Peter Drucker, Management Legend

Peter Drucker died Friday at age 95. Drucker is well known as a guru and pioneering thinker in management. Drucker's thinking changed the way enterprises are managed. Drucker's influence was broad and can be seen in leaders and people who think about leadership from Jim Collins to Jack Welch to Rick Warren.

While many people have focused on the terms Drucker coined and the movements he started, I think the most impressive thing about Drucker is the enduring wisdom of much of his writing. Drucker is one of the few, great thinkers whose thought seems are relevant today as it did when it was written, in Drucker's case often over forty years ago. It is fairly easy to write something that seems intelligent today, it is much, much harder to write something that will seem intelligent forty years later.

Fortunately for all of us, we live in an age where competition has reduced the price of knowledge, and Drucker's work is still in print, so do yourself a favor and pick up some of Drucker's best work today.

I'll leave you with a quote from Drucker's last interview with Forbes, a thought that all successful people, weather in business or politics should keep in mind:

"Successful leaders don't start out asking, "What do I want to do?" They ask, "What needs to be done?" Then they ask, "Of those things that would make a difference, which are right for me?" They don't tackle things they aren't good at. They make sure other necessities get done, but not by them. Successful leaders make sure that they succeed! They are not afraid of strength in others. Andrew Carnegie wanted to put on his gravestone, "Here lies a man who knew how to put into his service more able men than he was himself." "


Timothy Burger
timothyb(at)timothyburger.com