Book Review: The Effective Executive

Book Review: The Effective Executive by Peter Drucker.

This is the first Drucker book I have read.  I've heard so many rave reviews about his books that I just had to try one.  I've listened to a few audio programs from Drucker and gained a lot from those, but the book was disappointing.

Like many business books, I felt like this could have been summed up in a blog post or two.  Drucker gives long-winded explanations that consist of saying the same thing over and over again.  Simply bolding a sentence or two of the main points would have gotten the message across.  Further, Drucker backs up his explanation with weak examples that break the flow of his long-winded explanations.

Towards the end of the book I skipped most of the examples (conveniently provided in bullet point paragraphs) and attempted to extract only the main points.

Here are the two "nuggets" that he provided that I found enlightening:

1. Effective executives do NOT multi-task.  Effective executives focus on one thing at a time for maximum results.
2. Effective decisions are not based on the facts, they are based on opinions.  The facts are often too hard to find and not substantial enough to make a meaningful decision.  Opinions of those around the effective executive are more important because their outcomes can be determined by testing the hypothesis through a trial.