PETER DRUCKER

1909 - 2005

Israel C. Machado

LIS 232

Prof. Dr. Shelfer

“He was the creator and inventor of modern management” Tom Peters

Time Line: Born in 1909, in Austria 1931 Doctorate in Public & Int’l Law, Frankfurt 1933 moved to London to escape Hitler; worked

as an investment banker 1937 moved to the US; two years later “The End

of Economic Man” 1945 best-seller “The Concept of Corporation 1969 published “The Age of Discontinuity” 1974 another book “Management: Tasks,

Responsibilities, Practices” 1999 publication of “Management Challenges for

the 21st Century” 2005 died at the age of 95 at home, in California

“Drucker said it first” Business: The Ultimate Resource

His thinking has been adopted as the ultimate wisdom in modern management.

He wrote 33 books, mostly in management (about 15) and oriental art.

Drucker is credited as the man who created the management consulting industry.

He was a visionary, a management expert that predicted many management trends, sometimes ten -20 ys. before others picked it up.

Key ideas:

Decentralization of decision making Empowerment of workers The corporation as a human community Only one valid purpose for business: to

create a customer Seven tasks of the “Manager of

Tomorrow” The concept of “knowledge workers”

Quotes from Drucker

“We now accept the fact that learning is a lifelong process of keeping abreast of change. And the most pressing task is to teach people how to learn”.

“Management by objectives works if you first think through your objectives. Ninety percent of the time you haven’t”.

“In all recorded history there has not been one economist who has had to worry about where the next meal would come from”.

“Company cultures are like country cultures. Never try to change one. Try, instead, “to work with what you've got”.

“So much of what we call management consists in making it difficult for people to work”.

Citation

Bailey, Jon. Profile on…Peter Drucker. IET Engineering Management. April/May 2007.

Byrne, John A. The Man Who Invented Management, Why Peter Drucker’s Ideas Still Matter. Business Week, Nov. 28, 2005.

Davenport, Thomas (2005). Thinking for a Living. Boston, MS: Harvard Business School Press, 2005

Perseus Publishing Staff. Business: The Ultimate Resource. London, GBR: Bloomsbury Publishing Plc, 2002. p 982.

http://www.quotationspage.com/quotes/Peter_Drucker/ Photo: Business Week, November 28, 2005 (cover story)