I first met Peter F. Drucker in the winter of 1980 and was both honored and daunted when 23 years later, he asked me to write a book about how his ideas could be used in the twenty-first century. By then, Peter himself had written 39 books. And although by that time three books about Drucker had been published, none addressed how to put the observations, wisdom, principles, and practices of “the father of modern management” to use in this new century. That was what Peter was after, and that’s what we set out to do.
I spent the next two years interviewing Peter and many of the legendary chiefs of industry, finance, nonprofit groups, and countries he had influenced. Our last conversation took place in the fall of 2005, a month before his death. As I sensed that Peter’s last days were approaching, I also became more keenly aware of how desperately America and other countries needed business and political leaders to think as Peter F. Drucker always had: with discipline, ethics, responsibility, and reflection; and with the individual, the organization, and society working together. On the day he died, his wife, Doris, called me. She didn’t have to say a word—I instantly knew he was gone as I blurted out, “Oh, Doris, his ideas will live on!” And as we both began to cry, I knew that what I’d just heard myself say out loud for the first time was absolutely true.
Peter continues to be widely quoted and referenced. The annual Drucker Forum attracts leading thinkers from around the world to discuss a selected Drucker topic, such as growth and prosperity. Since The Definitive Drucker’s first publication, I have continually heard from readers all over the world thanking me for how helpful the book has been and how Peter’s discipline has helped them elevate their leadership. A woman in Saudi Arabia recently wrote, “It was the education that I never had and needed to grow my business.” And when two students at Copenhagen Business School recently interviewed me as part of their thesis work, they asked stunningly perceptive questions that Drucker himself surely would have appreciated. Last year I was asked to write a blog for the Brookings Institution on an education book that had defined the role of education in building Druckerian thinkers for tomorrow. Day after day, I see Peter’s inspiration evidenced by leading enterprises, the students I teach, and the clients I have the privilege of working with.
Now, 10 years after the hardcover of The Definitive Drucker was published, our world has crossed another, as Peter might say, historic divide, characterized by the sheer quantity, rapidity, and breadth of changes our social, political, and economic landscapes have undergone alongside the profound leap that technology has taken. It is undoubtedly a new world, and Peter had this to say about organizations in new worlds:
“If nothing changes, we risk atrophying in our
irrelevancy. But, if everything changes, we risk
losing ourselves in ineffective chaos.”
The leaders of the institutions most successfully crossing this historic divide appear to be steeped in Peter. When Satya Nadella stepped in as CEO of Microsoft, his first act was to rewrite the mission statement with “Drucker rules”—centering on the customer instead of Microsoft and which could fit on a T-shirt. He encouraged people to find ways to connect with customers and do the impossible for them. Jeff Immelt, GE’s CEO, has spent his career inside GE—a company where Peter worked closely with the previous four CEOs, building a culture that continually challenges assumptions and plays to its strengths. Immelt often asks Drucker’s first question: What needs to be done? Under his leadership GE has refocused on the “internet of industry,” supporting GE’s being in ahead of other industry policy makers when it comes to climate change. Immelt, who embraces Drucker’s value of dissent, is not afraid of taking a position on this that differs with that of the current President of the United States, and he encourages dissent inside the corporation. Zhang Ruimin, the CEO of Haier, the leading global appliance company, has studied Peter since he was a teenager and centers virtually all of Haier’s corporate training on Peter F. Drucker.
The leaders of new institutions innovating in the new world appear to have an uncanny connection with Peter. Facebook’s talent group is steeped in the Drucker principles. Spotify’s CEO quotes Peter Drucker almost daily. The leaders at Blast refer back to Peter as they make every decision. Peter F. Drucker resonates with social sector leaders as well. Wendy Kopp is one example. Taking on one of the most intransigent sectors, she founded Teach for America and is now scaling social changes to countries around the world, referring to Drucker’s lessons along the way.
While Peter was intensely interested in management as a profession, he believed that corporations and social enterprises—fast emerging as our most important institutions—had to be both effective and responsible. Otherwise, he warned, we won’t have a functioning society. To be effective, Peter emphasized, we need to embrace new realities while holding onto principles and purpose. The first corporation he stepped inside of and wrote about was General Motors. Its current CEO could, I believe, learn much about leading GM tomorrow from the book Peter wrote about Alfred Sloan’s leading it in the 1940s.
As my young Sports Management master’s degree students at New York University learn about hands-on consulting, I’ve seen them practice some of Drucker’s principles while helping their clients—for instance, by challenging their clients’ assumptions and helping them practice abandonment.
For example, for many decades (maybe even since the gory displays at the Roman Colosseum), sports revenue has come from people sitting in stadiums and then in front of televisions. One student team proved to its sports-promoter client that this is no longer true—that, for example, more people had tuned into the League of Legends World Championship on mobile devices than had watched the 2016 Super Bowl on television. This revelation spurred the client to rethink his revenue model.
A decade ago, Peter F. Drucker envisioned this divide I have been discussing here when he said, “We will not know the impact of the Internet until we have observed how behavior changes.” Well, we can clearly observe those behavior changes now, and my students who have embraced Drucker’s principles of challenging assumptions and abandoning outworn tenets are helping their clients by pointing them out.
I am not at all surprised by the continuing relevance of Drucker today. He might, however, be more surprised than I. He had a certain humility, which especially struck me one day as we talked in his home office in the fall of 2005. In his famous Austrian accent he told me he had no illusions about his legacy; in essence, he felt he would be lucky that if in 10 years he was still footnoted in some management and social science literature, as he believed there were certainly more important, impactful contributions than his. He pointed to the example of his friend Francis Crick, who codiscovered the double helix structure of DNA.
But, Peter was wrong about his legacy. Peter F. Drucker not only saw what management and leadership of the future would be and require, he also left us the tools to get there, just as his friend Crick gave us tools for modern biotechnology and a future understanding of the mind and consciousness.
Peter’s words are certainly still relevant—even critical—today, as we have crossed this divide, have Facebook and Twitter in our daily lives, and see our businesses wrestling with big data algorithms that try to predict consumers’ behavior, artificial intelligence, and all the rest. The challenge of the social sector and the information sector working together has never been more relevant. And the challenge of making business more productive and more humane certainly has never been more important.
For the sake of the future of our economy, our community, and our society, I believe every thinking manager needs to be familiar with Drucker’s discipline of thought and how to put his principles and practices into immediate motion to solve twenty-first century management challenges.
• • •
“There is nothing more important than the
future impact of decisions we make today.”
—Peter F. Drucker
When I finished writing this book, I knew Drucker’s lessons would apply far into the future. I am still amazed at his prescience. Knowing and studying Peter F. Drucker changed me: how I work, how I think, the questions I ask. Perhaps most important, Peter made me appreciate the value of context, reflection, and adopting a Druckerian perspective.
Whether you are a seasoned practitioner or among the new generation of aspiring leaders, I hope reading this paperback edition of The Definitive Drucker will change you for the better, too.