to life. - Karen L. Jett, CMA, author of Grow Your People, Grow Your Business
11 people found this helpful
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Lacks Substance

This book is a general summary of subject matter that has appeared in Drucker's previous work(s). Read the Table of Contents for free and save your money. There is good advice - very basic - here, but not worth the price of admission.
10 people found this helpful
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Should be called "How to deal with the 5 most important questions"

Peter Drucker takes the reader through the Five Most Important Questions for a nonprofit organization. 1) What is our mission? 2) Who is our customer? 3) What does our customer value? 4) What are our results? and 5) What is our plan? Peter Drucker guides the reader through how to answer each question and how each question leads to more questions. The book is short and only takes about 30 minutes to read. Personally, I thought the Five questions were simple but Peter offers a way on how to tackle each question. The book explains the difference between primary and supporting customers and how each party needs to be satisfied to achieve results. Drucker also goes about offering how an organization can identify their customers and pin point customer values. At first I was turned off by the book because the questions seemed basic and self-explanatory. However, the questions listed in the book is not what adds value to an organization. The techniques and advice on how to interpret and tackle each question is the value in the book. Anyone working in nonprofit should read this book. This book can be expanded from nonprofits and applied to all organizations.
5 people found this helpful
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You need a good Map, Compass, and Crew to to travel. These 5 questions will serve as a good Map, Compass, and Crew for you.

Progress begins by asking a better question. Peter Drucker poses the 5 MOST important questions we should ask ourselves when we are evaluating our business or company we wish to work for.

These 5 questions will help you or your company to define your business. I believe all businesses are here to serve the market. A market is a bunch of customers who are willing and able to pay for your products and services. Understand the market, understand your customer, then understand what you can do best to serve the market and your customers.

A great read

William Teh
Investor | Author | Entrepreneur
TTTrends Investments
3 people found this helpful
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5 Most Important ... Anything/ Anyone Relational

Ordinarily I am inclined to dismiss numerical titled books that declare themselves to be THE MOST IMPORTANT, THE # STEPS TO SUCCESS, THE # WAYS TO WIN ANY WOMAN, etc. But this is by Peter Drucker the adventurer (read Adventures of A Bystander, his stimulating autobiography), consultant (the man who brought the official body of knowledge around the term management), and author (over 38 books translated into 37 languages and countless articles in professional journals) and educator (Claremont College from 1971 until his death in 2005. He was 95). With those credentials established, and oh did I mention he was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom by George W. Bush, one would find it extremely useful to internalize these 5 Most Important Questions. Look what it did for CEO Jack Welch during his tenure at GE. The stock chart during his tenure speaks for itself. It ain't been the same since.
2 people found this helpful
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5 Questions to Continually Revisit with Your Organization

Peter F. Drucker has been an incredible influence on me. Not only am I an admirer of his seminal work in management but also the good he advocated in his consulting service with many social sector institutions. This most recent edition of his "The Five Most Important Questions You Will Ever Ask About Your Organization" is like having Drucker sitting right next to you, offering his sage advice on effectiveness. In addition to Peter's writings, are chapter insights offered by leadership experts such as Frances Hesselbein, Jim Collins, and James Kouzes among others.

Drucker's Five questions are: What is our mission? Who is our customer? What does the customer value? What are our results? And, what is our plan? Though they may seem simple, an adequate answer to each should take much time and thoughtful consideration among your organizations leadership, staff, board, and customer response. All answers should also lead to action and then again assessment, asking more questions, and more answers with action and so on. The distinction between primary and secondary customers and discussion on measuring changed lives quantitatively and qualitatively is far worth the price of the book for anybody who works in the nonprofit world.

I have used these questions to direct the birth of my first organization this year as a catalytic leader, and also as a consultant and coach to several first time business owners. I have family in politics, peers in ministry, and entrepreneurial friends, all of which have benefited from working through the self-assessment process this book offers. As Drucker states; "Properly carried through, self-assessment develops skill, competence, and commitment. Active and attentive participation is an opportunity to enhance your vision and to shape the future" (p. 85).
2 people found this helpful
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A Must Read for Leaders

This is a must read for leaders in any organization. Simple questions aren't necessarily simple to answer and these most important questions are not asked often enough. I'm paid to do this work every day and I'm amazed at how few companies even come close to executing on a fraction of Drucker's wisdom.

The 5 questions are not only expounded upon, but layers of other sagacious questions are presented as well. It will prompt you to facilitate your team to ever greater focus and effectiveness.

If AG Lafley and Jack Welch were still learning from Drucker while at the helm, couldn't you?
2 people found this helpful
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Two Stars

Was recommended to me but nothing I would tell people to go get.
1 people found this helpful
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Read many PF Druker and enjoyed them all!

What is my job? This is question I learned to ask myself many years ago when reading PF Druker's books and working in management. That single question changed my perception of work and even life. I really enjoyed reading this book because of its focus on Non-Profit Organizations (NPOs). If you are carless you can manage NPOs as a singularity instead of using best practices. NPOs have a budget, now how do you spend the funds? Focusing resources on what best produces the desired results is what matters. And for that you have to ask the right questions. If you are into management, read this book.
1 people found this helpful
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Great

Works Great