Reflections – Peter F. Drucker vs. today

With reference to the headlines published week 08.2020

related to the present challenges,

I found myself being surprised

when it comes to the chosen path

while executing management.

I have started on reviewing my book shelves for non-fictional books I expect to be outdated. Before making a decision of keeping or dumping I execute a second reading.

One of the books I decided to keep is ‘Managing for the Future – The 1990s and Beyond‘ written by Peter F. Drucker and published in 1992.

The book is a collection of articles published between 1987 and 1991 in various media like The Wall Street Journal and Harvard Business Review.

In this book there are lots of valid inspiration for how to execute leadership. Being an Engineer working with implementation of Information Technology since 1997 my reflections are primary on management topics with a little twist on the present focus on IT (IoT/ AI/ etc.)

Just a short comment related to IT – in my first article at LinkedIn I recommended an approach which in my opinion would have avoided some challenges many companies are struggling with right now.

First and foremost – I continue wondering which arguments within the company did convince the management team to make decisions, leading to the present scenarios expecting the outcome to have some severe financial impact.

Extract from the book (1991):

…Most of what we assume axiomatically no longer fits our reality, lending a surreal air to our work and lives. The world seems to have dissolved into a series of media events that appear either bigger than reality or totally formless. This is especially true in political life, where we have entered ‘terra incognita’…

In my opinion we need to have an open mind for the future using the learnings from the past to look for the best solutions. Sometimes we will see that the answer to the same question are different, but the end-result turns out to be the same.

A way forward as mentioned several times in this book is frequently to ask these questions (executed by management team):

• What is the task?
• What is it we want to achieve?
• Why shall it be executed?

Another observation shared in the book is related to the role as a leader.

…Management is doing things right. Leadership is doing the right thing…

…Leadership is not rank, privileges, title or money. It is responsibility…

All the thoughts popping up while reading the book can be summarized in to this question: “In the event we globally take a break, spend time on giving things a second thought and ask the Eve question, will this have a positive impact on our global world?”

I recommend reading this post ‘Is society ready?‘ by Rui Pedro Silva – another point of view but still under the umbrella of Leadership.

Open for a better world?

Best wishes for a happy weekend

This article was published initially on LinkedIn on 21 February 2020. I have made some adjustments to the content in this version.

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