is an affiliate of the drucker school of management
Greetings from the Middle East.
We’ve come to the capital of
Jordan— more than 7,000 miles from
home— to put on a symposium,
“ Essential Drucker for the 21st
Century.” And nothing could be more
essential today than having the tools
to manage through turbulent times.
As Nidal Bitar, director of
Optimiza Academy, our partner and
host for the event, remarked: “ We
believe there is a huge need to
sharpen the management and
leadership skills in this region,
especially right now. And we believe
Peter Drucker’s philosophy is best
practice. This program has added
huge value for the people here.”
The symposium— a full day of
lectures, case studies and discussion
with a distinguished group of public,
private and social sector executives
from Jordan and across the region—
focused on four pillars of Drucker’s
thinking: values, innovation, people
and effectiveness.
Tying it all together were
Drucker’s blunt assessments of how
failures of leadership often end in
the kind of crisis in which we now
find ourselves mired.
Writing about a financial
meltdown in the 1990s— when
Barings, Bankers Trust, and Yamaichi
Securities were felled by their
recklessness— Drucker refused to
buy into the notion that senior
managers had been blind to their
employees’ egregious behavior.
He wouldn’t buy into it now,
either. “ In the first place,” Drucker
wrote, “ there is a limit to
coincidences. Such widespread
breakdowns cannot be blamed on
‘ exceptions.’ They denote systems
failure.”
Besides, Drucker added, “ in
every single one of these ‘ scandals,’
top management seems to have
carefully looked the other way as
long as trading produced profits ( or
Rick Wartzman, director of the Drucker
Institute, writes a bimonthly column for
BusinessWeek online that ties Peter
Drucker’s work to today’s headlines. For a
list of all of his columns, click here.
Rick’s recent “ Drucker Difference” columns:
• The Old College Buy April 20, 2009
• How Lack of Focus Hurt Detroit April 3, 2009
• AIG, and Drucker’s Glimpse at a Very Dark Place March 20, 2009
• Out with the Dead Wood for Newspapers March 10, 2009
Letter from Amman
“ The Drucker Difference” on BusinessWeek. com
Drucker Society Spotlight
How Drucker Societies worldwide are
advancing ethical leadership and effective
management.
Baseball, it’s been said, isn’t
something you talk about; it’s something
you do.
The same goes for the teachings of
Peter Drucker: More than mere discussion
fodder, they are a means to organizational
effectiveness and social responsibility.
Members of the Drucker Society
Global Network will gather for their
annual symposium from May 20- 22 in
Claremont to share best- practices and
assess their results in “ doing Drucker.”
“ This year’s symposium marks a
departure from the past,” notes Lawrence
Greenspun, the Drucker Institute’s Drucker
Society program manager. “ Instead of
declaring, ‘ This is what Peter’s writings
are all about,‘ Societies will be saying,
‘ This is what we’re doing with them. And
this is how we’re going to do it better.’”
Two years ago, the Drucker Society
Global Network was little more than a
Continued on the next page Continued on the next page
claremont graduate university
Applications are now available for the 2009 Peter F. Drucker Award for Nonprofit Innovation.
The first- place prize is $ 100,000. Click here for more.
1021 n dartmouth ave, claremont, ca 91711
THE WINDOW “ I don’t predict. I just look out the window and see what’s visible but not yet seen.”
— Peter F. Drucker
The newsletter of the Drucker Institute www. druckerinstitute. com May/ June 2009
is an affiliate of the drucker school of management
pretended to produce them). Until the losses had become so big that they could no
longer be hidden, the gambling trader was a hero and showered with money.”
Although lessons from the financial crisis permeated much of the day,
participants were eager to talk about opportunities, too. One attendee observed
that the youth bubble in Jordan— more than 40% of its citizens are under the age
of 18— is often described as a problem to be solved. Instead, she suggested, it
should be viewed as a chance to harness a massive wave of new energy and
ambition.
It was comments like these that underscored why we couldn’t have asked for
a more appropriate location to unveil our “ Essential Drucker” program. Jordan
lacks major oil reserves, and so knowledge work plays a particularly critical role in
its economy and society. Sharing a little of Drucker’s own knowledge with our
Jordanian friends was a genuine privilege.
Rick Wartzman and Zach First
Executive Director and Managing Director
The Evidence
The need for ethical
leadership and effective
management— that is, the
need for Peter Drucker’s
principles and practices— has
never been greater.
In 2015, the UN projects, a full 15% of the world’s population will still be
unable to read or write.
What are we doing to
ensure the future of our
knowledge society?
Source: United Nations
March 31 marked Cesar Chavez Day
in California, honoring the famed civil
rights champion and founder of the
United Farm Workers.
Chavez is known, of course, for his
courage and his selflessness. But he
possessed something else, as well: deft
management skills. “ Great
management,” Chavez said, “ means
getting common people to do uncommon
things.”
Like many accomplished leaders of
his time, Chavez sought out Peter
Drucker’s counsel. In fact, he called
Drucker “ the greatest management
thinker in the world.”
In 1982, the two held a long
meeting at Drucker’s home in Claremont
to discuss Chavez’s questions about the
UFW’s organization and structure.
Richard Ybarra, who accompanied
Chavez that day, recalls that one of
Drucker’s deepest insights came when
Chavez asked about the very nature of
labor unions: Were they parasites
because they relied on the business of
others for their existence?
“ In many cases I might say yes,”
Drucker replied. “ However, in yours, we
must remember that for about the next
45 years immigration will become an
important issue and you must be the
spokesman for all those immigrants who
will come here.”
Drucker uttered those words in
1982, back when Communism was far
more likely than immigration to
dominate the headlines. It was another
example of his keen farsightedness.
vision. At the first global symposium
in 2007, founding Drucker Societies
and supporters gave shape to the
concept of a worldwide network
dedicated to promoting Drucker’s
ideas and ideals.
By 2008, Societies had formed
on four continents with the mission
of stimulating effective management
and ethical leadership across all
sectors of society.
Now, through a series of
programs and workshops created
with the Drucker Institute, Societies
are actively sharing those principles
with high school students, nonprofit
organizations, business leaders, and
government officials.
At this year’s symposium,
Society representatives will join with
professional facilitators from
WildWorks, a Dallas- based firm, to
develop strategies for continued
action and community impact.
“ It’s not just the ideas
anymore,” Greenspun says. “ It’s also
the implementation that matters.”
Society Spotlight, cont’d
Letter from Amman, cont’d
The newsletter of the Drucker Institute www. druckerinstitute. com May/ June 2009
FROM THE ARCHIVES
