I would like to say that I had Peter Drucker’s 100th birthday on my calendar, but I have a hard time remembering my own birthday, let alone a management guru. However, I felt compelled to write a quick post to pay my respects to one of the most influential people of the twentieth century. I first began reading Drucker in high school and read even more of his work in grad school (some of it by choice). But, it wasn’t until I got into the real world that I realized the genius of his work and his influence on business today.
So many of our current management and HR practices are built on the foundation of his forward looking ideas. One of his most important ideas was the simple assertion that ”Management is about Human Beings.” Let’s be clear – Drucker didn’t say management was about project plans, creative financing schemes, supply chains, or fancy talent management software. Drucker believed that people were the engine that powered the enterprise and the success of the organization depended on their commitment, creativity, and passion. In other words, business success depends on having an engaged workforce and engagement is dependent upon good management. HR pros does this sound familiar? Sure the vocabulary has changed, but not the rock solid principles that Drucker provided us on leading people and organizations.
It has been four years since he passed, but as Businessweek said in article in 2005, his ideas still matter to business. I would take it one step further and say that his ideas matter even more today, especially when it comes to managing people in these turbulent times. Below are just a few of the ideas that Drucker gave to modern management…Happy Birthday, Mr. Drucker!
– It was Drucker who introduced the idea of decentralization — in the 1940s — which became a bedrock principle for virtually every large organization in the world.
– He was the first to assert — in the 1950s — that workers should be treated as assets, not as liabilities to be eliminated.
– He originated the view of the corporation as a human community — again, in the 1950s — built on trust and respect for the worker and not just a profit-making machine, a perspective that won Drucker an almost godlike reverence among the Japanese.
– He first made clear — still the ’50s — that there is “no business without a customer,” a simple notion that ushered in a new marketing mind-set.
– He argued in the 1960s — long before others — for the importance of substance over style, for institutionalized practices over charismatic, cult leaders.
– And it was Drucker again who wrote about the contribution of knowledge workers — in the 1970s — long before anyone knew or understood how knowledge would trump raw material as the essential capital of the New Economy