Peter F. Drucker
Born: November 19, 1909, Vienna, Austria
Died: November 11, 2005, at the age of 95, Claremont, California, United States
Parents: Father - Adolf Drucker, Mother - Caroline Bondi
Spouse: Doris Schmitz (married in 1934)
Children: Kathleen Spivack, Cecily Drucker, Joan Winstein, J. Vincent Drucker
Peter F. Drucker, whose full name was Peter Ferdinand Drucker, was born on November 19, 1909, in Vienna, Austria, and he passed away on November 11, 2005, in Claremont, California, United States. He is renowned as one of the first management thinkers, a management consultant, educator, and author. His writings significantly contributed to the philosophical and practical foundations of the modern business corporation. Drucker also played a pivotal role in the development of management education and is credited with inventing the concept known as "management by objectives."
Education and Career
Drucker grew up in what he referred to as a liberal Lutheran Protestant household in Austria-Hungary. Both of his parents had Jewish origins; his mother studied medicine, and his father was a lawyer and held a high-level civil servant position. Drucker earned his doctoral degree in international and public law from the University of Frankfurt in 1931. He initially worked as a journalist in Germany but fled to England in 1933 when Adolf Hitler rose to power. He remained in England until 1937, during which time he worked as an advisor to British banks and as a foreign correspondent for several British newspapers. In 1943, he became a U.S. citizen. Drucker later held teaching positions at New York University from 1950 to 1971 and at Claremont Graduate University from 1971 to 2005.
Peter Drucker is widely recognized as one of the most influential thinkers in the field of management, and his work continues to shape the practices of managers around the world. He was a prolific author and one of the first individuals to conceptualize management as a distinct function and being a manager as a distinct responsibility. He served as a consultant to numerous corporations, organizations, and governments.
Drucker's books and articles can be categorized into four main groups:
Early Works: "The End of Economic Man" in 1939 and "The New Society" in 1950, which discussed the nature of industrial society.
General Ideas about Modern Business Management: Drucker's contributions in this area include "Concept of the Corporation" in 1946 and "The Practice of Management" in 1954.
Speculation on Future Developments: Drucker's works such as "America’s Next Twenty Years" in 1957 and "Technology, Management, and Society" in 1970 explored the future impact of developments like technological change.
Practical Corporate Management: Some of his notable works in this category are "Managing in Turbulent Times" in 1980, "The Changing World of the Executive" in 1982, and "Innovation and Entrepreneurship" in 1985.
In addition to his management writings, Drucker authored two novels and an autobiography. He also created eight educational films on various management topics.
Drucker's management theories expanded upon concepts such as decentralization and knowledge work. Decentralization emphasizes that managers should empower employees by delegating tasks. He coined terms like:
Knowledge worker
Management by objectives (MBO)
SMART goal method
Knowledge workers emphasize high-level professionals who apply theoretical and analytical knowledge acquired through formal training to develop products and services.
MBO involves collaboration between superiors and subordinates to set common goals, identify employees' areas of expertise, and define measurable expected results.
The SMART method requires that goals be specific, measurable, achievable, relevant, time specific, and recorded.
Awards:
The Order of the Sacred Treasure by the government of Japan in 1966
Presidential Citation by New York University in 1969
Grand Silver Medal for Services to the Republic of Austria in 1974
Grand Gold Decoration for Services to the Republic of Austria in 1991
Austrian Cross of Honour for Science and Art in 1999
Presidential Medal of Freedom from US President George W. Bush. In 2002
McKinsey Award by the Harvard Business Review for his article in 2004
25 honorary doctorates from different universities in the USA, Belgium, Czechoslovakia, England, Spain and Switzerland.
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