Peter F. Drucker argues that what underlies the current malaise of so many large and successful organizations worldwide is that their theory of the business no longer works. The story is a familiar one a company that was a superstar only yesterday finds itself stagnating and frustrated in trouble and often in a seemingly unmanageable crisis. The root cause of nearly every one of these crises is not that things are being done poorly. It is not even that the wrong things are being done. Indeed in most cases the right things are being donebut fruitlessly. What accounts for this apparent paradox The assumptions on which the organization has been built and is being run no longer fit reality. These are the assumptions that shape any organizations behavior dictate its decisions about what to do and what not to do and define what an organization considers meaningful results. These assumptions are what Drucker calls a companys theory of the business.The Harvard Business Review Classics series offers you the opportunity to make seminal Harvard Business Review articles a part of your permanent management library. Each highly readable volume contains a groundbreaking idea that continues to shape best practices and inspire countless managers around the worldand will have a direct impact on you today and for years to come.