Peter Drucker ‘the king of the management gurus’

It’s a century since the birth of arguably the world’s most famous management thinker. The Economist has a special article commemorating the event and reminds us what he is famous for.

Celebrations have been held across the world to mark the occasion. The article asks why Drucker continues to enjoy such a high reputation. Many management ideas of the past are seen, on reflection, to be a fad. One of Drucker’s main achievements was to help create the modern industry of management advice. In 1946, officials at General Motors doubted if Drucker could find a publisher for his great study of the company, “Concept of the Corporation”, on the grounds that, as one of them put it, “I don’t see anyone interested in a book on management.” Today the management-consulting industry will earn revenues of $300 billion in a year. Management books regularly top the bestseller lists. Management gurus can command $60,000 a speech.

So if management theories come and go, with few standing the test of time, what did Drucker achieve? Firstly, it’s no mean feat to remain at the top of your game for more than 60 years, advising generations of bosses and avoiding being ensnared by fashion. He constantly tried to relate the day-to-day challenges of business to huge social and economic trends such as the rise of “knowledge workers” and the resurgence of Asia.

Crucially, Drucker thought management was important. It was “the organ that converts a mob into an organisation and human effort into performance”. He took his ideas overseas (most famously to Japan, he is now a big star in China). He insisted that good management was just as important for the social sector as the business sector.

And what about the test of time? Fans say that his triumph is to realise that today’s problems are little different from those in the past. The same problems crop up again and again. The essential idea at the centre of his work is that firms need clear objectives and hard measurements to keep them efficient.