Drucker's Disciple

I made the career transition from engineering to management in the 1970s and it was, to put it mildly, a shock to my system.  Engineering is a highly respected profession and although the answers to all engineering problems are not known, the questions that have to be asked to establish solutions, can usually be formulated.  Management, on the other hand, is not an applied science.  It is an attempt to control complex organisational systems usually, although most managers would not admit to it, by employing trial-and-error problem solving and asking the right questions is not easy.  As a young engineer I could always consult a senior or principal engineer if I needed assistance and usually their help and guidance were invaluable.  As a young manager, it was more difficult to seek help, pride had something to do with it but also, I found the opinions of more senior managers often were no better than my own.  That might sound arrogant, but for complex business decisions, there are not always precedents against which others can provide useful guidance.

What about management consultants, business schools and respected gurus, how can they help?  Well in a previous post, 'Business School Crap', I was a bit disparaging about some of the outputs of business schools and maybe I went over the top!  I do believe, however, that attempts to apply simple models and tools to complex business problems can be dangerous.  Less scrupulous, or perhaps naive, consultants sometimes cherry-pick the outputs of business schools and offer quick-fix solutions to ailing businesses.  There are, however, respected management practitioners and that leads me to world-class gurus and my long-held admiration for Peter Drucker.  I first started reading his works in the mid 1970s and I was impressed by both his extreme intellect and impressive foresight.  Maybe to call me a Drucker's Disciple is a bit presumptuous, but he certainly had a major influence on my management career.  Here is just a handful of his quotes that I like:

"A manager is responsible for the application and performance of knowledge."

"If you want something new, you have to stop doing something old."

"There is nothing quite so useless, as doing with great efficiency, something that should not be done at all."

"Results are obtained by exploiting opportunities, not by solving problems."

They are all simple statements and I could quote many more, which for me are extremely thought-provoking.  As an example, I will explain how thought processes might develop around the last quote on the need to exploit opportunities, rather than solving problems.  I recall the years when I had a rather dashing, but old, bright yellow Triumph Spitfire sports car.  I could barely afford to buy it and I certainly found it difficult to meet the running costs, unless I did my own car maintenance.  I could tackle most car repair work but I loathed doing it.  The universal joints (UJs) on the rear half shafts, seemed to need replacing far too often.  On one occasion whilst lying under the car, covered in oil and grease, replacing a UJ, I recalled Peter Drucker's quote - "Results are obtained by exploiting opportunities, not by solving problems."  There I was solving a problem, one knackered UJ, whilst denying myself an opportunity of showing off my bright yellow bobby-dazzler and exploring pastures new!  Yes, problems need to be solved to return a system to 'normality' but the primary focus of attention should be on new opportunities not old problems.  That's a good lesson for anyone running a business, where, from my experience, managers very often put the emphasis on internal operational problem solving, rather than external exploitation of market opportunities.

There might be many disciples but there was only one Peter Drucker :-)