Have planned to visit the Madras book fair on Pongal day, 15th Jan.

I am now reading The world according to Peter. F. Drucker. Bought it in a book exhibition last month, and am reading it in bits and pieces. I'm yet to complete the book. It's more about Drucker, than by Drucker. I have always been interested in reading about the private person behind the public facade. This book by Jack Beatty is good in that it critically analyses Drucker and his effect on Management thinking in the past century.

Beatty provides the context of Drucker's book and shows how Drucker was accurate in predicting the events of future decades before they happened. It was an illuminating book for me, who like any MBA student accessed Drucker in the 11th hour before an exam.

Some things I learnt from the book were

a) Drucker is an European (I always wondered how an American possessed so much clarity of thought), he is from Vienna.

b) Drucker's first book was The End of the Economic Man, written in 1940s, and he started out as a Social Scientist, analysing the society. When he understood the society of the future would be largely associated with corporations and companies, he started writing about Corporates.

c) His only prediction on the stock market was in September 1929 when he predicted that the market would go up. Next month the market crashed:)

d) His analysis on General Motors met with disapproval of the legendary Alfred Sloan, who thought that Drucker was wrong. Drucker proved to be right eventually.

Suffice to say he is very good at detecting patterns and seeing the big picture. and at the age of 94, (yes, he is still alive) his words are still worth their weight in gold.

All of this made me happy when I read this item a couple of days ago, India becoming economic powerhouse: Peter Drucker. India is Shining, I guess.