A remembrance of Pet

A remembrance of Peter Drucker (1909-2005)
David B. Allen, Department Chair and Professor of Strategic Management, Instituto de Empresa.
As Peter Drucker continued spinning his magic and looking into his crystal ball into his 90’s, it became commonplace to praise Drucker as the father of management and the anti-guru guru who had explained to us just about everything there is to know about management.
This is true, of course. Drucker explained management theory and practice in a way that made sense to managers. He used his broad and diverse learning to provide us with ideas and pictures of how the profession of management could achieve worthy goals: he linked value creation and social responsibility long before these were fashionable. He bridged the academic and professional world, and reminded us again and again that entrepreneurship is the foundation of business. He taught, he inspired, as he gave coherence to the mass of new information and research that emerged after World War II when management suddenly became an academic field of study.
But he did something more. He refused to change his ideas according to the fashion. Oddly, the man promoted innovation and entrepreneurship, did not waver in his ideas. Drucker set out his views in two fundamental books written more than half a century ago: "Concept of the Corporation" first published in 1946, and "The Practice of Management" published in 1954. In the decades that followed, Drucker stayed the same, refining his ideas, challenging us to keep up with the pace of change. And so we changed, and we began to see that Drucker’s greatest contribution, like that of Chester Barnard, was to remind us why management matters. As his work matured, Drucker talked to managers increasingly about leadership in a society of organization. His analogies and examples, his ability to combine erudition with a lively writing style made him the favorite of serious managers who care about the profession of management. It is hard to imagine who will be able to take up his role. Two or three more Peter Druckers would not be a bad idea.
Tags(clickable): peter drucker, instituto de empresa, chester barnard, david allen, management theory
Posted on Monday, 14 November 2005 at 10:46 AM in   All Posts from the start | Permalink
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