Evolution of Management Thinking and Practices – Peter F. Drucker – Asrar Qureshi’s Blog Post #919

Evolution of Management Thinking and Practices – Peter F. Drucker – Asrar Qureshi’s Blog Post #919

Dear Colleagues!  This is Asrar Qureshi’s Blog Post #919 for Pharma Veterans. Pharma Veterans  aims to share knowledge and wisdom from Veterans for the benefit of Community at large. Pharma Veterans Blog is published by Asrar Qureshi on  WordPress, the top blog site. Please email to asrar@asrarqureshi.com for publishing your contributions here.

Peter Drucker's Wife - Doris

Peter. F. Drucker

The purpose of this series is to show how major changes evolved in the management thinking and practices.  I understand it is presenting a very large subject in a digest form, and is particularly for those who believe in understanding management, practicing it, and experimenting to develop new ideas for better performance.

Among modern contributors, Peter F. Drucker arguably had the most profound effect on management thinking and practices. It is therefore important to understand his ideas in some detail. But before that, have a look at some of his quotes and get a taste of his ideas.

Some Famous Quotes of Peter Drucker

“The best way to predict the future is to create it”

“Management is doing things right; leadership is doing the right things”

“The Most important thing in communication is hearing what isn’t said”

“Knowledge has to be improved, challenged, and increased constantly, or it vanishes”

“We now accept that the fact that learning is a lifelong process of keeping abreast of change. And the most pressing task is to teach people how to learn”

“Time is the scarecest resource, and unless it is managed, nothing else can be managed”

“rank does not confer privilege or give power. It imposes responsibility”

“The aim of marketing is to know and understand the customer so well, the product or service fits him and sells itself”

“Never mind your happiness; do your duty”

“Most of what we call management consists of making it difficult for people to get work done”

Peter F. Drucker (1909 – 2005)

Drucker was born in Vienna, and grew up in a Viennese suburb. His father was a high government official, and his mother was a strong-willed, independent fomer medicine student with an interest in psychiatry. He graduated from Döbling Gymnasium and then went to Hamburg for a one-year apprenticeship at an old trading company. Alongside, he also started a tentative journalistic career by writing for The Austrian Economist and for couple of other papers in Germany. He earned his doctoral degree in international and public law from the University of Frankfurt in 1931.

Immediately after Hitler took power in 1933, Drucker left Germany for London, where he found work first as a trainee with an insurance company, and then as chief economist of a private bank. In 1937, he emigrated to the USA, where he worked as a journalist and later started teaching at Bennington College. 

Drucker also began activities as a business consultant. In 1942, he published his book “The Future of Industrial Man’, which dealt with the development of society in the 20th century and concluded that the society of industrialized states had been transformed into a ‘society of organizations’. As a result of his book, Drucker was invited by General Motors in 1943 to conduct a two-year social-scientific analysis of the - at that time world's largest - corporation. For almost two years, he took part in every board meeting, analysed decision-making and production processes, and conducted countless interviews with top managers, department heads, and simple workers. In 1946, Drucker published the results of this study in his ‘Concept of the Corporation’, thereby laying the foundations of management as a scientific discipline.

Starting from 1940s, Drucker did consulting work for nearly every major corporation, including GE, Coca-Cola, Citicorp, IBM, and Intel. And he made aquaintance with, and advised, nealry every key figure in the US economy.

Peter Drucker’s Books and Articles

Generally, Drucker’s numerous books and articles are divided into four categories. His early works—such as The End of Economic Man (1939) and The New Society (1950)—discuss the nature of industrial society. A second line of books—including Concept of the Corporation (1946) and The Practice of Management (1954)—explains general ideas about modern business management. A third body of work—including America’s Next Twenty Years (1957) and Technology, Management and Society (1970)—offers speculation on the future impact of such developments as technological change. Finally, there are writings that address questions of practical corporate management, notably Managing in Turbulent Times (1980) and the essay collection The Changing World of the Executive (1982). He vitalized the concept of the entrepreneur with Innovation and Entrepreneurship (1985). Drucker also wrote two novels. 

Peter Drucker’s Management Theory

It is well-nigh impossible to squeeze Peter Drucker’s management theory in a short blog post. Of the many modern concepts he presented, some are given below.

Decentralization – Drucker was focused on decentralizing – or democratizing – workplace management. He wanted businesses to empower their staff so all employees would feel valued and know their contributions and voices mattered. He believed in assigning tasks that inspire workers, rewarding front-line workers with responsibility and accountability, and uniting supervisors and their subordinates to achieve shared organizational goals.

Knowledge work – Drucker foresaw the knowledge-based economy years before the rise of computing and the internet, and he placed a high value on workers who solved problems and thought creatively. He wanted to evolve a culture of employees who could provide insights and ideas as well as labor.

Workforce development – Drucker felt strongly that managers should improve and develop themselves and their team members. Investing in employee training is intrinsic to Drucker’s philosophy. For example, he believed external development – via participation in industry trade groups and conferences – is especially valuable.

Corporate social responsibility – Drucker was a holistic thinker. Instead of looking at businesses as discrete entities, he saw them as components of a larger social system. In that context, he argued that businesses should see themselves as part of a community and make decisions in that regard – with equal respect for their external and internal impact. Drucker even viewed profits through a social lens; a company is responsible for being profitable, he argued, so it can create jobs and wealth for society.

Organizational culture – Companies have always had cultures, be they positive or negative, helpful or harmful. But Drucker was among the first to suggest that managers could – and should – shape and change workplace culture. “The spirit of an organization is created from the top,” he said in his book Management: Tasks, Responsibilities, Practices. “If an organization is great in spirit, it is because the spirit of its top people is great. If it decays, it does so because the top rots … No one should ever be appointed to a senior position unless top management is willing to have his or her character serve as a model for subordinates.”

Customer experience – According to the Drucker Society of Austria, steward of Drucker’s philosophy in his home country, Drucker insisted that businesses have only one real purpose: to create customers. By viewing business operations and opportunities through that angle – the customer, not the business, decides what’s important – he established a predicate for customer-focused companies like Apple, Zappos and countless others that prioritize a great customer experience.

Management By Objectives – MBO

One of Drucker’s most enduring ideas is “management by objectives,” or MBO. Although it has come to mean different things to different people, the definition most agree on is management in pursuit of shared organizational goals.

The idea is simple. Employees at all levels work together to advance the business toward an agreed-upon destination. Each worker has an equal say, sharing their opinions on the destination. From there, teams establish business goals and delegate specific tasks according to skill sets and interests.

The process comprises of five basic steps.

1. Managers and team members review and set organizational goals together.

2. Team members distill organizational goals into individual objectives.

3. Managers and team members monitor progress toward individual and shared goals.

4. Managers and team members evaluate performance based on measurable milestones.

5. Team members receive feedback and rewards relative to progress.

For organizations and individuals, Drucker believed in fellow management consultant George T. Doran’s concept of SMART goals – goals that are Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Realistic and Time-bound.

Concluded.

Disclaimers: Pictures in these blogs are taken from free resources at Pexels, Pixabay, and Google. Credit is given where available. If a copyright claim is lodged, we shall remove the picture with appropriate regrets.

For most blogs, I research from several sources which are open to public. Their links are mentioned under references. There is no intention to infringe upon anyone’s copyrights. If, however, it happens unintentionally, I offer my sincere regrets.

References:

https://www.druckerforum.org/peter-f-drucker/

https://www.business.com/articles/management-theory-of-peter-drucker/

https://www.britannica.com/biography/Peter-F-Drucker

https://www.brainyquote.com/authors/peter-drucker-quotes