Peter Drucker 1909-2005

Matt Weston, 14 Nov

News in that writer Peter Drucker has died at the grand old age of 95. Apparently he hated being labelled a guru, so I won’t do that. The FT’s obituary calls him the most influential management writer of the modern era. I don’t know about his last words, but eleven words stick with me most: “The best way to predict the future is to create it.”

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Alex Smith says:
I hadn’t heard that Peter Drucker had died. I am sorry. Another giant passes. We use phrases like that so easily but this time I mean it.

I discovered Drucker by accident while I was a student at Napier College (now Napier University) in Edinburgh and I couldn’t get enough of his stuff. He wrote about everything - people management, marketing, operations - and every word was a gem. Many of today’s so-called gurus make their names by recycling Peter Drucker. And none of them writes nearly as well.

I remember him writing something along the lines of, “Management converts a mob into an organisation, and human efforts into performance.” Probably that and his writings on marketing are what made me the businessman I am. Any failings are mine, not Drucker’s.

He will be sorely missed and we shall not see his like for along time, if ever.
by Alex Smith on 18 Nov