Peter Ferdinand Drucker (November 19, 1909 – November 11, 2005) was an influential writer, management consultant, and self-described “social ecologist.”
Introduction
Drucker's books and scholarly and popular articles explored how humans are organized across the business, government and the nonprofit sectors of society. He is one of the best-known and most widely influential thinkers and writers on the subject of
managementManagement in all business and organizational activities is the act of getting people together to accomplish desired goals and objectives using available resources efficiently and effectively...
theory and practice. His writings have predicted many of the major developments of the late twentieth century, including privatization and decentralization; the rise of Japan to economic world power; the decisive importance of marketing; and the emergence of the information society with its necessity of lifelong learning. In 1959, Drucker coined the term “
knowledge workerKnowledge workers in today's workforce are individuals who are valued for their ability to act and communicate with knowledge within a specific subject area. They will often advance the overall understanding of that subject through focused analysis, design and/or development. They use research...
" and later in his life considered
knowledge work productivityright|200px|Knowledge work productivity is the measure of the efficiency and effectiveness of the output generated by workers who mainly rely on knowledge, rather than labor, during the production process...
to be the next frontier of management. The annual
Global Peter Drucker ForumThe Global Peter Drucker Forum is an international management conference dedicated to the management philosophy of Peter Drucker. Drucker, who lived from 1909 to 2005, was a management professor, writer, and consultant, frequently referred to as a "management guru." The Forum is held annually in...
in his hometown of
ViennaVienna is the capital and largest city of the Republic of Austria and one of the nine states of Austria. Vienna is Austria's primary city, with a population of about 1.723 million , and is by far the largest city in Austria, as well as its cultural, economic, and political centre...
Austria, honors his legacy.
Life
Drucker was both on his paternal and his maternal side of Jewish descent, but his parents converted to Christianity and lived in what he referred to as a "liberal" Lutheran Protestant household in
Austria-HungaryAustria-Hungary , more formally known as the Kingdoms and Lands Represented in the Imperial Council and the Lands of the Holy Hungarian Crown of Saint Stephen, was a constitutional monarchic union between the crowns of the Austrian Empire and the Kingdom of Hungary in...
. His mother Caroline Bondi had studied medicine and his father Adolf Drucker was a lawyer and high-level civil servant. Drucker was born in
ViennaVienna is the capital and largest city of the Republic of Austria and one of the nine states of Austria. Vienna is Austria's primary city, with a population of about 1.723 million , and is by far the largest city in Austria, as well as its cultural, economic, and political centre...
, the capital of
AustriaAustria , officially the Republic of Austria , is a landlocked country of roughly 8.4 million people in Central Europe. It is bordered by the Czech Republic and Germany to the north, Slovakia and Hungary to the east, Slovenia and Italy to the south, and Switzerland and Liechtenstein to the...
, in a small village named Kaasgraben (now part of the 19th district of
ViennaVienna is the capital and largest city of the Republic of Austria and one of the nine states of Austria. Vienna is Austria's primary city, with a population of about 1.723 million , and is by far the largest city in Austria, as well as its cultural, economic, and political centre...
,
DöblingDöbling is the 19th District in the city of Vienna, Austria . It is located on the north end from the central districts, north of the districts Alsergrund and Währing...
). He grew up in a home where intellectuals, high government officials, and scientists would meet to discuss new ideas.
After graduating from Döbling
GymnasiumA gymnasium is a type of school providing secondary education in some parts of Europe, comparable to English grammar schools or sixth form colleges and U.S. college preparatory high schools. The word γυμνάσιον was used in Ancient Greece, meaning a locality for both physical and intellectual...
, Drucker found few opportunities for employment in post-World War Vienna, so he moved to
Hamburg-History:The first historic name for the city was, according to Claudius Ptolemy's reports, Treva.But the city takes its modern name, Hamburg, from the first permanent building on the site, a castle whose construction was ordered by the Emperor Charlemagne in AD 808...
,
GermanyGermany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...
, first working as an apprentice at an established cotton trading company, then as a journalist, writing for
Der Österreichische Volkswirt (
The Austrian Economist). Drucker then moved to
FrankfurtFrankfurt am Main , commonly known simply as Frankfurt, is the largest city in the German state of Hesse and the fifth-largest city in Germany, with a 2010 population of 688,249. The urban area had an estimated population of 2,300,000 in 2010...
, where he took a job at the Daily
Frankfurter General-Anzeiger. While in Frankfurt, he also earned a doctorate in
international lawPublic international law concerns the structure and conduct of sovereign states; analogous entities, such as the Holy See; and intergovernmental organizations. To a lesser degree, international law also may affect multinational corporations and individuals, an impact increasingly evolving beyond...
and public law from the University of Frankfurt in 1931.
In 1933, Drucker left Germany for England. In
LondonLondon is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...
, he worked for an insurance company, then as the chief economist at a private bank. He also reconnected with Doris Schmitz, an acquaintance from the University of Frankfurt whom he married in 1934. The couple permanently relocated to the United States, where he became a university professor as well as a free-lance writer and
businessA business is an organization engaged in the trade of goods, services, or both to consumers. Businesses are predominant in capitalist economies, where most of them are privately owned and administered to earn profit to increase the wealth of their owners. Businesses may also be not-for-profit...
consultant.
In 1943, Drucker became a naturalized citizen of the
United StatesThe United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
. He then had a distinguished career as a teacher, first as a professor of politics and philosophy at
Bennington CollegeBennington College is a liberal arts college located in Bennington, Vermont, USA. The college was founded in 1932 as a women's college and became co-educational in 1969.-History:-Early years:...
from 1942–1949, then for more than twenty years at
New York UniversityNew York University is a private, nonsectarian research university based in New York City. NYU's main campus is situated in the Greenwich Village section of Manhattan...
as a Professor of
ManagementManagement in all business and organizational activities is the act of getting people together to accomplish desired goals and objectives using available resources efficiently and effectively...
from 1950 to 1971.
Drucker came to California in 1971, where he developed one of the country's first executive
MBA programsThe Master of Business Administration is a :master's degree in business administration, which attracts people from a wide range of academic disciplines. The MBA designation originated in the United States, emerging from the late 19th century as the country industrialized and companies sought out...
for working professionals at
Claremont Graduate UniversityClaremont Graduate University is a private, all-graduate research university located in Claremont, California, a city east of downtown Los Angeles...
(then known as Claremont Graduate School). From 1971 to his death he was the Clarke Professor of Social Science and
ManagementManagement in all business and organizational activities is the act of getting people together to accomplish desired goals and objectives using available resources efficiently and effectively...
at
Claremont Graduate UniversityClaremont Graduate University is a private, all-graduate research university located in Claremont, California, a city east of downtown Los Angeles...
. Claremont Graduate University's management school was named the "Peter F. Drucker Graduate School of Management" in his honor in 1987 (later renamed the "
Peter F. Drucker and Masatoshi Ito Graduate School of ManagementThe Peter F. Drucker and Masatoshi Ito Graduate School of Management, or more commonly, the Drucker School of Management, is the business school of Claremont Graduate University, which is a member of the Claremont Colleges...
"). He taught his last class there in 2002 at age 92. Drucker also continued to act as a
consultantA consultant is a professional who provides professional or expert advice in a particular area such as management, accountancy, the environment, entertainment, technology, law , human resources, marketing, emergency management, food production, medicine, finance, life management, economics, public...
to
businessA business is an organization engaged in the trade of goods, services, or both to consumers. Businesses are predominant in capitalist economies, where most of them are privately owned and administered to earn profit to increase the wealth of their owners. Businesses may also be not-for-profit...
es and
non-profit organizationNonprofit organization is neither a legal nor technical definition but generally refers to an organization that uses surplus revenues to achieve its goals, rather than distributing them as profit or dividends...
s well into his nineties.
He died November 11, 2005 in
Claremont, CaliforniaClaremont is a small affluent college town in eastern Los Angeles County, California, United States, about east of downtown Los Angeles at the base of the San Gabriel Mountains. The population as of the 2010 census is 34,926. Claremont is known for its seven higher-education institutions, its...
of natural causes at 95.
Family
In 1934 Drucker married Doris Schmitz, an acquaintance from the University of Frankfurt. Their wedding certificate lists his name as Peter Georg Drucker. They had four children and six grandchildren and lived in Claremont, California.
Early influences
Among Peter Drucker's early influences was the Austrian economist
Joseph SchumpeterJoseph Alois Schumpeter was an Austrian-Hungarian-American economist and political scientist. He popularized the term "creative destruction" in economics.-Life:...
, a friend of his father’s, who impressed upon Drucker the importance of
innovationInnovation is the creation of better or more effective products, processes, technologies, or ideas that are accepted by markets, governments, and society...
and
entrepreneurshipEntrepreneurship is the act of being an entrepreneur, which can be defined as "one who undertakes innovations, finance and business acumen in an effort to transform innovations into economic goods". This may result in new organizations or may be part of revitalizing mature organizations in response...
. Drucker was also influenced, in a much different way, by
John Maynard KeynesJohn Maynard Keynes, Baron Keynes of Tilton, CB FBA , was a British economist whose ideas have profoundly affected the theory and practice of modern macroeconomics, as well as the economic policies of governments...
, whom he heard lecture in 1934 in
CambridgeThe city of Cambridge is a university town and the administrative centre of the county of Cambridgeshire, England. It lies in East Anglia about north of London. Cambridge is at the heart of the high-technology centre known as Silicon Fen – a play on Silicon Valley and the fens surrounding the...
. “I suddenly realized that Keynes and all the brilliant economic students in the room were interested in the behavior of commodities,” Drucker wrote, “while I was interested in the behavior of people.”
Over the next 70 years, Drucker’s writings would be marked by a focus on relationships among human beings, as opposed to the crunching of numbers. His books were filled with lessons on how organizations can bring out the best in people, and how workers can find a sense of community and dignity in a modern society organized around large institutions. As a business consultant, Drucker disliked the term “guru,” though it was often applied to him; “I have been saying for many years,” Drucker once remarked, “that we are using the word ‘guru’ only because ‘charlatan’ is too long to fit into a headline.”
As a young writer, Drucker wrote two pieces — one on the conservative German philosopher
Friedrich Julius StahlFriedrich Julius Stahl , German ecclesiastical lawyer and politician, was born at Würzburg, of Jewish parentage....
and another called “
The Jewish Question in Germany” — that were burned and banned by the Nazis.
The 'business thinker'
Drucker's career as a business thinker took off in 1942, when his initial writings on politics and society won him access to the internal workings of General Motors (GM), one of the largest companies in the world at that time. His experiences in
EuropeEurope is, by convention, one of the world's seven continents. Comprising the westernmost peninsula of Eurasia, Europe is generally 'divided' from Asia to its east by the watershed divides of the Ural and Caucasus Mountains, the Ural River, the Caspian and Black Seas, and the waterways connecting...
had left him fascinated with the problem of authority. He shared his fascination with
Donaldson BrownFrank Donaldson Brown was a financial executive and corporate director with both DuPont and General Motors Corporation. He graduated from Virginia Tech in 1902 with a Bachelor of Science degree in Electrical Engineering...
, the mastermind behind the administrative controls at GM. In 1943 Brown invited him in to conduct what might be called a "political audit": a two-year social-scientific analysis of the corporation. Drucker attended every board meeting, interviewed employees, and analyzed production and decision-making processes.
The resulting book,
Concept of the CorporationConcept of the Corporation is a book by management professor and sociologist Peter Drucker. It is widely held to be the first book of its kind.-Overview:...
, popularized GM's multidivisional structure and led to numerous articles, consulting engagements, and additional books. GM, however, was hardly thrilled with the final product. Drucker had suggested that the auto giant might want to reexamine a host of long-standing policies on customer relations, dealer relations, employee relations and more. Inside the corporation, Drucker’s counsel was viewed as hypercritical. GM's revered chairman, Alfred Sloan, was so upset about the book that he “simply treated it as if it did not exist,” Drucker later recalled, “never mentioning it and never allowing it to be mentioned in his presence.”
Drucker taught that management is “a liberal art,” and he infused his management advice with interdisciplinary lessons from history, sociology, psychology, philosophy, culture and religion. He also believed strongly that all institutions, including those in the private sector, have a responsibility to the whole of society. “The fact is,” Drucker wrote in his 1973
Management: Tasks, Responsibilities, Practices, “that in modern society there is no other leadership group but managers. If the managers of our major institutions, and especially of business, do not take responsibility for the common good, no one else can or will.”
Drucker was interested in the growing effect of people who worked with their minds rather than their hands. He was intrigued by employees who knew more about certain subjects than their bosses or colleagues and yet had to cooperate with others in a large organization. Rather than simply glorify the phenomenon as the epitome of human progress, Drucker analyzed it and explained how it challenged the common thinking about how organizations should be run.
His approach worked well in the increasingly mature business world of the second half of the twentieth century. By that time, large corporations had developed the basic manufacturing efficiencies and managerial hierarchies of
mass productionMass production is the production of large amounts of standardized products, including and especially on assembly lines...
. Executives thought they knew how to run companies, and Drucker took it upon himself to poke holes in their beliefs, lest organizations become stale. But he did so in a sympathetic way. He assumed that his readers were intelligent, rational, hardworking people of good will. If their organizations struggled, he believed it was usually because of outdated ideas, a narrow conception of problems, or internal misunderstandings.
Consulting career
During his long consulting career, Drucker worked with many major corporations, including
General ElectricGeneral Electric Company , or GE, is an American multinational conglomerate corporation incorporated in Schenectady, New York and headquartered in Fairfield, Connecticut, United States...
,
Coca-ColaCoca-Cola is a carbonated soft drink sold in stores, restaurants, and vending machines in more than 200 countries. It is produced by The Coca-Cola Company of Atlanta, Georgia, and is often referred to simply as Coke...
, Citicorp,
IBMInternational Business Machines Corporation or IBM is an American multinational technology and consulting corporation headquartered in Armonk, New York, United States. IBM manufactures and sells computer hardware and software, and it offers infrastructure, hosting and consulting services in areas...
, and Intel. He consulted with notable business leaders such as GE’s Jack Welch; Procter & Gamble’s A.G. Lafley; Intel’s Andy Grove; Edward Jones’ John Bachmann; Shoichiro Toyoda, the honorary chairman of Toyota Motor Corp.; and
Masatoshi Itois a Japanese businessman and billionaire.He is the owner and honorary chairman of $30 billion Ito-Yokado retailing group, which includes more than 10,000 7-Elevens in Japan and the U.S....
, the honorary chairman of the
Ito-Yokadois a Japanese General Merchandise Store, part of Seven & I Holdings Co. There are 174 Ito-Yokado stores operating in Japan. The group has expanded to China, where they formed a joint venture with Wangfujing Department Store and China Huafu Trade & Development Group Corp. to open one of five stores...
Group, the second largest retailing organization in the world. Although he helped many corporate executives succeed, he was appalled when the level of
Fortune 500The Fortune 500 is an annual list compiled and published by Fortune magazine that ranks the top 500 U.S. closely held and public corporations as ranked by their gross revenue after adjustments made by Fortune to exclude the impact of excise taxes companies collect. The list includes publicly and...
CEO pay in America ballooned to hundreds of times that of the average worker. He argued in a 1984 essay that CEO compensation should be no more than 20 times what the rank and file make — especially at companies where thousands of employees are being laid off. “This is morally and socially unforgivable,” Drucker wrote, “and we will pay a heavy price for it.”
Drucker served as a consultant for various government agencies in the
United StatesThe United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
,
CanadaCanada is a North American country consisting of ten provinces and three territories. Located in the northern part of the continent, it extends from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west, and northward into the Arctic Ocean...
and
JapanJapan is an island nation in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean, it lies to the east of the Sea of Japan, China, North Korea, South Korea and Russia, stretching from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea and Taiwan in the south...
. He worked with various nonprofit organizations to help them become successful, often consulting pro bono. Among the many social-sector groups he advised were the
Salvation ArmyThe Salvation Army is a Protestant Christian church known for its thrift stores and charity work. It is an international movement that currently works in over a hundred countries....
, the
Girl Scouts of the USAThe Girl Scouts of the United States of America is a youth organization for girls in the United States and American girls living abroad. It describes itself as "the world's preeminent organization dedicated solely to girls". It was founded by Juliette Gordon Low in 1912 and was organized after Low...
,
C.A.R.E.CARE is a broad-spectrum secular relief, humanitarian, and development non-governmental organization fighting global poverty. It is non-political, non-sectarian and operates annually in more than 70 countries across the globe.One of the organization’s primary focuses in its fight to eradicate...
, the
American Red CrossThe American Red Cross , also known as the American National Red Cross, is a volunteer-led, humanitarian organization that provides emergency assistance, disaster relief and education inside the United States. It is the designated U.S...
, and the
NavajoThe Navajo Nation is a semi-autonomous Native American-governed territory covering , occupying all of northeastern Arizona, the southeastern portion of Utah, and northwestern New Mexico...
Indian Tribal Council.
In fact, Drucker anticipated the rise of the social sector in America, maintaining that it was through volunteering in nonprofits that people would find the kind of fulfillment that he originally thought would be provided through their place of work, but that had proven elusive in that arena. “Citizenship in and through the social sector is not a panacea for the ills of post-capitalist society and post-capitalist polity, but it may be a prerequisite for tackling these ills,” Drucker wrote. “It restores the civic responsibility that is the mark of citizenship, and the civic pride that is the mark of community.”
Drucker's writings
Drucker's 39 books have been translated into more than thirty languages. Two are
novelA novel is a book of long narrative in literary prose. The genre has historical roots both in the fields of the medieval and early modern romance and in the tradition of the novella. The latter supplied the present generic term in the late 18th century....
s, one an
autobiographyAn autobiography is a book about the life of a person, written by that person.-Origin of the term:...
. He is the co-author of a book on
Japanese paintingis one of the oldest and most highly refined of the Japanese visual arts, encompassing a wide variety of genres and styles. As with the history of Japanese arts in general, the long history of Japanese painting exhibits synthesis and competition between native Japanese aesthetics and adaptation of...
, and made eight series of
educational filmAn educational film is a film or movie whose primary purpose is to educate. Educational films have been used in classrooms as an alternative to other teaching methods.-Cultural significance:...
s on
managementManagement in all business and organizational activities is the act of getting people together to accomplish desired goals and objectives using available resources efficiently and effectively...
topics. He also penned a regular column in the
Wall Street Journal for 10 years and contributed frequently to the
Harvard Business ReviewHarvard Business Review is a general management magazine published since 1922 by Harvard Business School Publishing, owned by the Harvard Business School. A monthly research-based magazine written for business practitioners, it claims a high ranking business readership among academics, executives,...
,
The Atlantic MonthlyThe Atlantic is an American magazine founded in Boston, Massachusetts, in 1857. It was created as a literary and cultural commentary magazine. It quickly achieved a national reputation, which it held for more than a century. It was important for recognizing and publishing new writers and poets,...
, and
The EconomistThe Economist is an English-language weekly news and international affairs publication owned by The Economist Newspaper Ltd. and edited in offices in the City of Westminster, London, England. Continuous publication began under founder James Wilson in September 1843...
.
His work is especially
popular in JapanBig in Japan was a punk band that emerged from Liverpool, England in the late 1970s. They are better known for the later successes of their band members than for their own music...
, even more so after the publication of "
What If the Female Manager of a High-School Baseball Team Read Drucker’s Management", full title , is a 2009 Japanese business novel by Natsumi Iwasaki. It follows high school girl Minami Kawashima who manages her school's baseball team using Peter Drucker's Management: Tasks, Responsibilities, Practices to rally her dispirited teammates...
, a novel that features the main character using one of his books to great effect, which was also adapted into an anime and a
live action filmis a 2011 Japanese live-action film directed by Makoto Tanaka which was released in Japanese cinemas on 4 June 2011...
. His popularity in Japan may be compared with that of his contemporary
W. Edwards DemingWilliam Edwards Deming was an American statistician, professor, author, lecturer and consultant. He is perhaps best known for his work in Japan...
.
Peter Drucker also wrote a book in 2001 called "The Essential Drucker". It is the first volume and combination of the past sixteen years of Peter Drucker's work on management. The information gather is a collection from his previous findings, The Practice of Management (1954)to Management Challenges for the 21st Century(1999), this book offers, in Drucker's words, " a coherent and fairly comprehensive introduction to management". He also answers frequently asked questions from up and coming entrepreneurs who wonder the questionable outcomes of management.
Key ideas
Several ideas run through most of Drucker's writings:
- Decentralization and simplification. Drucker discounted the command and control model and asserted that companies work best when they are decentralized. According to Drucker, corporations tend to produce too many products, hire employees they don't need (when a better solution would be outsourcing
Outsourcing is the process of contracting a business function to someone else.-Overview:The term outsourcing is used inconsistently but usually involves the contracting out of a business function - commonly one previously performed in-house - to an external provider...
), and expand into economic sectors that they should avoid.
- The concept of "Knowledge Worker" in his 1959 book "The Landmarks of Tomorrow". Since then, knowledge-based work has become increasingly important in businesses worldwide.
- The prediction of the death of the "Blue Collar" worker. A blue collar worker is a typical high school dropout who was paid middle class wages with all benefits for assembling cars in Detroit. The changing face of the US Auto Industry is a testimony to this prediction.
- The concept of what eventually came to be known as "outsourcing." He used the example of front room and a back room of each business: A company should be engaged in only the front room activities that are core to supporting its business. Back room activities should be handed over to other companies, for whom these are the front room activities.
- The importance of the non-profit sector, which he calls the third sector (private sector and the Government sector being the first two.) Non-Government Organizations (NGOs) play crucial roles in countries around the world.
- A profound skepticism of macroeconomic theory. Drucker contended that economists of all schools fail to explain significant aspects of modern economies.
- Respect of the worker. Drucker believed that employees are assets and not liabilities. He taught that knowledgeable workers are the essential ingredients of the modern economy. Central to this philosophy is the view that people are an organization's most valuable resource, and that a manager's job is both to prepare people to perform and give them freedom to do so.
- A belief in what he called "the sickness of government." Drucker made nonpartisan claims that government is often unable or unwilling to provide new services that people need or want, though he believed that this condition is not inherent to the form of government. The chapter "The Sickness of Government" in his book The Age of Discontinuity formed the basis of New Public Management
New public management is a management philosophy used by governments since the 1980s to modernise the public sector. New public management is a broad and very complex term used to describe the wave of public sector reforms throughout the world since the 1980s...
, a theory of public administration that dominated the discipline in the 1980s and 1990s.
- The need for "planned abandonment." Businesses and governments have a natural human tendency to cling to "yesterday's successes" rather than seeing when they are no longer useful.
- A belief that taking action without thinking is the cause of every failure.
- The need for community
Sense of community is a concept in community psychology and social psychology, as well as in several other research disciplines, such as urban sociology, which focuses on the experience of community rather than its structure, formation, setting, or other features...
. Early in his career, Drucker predicted the "end of economic man" and advocated the creation of a "plant community" where an individual's social needs could be met. He later acknowledged that the plant community never materialized, and by the 1980s, suggested that volunteering in the nonprofit sector was the key to fostering a healthy society where people found a sense of belonging and civic pride.
- The need to manage business by balancing a variety of needs and goals, rather than subordinating an institution to a single value. This concept of management by objectives
Management by Objectives is a process of defining objectives within an organization so that management and employees agree to the objectives and understand what they need to do in the organization....
forms the keynote of his 1954 landmark The Practice of Management.
- A company's primary responsibility is to serve its customers. Profit is not the primary goal, but rather an essential condition for the company's continued existence.
- An organization should have a proper way of executing all its business processes.
- A belief in the notion that great companies could stand among humankind's noblest inventions.
Criticism of Drucker's work
The Wall Street Journal researched several of his lectures in 1987 and reported that he was sometimes loose with the facts. Drucker was off the mark, for example, when he told an audience that English was the official language for all employees at Japan’s Mitsui trading company. (Drucker’s defense: “I use anecdotes to make a point, not to write history.”) And while he was known for his prescience, he wasn’t always correct in his forecasts. He predicted, for instance, that the nation’s financial center would shift from New York to Washington.
Others maintain that one of Drucker’s core concepts—“
management by objectivesManagement by Objectives is a process of defining objectives within an organization so that management and employees agree to the objectives and understand what they need to do in the organization....
”—is flawed and has never really been proven to work effectively. Critic Dale Krueger said that the system is difficult to implement, and that companies often wind up overemphasizing control, as opposed to fostering creativity, to meet their goals.
Drucker's classic
Concept of the CorporationConcept of the Corporation is a book by management professor and sociologist Peter Drucker. It is widely held to be the first book of its kind.-Overview:...
criticized
General MotorsGeneral Motors Company , commonly known as GM, formerly incorporated as General Motors Corporation, is an American multinational automotive corporation headquartered in Detroit, Michigan and the world's second-largest automaker in 2010...
at a time when it was, in some ways, the most successful corporation in the world. Many of GM's executives considered Drucker persona non grata for a long time afterward.
Alfred P. SloanAlfred Pritchard Sloan, Jr. was an American business executive in the automotive industry. He was a long-time president, chairman, and CEO of General Motors Corporation...
refrained from personal hostility toward Drucker, but even Sloan considered Drucker's critiques of GM's management to be "dead wrong".
Awards and honors
Drucker was awarded the
Presidential Medal of FreedomThe Presidential Medal of Freedom is an award bestowed by the President of the United States and is—along with thecomparable Congressional Gold Medal bestowed by an act of U.S. Congress—the highest civilian award in the United States...
by U.S. President
George W. BushGeorge Walker Bush is an American politician who served as the 43rd President of the United States, from 2001 to 2009. Before that, he was the 46th Governor of Texas, having served from 1995 to 2000....
on July 9, 2002. He also received honors from the governments of Japan and Austria. He was the Honorary Chairman of the
Peter F. Drucker Foundation for Nonprofit Management, now the
Leader to Leader Institute, from 1990 through 2002. In 1969 he was awarded
New York UniversityNew York University is a private, nonsectarian research university based in New York City. NYU's main campus is situated in the Greenwich Village section of Manhattan...
’s highest honor, the NYU Presidential Citation.
Harvard Business ReviewHarvard Business Review is a general management magazine published since 1922 by Harvard Business School Publishing, owned by the Harvard Business School. A monthly research-based magazine written for business practitioners, it claims a high ranking business readership among academics, executives,...
honored Drucker in the June 2004 with his seventh McKinsey Award for his article, "What Makes an Effective Executive", the most awarded to one person. Drucker was inducted into the Junior Achievement U.S. Business Hall of Fame in 1996. Additionally he holds 25 honorary doctorates from American, Belgian, Czech, English, Spanish and Swiss Universities. In Claremont, California, Eleventh Street between College Avenue and Dartmouth Avenue was renamed "Drucker Way" in October 2009 to commemorate the 100th anniversary of Drucker's birth.
Main publications by Drucker
- 1939: The End of Economic Man
- 1942: The Future of Industrial Man
- 1946: Concept of the Corporation
Concept of the Corporation is a book by management professor and sociologist Peter Drucker. It is widely held to be the first book of its kind.-Overview:...
- 1950: The New Society
- 1954: The Practice of Management
- 1957: America's Next Twenty Years
- 1959: Landmarks of Tomorrow
- 1964: Managing for Results
- 1967: The Effective Executive
An effective executive is someone who can do what is needed. Knowledge, intelligence and imagination are important assets but they cannot bring effectiveness by themselves...
- 1969: The Age of Discontinuity
- 1970: Technology, Management and Society
- 1971: Men, Ideas and Politics
- 1973: Management: Tasks, Responsibilities, Practices
- 1976: The Unseen Revolution: How Pension Fund Socialism Came to America
- 1977: People and Performance: The Best of Peter Drucker on Management
- 1977: An Introductory View of Management
- 1979: Song of the Brush: Japanese Painting from Sanso Collection
- 1979: Adventures of a Bystander
- 1980: Managing in Turbulent Times
- 1981: Toward the Next Economics and Other Essays
- 1982: The Changing World of Executive
- 1982: The Last of All Possible Worlds
- 1984: The Temptation to Do Good
- 1985: Innovation and Entrepreneurship
- 1986: The Frontiers of Management: Where Tomorrow's Decisions are Being Shaped Today
- 1989: The New Realities: in Government and Politics, in Economics and Business, in Society and World View
- 1990: Managing the Nonprofit Organization: Practices and Principles
- 1992: Managing for the Future
- 1993: The Ecological Vision
- 1993: Post-Capitalist Society
The Post-Capitalist Society is a book by management professor and sociologist Peter Drucker.-Overview:The book states that the "First World Nations" and in particular the United States have entered in a Post-capitalism system of production where the capital is no longer present because it doesn't...
- 1995: Managing in a Time of Great Change
- 1997: Drucker on Asia: A Dialogue between Peter Drucker and Isao Nakauchi
was the founder of Daiei.- Life and career :Isao Nakauchi served in the Philippines as an infantryman during World War II. His business empire started in Osaka 1957 and it led to the creation of "American-style" supermarkets in Japan. In 1972 he led the biggest retailer in Japan, one that owned a...
- 1998: Peter Drucker on the Profession of Management
- 1999: Management Challenges for 21st Century
- 2001: The Essential Drucker
- 2002: Managing in the Next Society
- 2002: The Functioning Society
- 2004: The Daily Drucker
- 2006: The Effective Executive in Action
See also
- Global Peter Drucker Forum
The Global Peter Drucker Forum is an international management conference dedicated to the management philosophy of Peter Drucker. Drucker, who lived from 1909 to 2005, was a management professor, writer, and consultant, frequently referred to as a "management guru." The Forum is held annually in...
- Peter F. Drucker and Masatoshi Ito Graduate School of Management
The Peter F. Drucker and Masatoshi Ito Graduate School of Management, or more commonly, the Drucker School of Management, is the business school of Claremont Graduate University, which is a member of the Claremont Colleges...
- Management by objectives
Management by Objectives is a process of defining objectives within an organization so that management and employees agree to the objectives and understand what they need to do in the organization....
Further reading
- Tarrant, John C., Drucker: The Man Who Invented the Corporate Society (1976), ISBN 0-8436-0744-0
- Beatty, Jack
Jack J. Beatty is a writer, senior editor of The Atlantic, and news analyst for On Point, the national NPR news program.-Awards:* 1993 American Book Award* Poynter Fellow at Yale* 1990 Guggenheim Fellowship * two Alfred P...
, The World According to Peter Drucker (1998), ISBN 0-684-83801-X
- Flaherty, John E., Peter Drucker: Shaping the Managerial Mind (1999), ISBN 0-7879-4764-4
- Edersheim, Elizabeth, The Definitive Drucker (2007), ISBN 0-07-147233-9
- Cohen, William A., A Class with Drucker: The lost lessons of the World's greatest management teacher (2008), ISBN 978-0-8144-0919-0
- Weber, Winfried W., Kulothungan, Gladius (eds.), Peter F. Drucker's Next Management. New Institutions, New Theories and Practices (2010), ISBN 978-3-9810228-6-5
- Stein, Guido, Managing People and Organisations (2010), ISBN 978-0-8572403-2-3
External links