Peter Drucker

Peter F. Drucker
Born (1909-11-19)November 19, 1909
Kaasgraben, Vienna, Austria-Hungary
Died November 11, 2005(2005-11-11) (aged 95)
Claremont, California
Alma mater University of Frankfurt
Occupation Management consultant, educator and author
Awards Presidential Medal of Freedom (2002)

Peter Ferdinand Drucker (/ˈdrʌkər/; German: [ˈdʀʊkɐ]; November 19, 1909 – November 11, 2005) was an Austrian-born American management consultant, educator, and author, whose writings contributed to the philosophical and practical foundations of the modern business corporation. He was also a leader in the development of management education, he invented the concept known as management by objectives and self-control,[1] and he has been described as "the founder of modern management".[2]

Introduction

Drucker's books and scholarly and popular articles explored how humans are organized across the business, government, and nonprofit sectors of society.[3] He is one of the best-known and most widely influential thinkers and writers on the subject of management 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.[4] In 1959, Drucker coined the term “knowledge worker," and later in his life considered knowledge-worker productivity to be the next frontier of management.[5] Peter Drucker gave his name to three institutions: the Drucker Institute and the Peter F. Drucker and Masatoshi Ito Graduate School of Management, both at Claremont Graduate University, and the Peter F. Drucker Academy.[6] The annual Global Peter Drucker Forum in his hometown of Vienna, honors his legacy.

Biography

Peter Drucker was of Jewish descent on both sides of his family,[7] but his parents converted to Christianity and lived in what he referred to as a "liberal" Lutheran Protestant household in Austria-Hungary.[8] His mother Caroline Bondi had studied medicine and his father Adolf Drucker was a lawyer and high-level civil servant.[9] Drucker was born in Vienna, Austria, in a small village named Kaasgraben (now part of the 19th district of Vienna-Döbling).[10] He grew up in a home where intellectuals, high government officials, and scientists would meet to discuss new ideas.[11] These included Joseph Schumpeter, Friedrich Hayek and Ludwig von Mises. Hans Kelsen was his uncle.[12]

After graduating from Döbling Gymnasium in 1927,[12] Drucker found few opportunities for employment in post-World War I Vienna, so he moved to Hamburg, Germany, first working as an apprentice at an established cotton trading company, then as a journalist, writing for Der Österreichische Volkswirt (The Austrian Economist).[9] Drucker then moved to Frankfurt, where he took a job at the Daily Frankfurter General-Anzeiger.[13] While in Frankfurt, he also earned a doctorate in international law and public law from the University of Frankfurt in 1931.[14]

In 1933, Drucker left Germany for England.[15] In London, he worked for an insurance company, then as the chief economist at a private bank.[16] He also reconnected with Doris Schmitz, an acquaintance from the University of Frankfurt, and they married in 1934.[17] The couple permanently relocated to the United States, where he became a university professor as well as a freelance writer and business consultant.

In 1943, Drucker became a naturalized citizen of the United States. He then had a distinguished career as a teacher, first as a professor of politics and philosophy at Bennington College from 1942 to 1949, then twenty-two years at New York University as a Professor of Management from 1950 to 1976.

Drucker went to California in 1971, where he developed one of the country's first executive MBA programs for working professionals at Claremont Graduate University (then known as Claremont Graduate School). From 1971 until his death, he was the Clarke Professor of Social Science and Management at Claremont.[18] 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 Management). He established the Drucker Archives at Claremont Graduate University in 1999; the Archives became the Drucker Institute in 2006. Drucker taught his last class in 2002 at age 92. He continued to act as a consultant to businesses and non-profit organizations well into his nineties.

Drucker died November 11, 2005 in Claremont, California of natural causes at 95.[19] He had four children and is the grandfather of tech entrepreneur Nova Spivack, one of six grandchildren.[20][21] Drucker's wife Doris died in October 2014 at the age of 103.[22]

Work and philosophy

Early influences

Among Peter Drucker's early influences was the Austrian economist Joseph Schumpeter, a friend of his father’s, who impressed upon Drucker the importance of innovation and entrepreneurship.[23] Drucker was also influenced, in a much different way, by John Maynard Keynes, whom he heard lecture in 1934 in Cambridge.[24] “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.”[25]

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.[3] 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.”[26]

As a young writer, Drucker wrote two pieces — one on the conservative German philosopher Friedrich Julius Stahl and another called “The Jewish Question in Germany” — that were burned and banned by the Nazis.[4]

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 Europe had left him fascinated with the problem of authority. He shared his fascination with Donaldson Brown, 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 Corporation, 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 re-examine 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.”[27]

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.[3] 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.”[28]

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 production. 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.

Drucker developed an extensive consulting business built around his personal relationship with top management. He became legendary among many of post-war Japan’s new business leaders trying to rebuild their war-torn homeland. He advised the heads of General Motors, Sears, General Electric, W.R. Grace and IBM, among many others. Over time he offered his management advice to non-profits like the American Red Cross and the Salvation Army. His advice was eagerly sought by the senior executives of the Adela Investment Company, a private initiative of the world’s multinational corporations to promote investment in the developing countries of Latin America.[29]

Drucker's writings

Drucker's 39 books have been translated into more than thirty-six languages. Two are novels, one an autobiography. He is the co-author of a book on Japanese painting, and made eight series of educational films on management topics. He also penned a regular column in the Wall Street Journal for 10 years and contributed frequently to the Harvard Business Review, The Atlantic Monthly, and The Economist.

His work is especially popular in Japan, even more so after the publication of "What If the Female Manager of a High-School Baseball Team Read Drucker’s Management", 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 film.[30] His popularity in Japan may be compared with that of his contemporary W. Edwards Deming.[31]

Peter Drucker also wrote a book in 2001 called The Essential Drucker. It is the first volume and combination of the past sixty years of Peter Drucker's work on management. The information gathered 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 tend to ponder the questionable outcomes of management.[18]

Key ideas

Drucker is considered the single most important thought leader in the world of management, and several ideas run through most of his writings:

Criticism of Drucker's work

C. L. R. James, Raya Dunayevskaya and Grace Lee Boggs criticised Drucker in their 1950 text State Capitalism and World Revolution: "the Christian Humanists (for example, Peter Drucker) will join with the labor bureaucracy to keep the mass of workers in their place at the base of the hierarchy in production."[55] 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.[56]

Others maintain that one of Drucker’s core concepts—“management by objectives”—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.[57]

Drucker's classic Concept of the Corporation criticized General Motors 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. Sloan refrained from personal hostility toward Drucker, but even Sloan considered Drucker's critiques of GM's management to be "dead wrong".[58]

Awards and honors

Drucker was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom by US President George W. Bush on July 9, 2002.[59] He also received honors from the governments of Austria,[60] including the Grand Silver Medal for Services to the Republic of Austria in 1974,[61] the Grand Gold Decoration for Services to the Republic of Austria in 1991[62] and the Austrian Cross of Honour for Science and Art, 1st class in 1999[63] and Japan (Order of the Sacred Treasure, 3rd class; 24 June 1966[64]).

Drucker was the Honorary Chairman of the Peter F. Drucker Foundation for Nonprofit Management, now the Leader to Leader Institute, from 1990 through 2002.[65] In 1969 he was awarded New York University’s highest honor, its Presidential Citation.[66] For his article, "What Makes an Effective Executive", Harvard Business Review honored Drucker in the June 2004 with his seventh McKinsey Award — the most awarded to one person.[67] Drucker was inducted into the Junior Achievement US Business Hall of Fame in 1996.[68] He received 25 honorary doctorates from American, Belgian, Czech, English, Spanish and Swiss universities.[69] His 1954 book The Practice of Management was voted the third most influential management book of the 20th century in a poll of the Fellows of the Academy of Management.[70] 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.[71] Drucker was posthumously honored when he was inducted into the Outsourcing Hall of Fame in recognition of his outstanding contributions in the field.[72]

Books by Drucker

Other Drucker publications

Monographs

Contributing writer

Miscellaneous

See also

References

  1. ↑ Drucker, Peter F. “Reflections of a Social Ecologist,” Society, May/June 1992.
  2. ↑ Denning, Steve (August 29, 2014). "The Best Of Peter Drucker". Forbes.
  3. 1 2 3 Why Drucker Now?, Drucker Institute.
  4. 1 2 Byrne, John A.; Gerdes, Lindsey (November 28, 2005). "The Man Who Invented Management". BusinessWeek. Retrieved November 2, 2009.
  5. ↑ Davenport, Thomas H. Thinking for a Living, 2005, p. 8.
  6. ↑ Schumpeter (19 November 2009). "Remembering Drucker". The Economist. Retrieved 15 March 2012.
  7. ↑ Lee, Anne Feder. Thomas Olechowski, ed. The Kelsen Genealogy at University of Vienna
  8. ↑ Drucker, Peter F., The Ecological Vision: Reflections on the Human Condition, 2016, p. 425.
  9. 1 2 Drucker, Peter F. Adventures of a Bystander, 1979.
  10. ↑ Peter F. Drucker: A Biography in Progress, p. 1, at his website
  11. ↑ Beatty, Jack. The World According to Peter Drucker, 2016, pp. 5–7.
  12. 1 2 "Drucker's childhood and youth in Vienna". Drucker Society of Austria. Drucker Society of Austria. Retrieved 2 August 2015.
  13. ↑ Drucker, Peter F. Adventures of a Bystander, 1979, p. 159.
  14. ↑ “Obituary: Peter Drucker, 95, Economist Who Prized Value of Workers,” The New York Times, 13 November 2005.
  15. ↑ Drucker, Peter F.;Cohen, William. A Class with Drucker: The Lost Lessons of the World's Greatest Management Teacher, 2007, p. 242.
  16. ↑ Peter F. Drucker: A Biography in Progress, p. 6, at this website
  17. ↑ Certified copy of Peter and Doris Drucker’s marriage certificate, The Drucker Institute Archives, Box 39, Folder 11, Claremont, California.
  18. 1 2 The Essential Drucker (2001)
  19. ↑ Sullivan, Patricia (November 12, 2005). "Management Visionary Peter Drucker Dies". Washington Post.
  20. ↑ "Peter F. Drucker". Claremont Graduate University. Retrieved 24 March 2014.
  21. ↑ Pattison, Kermit (9 December 2008). "The Twine That Binds: Q&A With Nova Spivack". Fast Company. Retrieved 24 March 2014.
  22. ↑ Colker, David (October 4, 2014). "Doris Drucker dies at 103; memoirist and wife of Peter Drucker". Los Angeles Times. Retrieved 14 October 2015.
  23. ↑ Beatty, Jack. The World According to Peter Drucker, 1998, p. 163.
  24. ↑ Drucker, Peter F. The Ecological Vision: Reflections on the Human Condition, 1993, p. 75.
  25. ↑ Drucker, Peter F., The Ecological Vision, 1993, pp. 75–76.
  26. ↑ “Peter Drucker, the man who changed the world,” Business Review Weekly, 15 September 1997, p. 49.
  27. ↑ Drucker, Peter F., Adventures of a Bystander, p. 288, (1979)
  28. ↑ Drucker, Peter F., Management: Tasks, Responsibilities, Practices, 1973, p. 325.
  29. ↑ Wartzman, Rick. "How to Consult Like Peter Drucker". Forbes.
  30. ↑ Drucker in the dug-out, A Japanese book about Peter Drucker and baseball is an unlikely hit, The Economist, July 1, 2010
  31. ↑ Outcome-Based Religions: Purpose-Driven Apostasy, Mac Dominick, "The quest begins by looking into the lives of two men, Edwards Deming and Peter Drucker. Deming (now deceased) and Drucker (in his mid 90s) are enshrined as internationally renowned experts in business management and gurus of business methodology. These two individuals were among the primary players in a select group of Americans (Though Drucker is a U.S. citizen, he is actually Austrian.) who are lauded as part of the almost super-human effort that developed systems-based management philosophies that first gained public recognition in post-World War II Japan. The popular story is told of the Americans who developed a cutting edge business methodology that was rejected by western business but eagerly embraced by the Japanese.", quoted at Total Quality Management (TQM)
  32. ↑ Buchanan, Leigh (19 November 2009). "Peter Drucker from A to Z". Inc. magazine. Retrieved 12 March 2012.
  33. ↑ Drucker, Peter (1957). Landmarks of Tomorrow. New York: Harper & Row. p. 122. ISBN 978-1-56000-622-0.
  34. ↑ Drucker, Peter (December 1995). "The Age of Social Transformation". The Atlantic. Retrieved 12 March 2012.
  35. ↑ Wartzman, Rick (5 February 2010). "Insourcing and Outsourcing: the Right Mix". Bloomberg Businessweek. Retrieved 12 March 2012.
  36. ↑ Drucker, Peter (July 1989). "What Business Can Learn from Nonprofits". Harvard Business Review. Retrieved 12 March 2012.
  37. ↑ Drucker, Peter (23 May 1983). "Schumpeter And Keynes". Forbes. Retrieved 12 March 2012.
  38. ↑ Drucker, P.F., Innovation and Entrepreneurship, p250 (1985)
  39. ↑ Farrell. C.J. ‘Commercial Knowledge on Innovation Economics’, A Report, (2014) pp. 1-11
  40. ↑ Drucker, P. F., Collins, J., Kotler, P., Kouzes, J., Rodin, J., Rangan, V. K., et al., The Five Most Important Questions You Will Ever Ask About your Organization, p. xix (2008)
  41. ↑ Drucker, Peter (1969). The Age of Discontinuity. New York: Harper & Row. ISBN 978-1-56000-618-3.
  42. ↑ Pollitt and Bouckaert, Christopher and Geert (2011). Public Management Reform. New York: Oxford University Press. p. 38. ISBN 978-0-19-959508-2.
  43. ↑ Drucker, Peter (1974). Management: Tasks, Responsibilities, Practices. New York: HarperCollins. pp. 84–5. ISBN 978-0-7506-4389-4.
  44. ↑ Drucker, Peter (1942). The Future of Industrial Man. New York: The John Day Company. p. 205. ISBN 978-1-56000-623-7.
  45. ↑ Drucker, Peter (1990). Managing the Non-Profit Organization. New York: HarperCollins. p. xii. ISBN 978-0-7506-2691-0.
  46. ↑ Drucker, Peter F., The Practice of Management, pp 62-63, (1954)
  47. ↑ Drucker, Peter F., Managing for the Future, p. 299, (1992)
  48. ↑ Drucker, Peter F., The Practice of Management, p. 12, (1954)
  49. ↑ Drucker, Peter F., The Practice of Management (1954)
  50. ↑ Drucker, Peter F., The Five Most Important Questions You Will Ever Ask About Your Organization, p. 54, (2008)
  51. ↑ Haus, Marian (9 October 2011). "Best 10 Peter Drucker Quotes". pmseed thoughts on managing project work. pmseed. Retrieved 27 April 2015.
  52. ↑ Vitasek, Kate (1 June 2010). "A New way to Outsource". Forbes.
  53. ↑ Drucker, Peter (15 November 2005). "Sell the Mailroom". Wall Street Journal. Dow Jones Company (Manager's Journal). Retrieved 27 April 2015Reprint from July 25, 1989
  54. ↑ The International Association of Outsourcing Professionals. "PETER DRUCKER INDUCTED INTO THE OUTSOURCING HALL OF FAME". Drucker Institute. Drucker Institute. Retrieved 27 April 2015.
  55. ↑ Johnson-Forrest Tendency (1950). State Capitalism and World Revolution.
  56. ↑ “Peter Drucker, Leading Management Guru, Dies at 95," Bloomberg, 11 November 2005.
  57. ↑ Krueger, Dale. Strategic Management and Management by Objectives, Small Business Advancement National Center, 1994.
  58. ↑ Drucker, Peter. Introduction, pp. v–vi, in Sloan, Alfred P. (1964), McDonald, John, ed., My Years with General Motors, Garden City, New York: Doubleday, LCCN 64-11306, OCLC 802024. ISBN 978-0385042352
  59. ↑ Presidential Medal of Freedom ceremony, 2002-07-09, The Drucker Institute Archives, Claremont, California.
  60. ↑ Great Silver Award, Box 8, Folder 7, The Drucker Institute and Archives, Claremont, California.
  61. ↑ "Reply to a parliamentary question" (pdf) (in German). p. 398. Retrieved 20 January 2013.
  62. ↑ "Reply to a parliamentary question" (pdf) (in German). p. 905. Retrieved 20 January 2013.
  63. ↑ "Reply to a parliamentary question" (pdf) (in German). p. 1305. Retrieved 20 January 2013.
  64. ↑ Japanese Decoration of Honor, Box 8, Folder 7, The Drucker Institute Archives, Claremont, California.
  65. ↑ Drucker, Peter. Biographical data, Box 35, Folder 30, The Drucker Institute Archive, Claremont, California.
  66. ↑ Letter recognizing Presidential Citation of New York University, Box 8, Folder 7, The Drucker Institute Archives, Claremont, California.
  67. ↑ McKinsey Award Winners at Harvard Business Review
  68. ↑ "Peter F. Drucker". U.S. Business Hall of Fame. Junior Achievement. Retrieved 17 December 2012.
  69. ↑ Honorary Degrees in The Drucker Institute Archives, Claremont, California.
  70. ↑ Bedeian, Arthur G.; Wren, Daniel A. (Winter 2001). "Most Influential Management Books of the 20th Century" (PDF). Organizational Dynamics. 29 (3): 221–25. doi:10.1016/S0090-2616(01)00022-5.
  71. ↑ Wassenaar, Christina (8 October 2009). "Eleventh Street in Claremont, Calif., will be renamed "Drucker Way"". Drucker Institute. Retrieved 17 December 2012.
  72. ↑ Wartzman, Rick (February 2010). "Insourcing and Outsourcing: the Right Mix". Bloomberg Business. Bloomberg Business.com. Retrieved 27 April 2015.

Further reading

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