HOME
Peter Ferdinand Drucker (November 19, 1909–November 11, 2005) was a writer, management consultant, and self-described “social ecologist.” Widely considered to be the father of “modern management,” his 39 books and countless scholarly and popular articles explored how humans are organized across all sectors of society—in business, government and the nonprofit world. His writings have predicted many of the major developments of the late twentieth century, including privatization and decentralization; the rise of Japan to economic world power; the decisive importance of marketing; and the emergence of the information society with its necessity of lifelong learning. In 1959, Drucker coined the term “knowledge worker.”
Personal life and roots of his philosophy The son of a high level civil servant in Austria-Hungary – his mother Caroline Bondi had studied medicine and his father Adolph Bertram Drucker was a lawyer – Drucker was born in Vienna, the capital of Austria, in a small village named Kaasgraben (now part of the 19th district of Vienna, Döbling). He grew up in a home where intellectuals, high government officials and scientists would meet to discuss new ideas and ideals. After Graduating from Döbling Gymnasium, Drucker found few opportunities for employment in post-Habsburg Vienna so he moved to Hamburg, Germany, first working as an apprentice at an established cotton trading company, then as a journalist, writing for the Österreichische Volkswirt (The Austrian Economist). Drucker then moved to Frankfurt where he took a job at the Daily Frankfurter General Anzeiger. While in Frankfurt, he also earned a doctorate in international law and public law from the University of Frankfurt in 1931. Among his early influences was the Austrian economist Joseph Schumpeter, a friend of his father’s, who impressed upon Drucker the importance of innovation and entrepreneurship. Drucker also was influenced, in a much different way, by John Maynard Keynes, whom he heard lecture in 1934 in Cambridge. “I suddenly realized that Keynes and all the brilliant economic students in the room were interested in the behavior of commodities,” Drucker wrote, “while I was interested in the behavior of people.”
Indeed, over the next 70 years, Drucker’s writings would be marked by a clear focus on relationships among human beings, as opposed to the crunching of numbers. His books were filled with lessons on how organizations can bring out the best in people, and how workers can find a sense of community and dignity in a modern society organized around large institutions.
As a young writer, Drucker wrote two pieces—one on the conservative German philosopher Friedrich Julius Stahl and another called “The Jewish Question in Germany”—that were burned and banned by the Nazis. In 1933, Drucker left Germany for England. In London, he worked for an insurance company then as the chief economist at a private bank. He also reconnected with Doris Schmitz, an acquaintance from the University of Frankfurt. They married in 1934. (His wedding certificate lists his name as Peter Georg Drucker. The couple permanently relocated to the United States, where he became a university professor as well as a freelance writer and business consultant. (Drucker disliked the term “guru,” though it was often applied to him; “I have been saying for many years,” Drucker once remarked, “that we are using the word ‘guru’ only because ‘charlatan’ is too long to fit into a headline.)
In 1943, Drucker became a naturalized citizen of the United States. He taught at Bennington College from 1942-1949, then at New York University as a Professor of Management from 1950 to 1971. Drucker came to California in 1971, where he developed one of the country's first executive MBA program for working professionals at Claremont Graduate University (then known as Claremont Graduate School). From 1971 to his death he was the Clarke Professor of Social Science and Management at Claremont Graduate University. The university's management school was named the Peter F. Drucker Graduate School of Management (later known as the Peter F. Drucker and Masatoshi Ito Graduate School of Management) in his honor in 1987. He taught his last class at the school in the Spring of 2002.
Awards and honors :
Drucker was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom by U.S. President George W. Bush on July 9, 2002[1]. He also received orders from the governments of Japan and Austria. He was the Honorary Chairman of the Peter F. Drucker Foundation for Nonprofit Management, now the Leader to Leader Institute, from 1990 through 2002. In 1969 he was awarded NYU’s highest honor, the NYU Presidential Citation. Drucker was inducted into the Junior Achievement U.S. Business Hall of Fame in 1996. Additionally he holds 25 honorary doctorates from American, Belgian, Czech, English, Spanish and Swiss Universities.
Quotes
1."In fact, that management has a need for advanced education - as well as for systematic manager
2.development - means only that management today has become an institution of our society."
3."The best way to predict the future is to create it."
4."Management is doing things right; leadership is doing the right things."
5."What's measured improves."
6.Company cultures are like country cultures. Never try to change one. Try, instead, to work with what you've got.”
7.“Efficiency is doing better what is already being done. “
8.“Follow effective action with quiet reflection. From the quiet reflection will come even more effective action.”
9.“People who don't take risks generally make about two big mistakes a year. People who do take risks generally make about two big mistakes a year.”
10.“The most important thing in communication is hearing what isn't said.”
11.“The purpose of business is to create and keep a customer.”
12“There is nothing so useless as doing efficiently that which should not be done at all.”
13.“When a subject becomes totally obsolete we make it a required course.”
14"Rank does not confer privilege or give power. It imposes responsibility."