“I don’t predict. I just look out the window and see what’s visible but not yet seen.”
– Peter F. Drucker the window
July-Aug 2011
From the Archives Local Links
Letter from Claremont
In our Drucker for Future Leaders
program, high school and middle school
students learn Peter Drucker’s “Five Most
Important Questions”: What Is My Mission?
Who Is My Customer? What Does the
Customer Value? What Are My Results?
What Is My Plan? The students then use
this framework to design and implement a
community-service project, as well as to
meet short-term and long-term goals.
At the Leadership in Entertainment and
Media Arts pilot school in Los Angeles,
seven students recently employed the Five
Questions to fix the lunch program (which
was running out of food, leaving kids
hungry), as well as to launch a highly
successful peer-to-peer tutoring initiative.
Our colleague Lawrence Greenspun,
the driving force behind Drucker for Future
Leaders, had this to say to the students as
they completed the program in May:
Management is a term that may be new to
many of you. It can be defined as maximizing human
performance. . . . By that definition, this group of
young people has managed things quite well. . . . But
in truth, we have managed this process from behind.
We have been led by events (inadequate lunch
service, academic struggles) rather than beginning
with our dreams. We started with problems instead
of visions, which might lead to a better world but not
to the one we would create from the start—a world
that reflects and embraces our boundless human
dignity, our infinite worth . . . and the higher aims of
our existence.
You see, management, when done right, is not
just a tool for fixing problems; it’s for preempting
them. It’s not just about determining what’s wrong
and how to make it better, but about creating
something better from the start. Then, and only then,
does management become leadership.
And so that is the challenge that I leave you
with here today: to take the lessons you’ve learned
and to apply them not just to what is, but to what will
be—if only you will make it so.
Over the next year, we expect to reach
more than 1,200 students across the
country with Drucker for Future Leaders.
The most popular Dx post in the past 30 days
Rick Wartzman and Zach First
Executive Director and Managing Director
Peter Drucker to Edward Jones:
“Stop talking about
‘Druckerizing’ your organization”
p. 2 p. 2
A Quest for Legitimacy Among
Managers: The Drucker Forum
in Vienna on November 3 and 4
The newsletter of
www.DruckerInstitute.com
The Drucker Institute is an entity of Claremont Graduate University, located at 1021 North Dartmouth Avenue, Claremont, California 91711.
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Business consultant and writer Jim station to pick it up.
Collins once noted that Peter Drucker’s
“enormous impact” came, in part, because
“he asked audacious questions.”
With that in mind, the Third Global
Peter Drucker Forum, set for for Vienna on
November 3 and 4, will explore
fundamental questions about the role
of managers in creating a more
healthy and productive society.
“The goal,” said Richard
Straub, president of the Peter
Drucker Society Europe,
which will host the Forum, “is
to hold a global dialogue on how
organizations can create value while
maintaining their values in the wake of the
financial crisis.” A world-class roster of
speakers will lead the Forum conversation,
entitled, “A Quest for Legitimacy: How
Managers Can Shape the Future.”
Among those sharing their insights and
ideas will be Charles Handy, Rakesh
Khurana, Iqbal Quadir and Mark Kramer.
Senior executives from General Electric,
Haniel Group, Deutsche Telekom, Mazars
and other major companies will join them.
Fresh perspectives will come from
winners of the Drucker Challenge essay
contest, for those 35 and younger. They will
participate at the Forum after responding to
the question: “Management, what is it
good for?”
To learn more about the Forum and
Drucker Challenge, please click here.
The events in Vienna will also serve
as the backdrop for the annual
gathering of the Drucker Society Global
Network. “Drucker Society volunteers from
around the world will share best practices,”
explained Deepjee Singhal, chair of the
Network’s Leadership Council. “The Forum
serves as an ideal setting for the Societies
to examine key questions concerning our
mission and results”—questions Peter
Drucker himself would have applauded.
Almost 30 years ago, John Bachmann,
then the managing partner of the
investment firm Edward Jones, wrote a
blind letter to Peter Drucker. He was
anxious to meet.
“What do I have to do to get you to sit
down…[and] relate your philosophy of
business to our company?”Bachmann
asked. He noted that he and his team had
read Drucker’s 1973 classic, Management:
Tasks, Responsibilities, Practices, so many
times that “our copies are literally worn
out,” but since “we are basically salesmen,
we continue to have difficulty
understanding some of your ideas.”
Drucker was hooked. And in early 1982,
he began consulting for Edward Jones.
As Drucker followed up in the memo
shown here, he endeavored to be concise:
“I did not want to write another book—you
are badly infested with Drucker books
anyhow, I would say.”
Still, Drucker touched on several
themes from their initial meeting, including
the need for Edward Jones to harness its
unique character. “Stop talking about
“Druckerizing” your organization,” Drucker
demanded. “The job ahead of you is to
‘Jonesize’ your organization—and only if
you accept this would I be of any help to
you.”
Clearly, Bachmann and his team were
able to “Jonesize” the firm. Today, Edward
Jones serves nearly 7 million clients and
has more offices than any other investment
firm in America.
From the
Archives
The Drucker Institute’s
Rick Wartzman writes a
column for Bloomberg
Businessweek online that
ties Peter Drucker’s work
to today’s headlines.
Read the latest.
The Drucker Institute is an affiliate of the Peter F. Drucker and Masatoshi Ito Graduate School of Management.
