PETER DRUCKER 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 21 st 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  Byrne, John A. The Man Who Invented Management, Why Peter Drucker’s Ideas Still Matter. Business Week, Nov. 28,  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, p 982.   Photo: Business Week, November 28, 2005 (cover story)