FQ.07.31: Favorite Quote for This Week

Management will remain a basic and dominant institution perhaps as long as Western civilization itself survives... Management is the organ of society specifically charged with making resources productive, that is, with the responsibility for organized economic advance.
—Peter Drucker

Comments

[Bob]

Another quote from the master?

Most interesting to me is that Drucker, at least in his later years, strongly believed in the societal impact of business, particularly large ones, and was a proponent of corporate social responsibility.

I found what some would call this "liberal" view, fascinating.

[Steve]

Bob:
Yes, Drucker was the master. These days, unfortunately, "corporate" is a dirty word, a hasty generalization, and a false image perpetuated by people who really should read "The Daily Drucker"—an excellent collection of 365 snippets of Drucker wisdom—before taking the typical anti-business Hollywood movie script at face value.

The corporation (joint-stock company) was one of the greatest innovations in social technology in history; the science of managing those entities was defined and advanced largely by Drucker in the 20th century. Sadly, those advances are not only getting no credit, they are implicitly demonized by ill-informed ideologues, whose message is then picked up and amplified by vote-seekers skilled at playing on emotions. Nonetheless, I remain optimistic that a critical mass of us can see right through such stories as Syriana (2005), one of the most infuriating movies I've seen in my life.

[Bob]

Didn't see Syriana. I don't watch stuff like that.

What I was trying to convey was that Drucker was not all that pleased with the state of management in his last 20 years or so. He was an institutional guy at heart and disheartened at how some of the institutions were crumbling. He also was fond of a term "intellectual arrogance" that, alas, I encounter all too often these days.

Too much Micheal Porter in B schools, not enough Drucker. Too much accounting, not enough interpersonal development. I could go on and on.