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Category Archives: Change

Pope Francis and the Environment – Transformational Leadership in Action

Posted on December 10, 2015 by David

A version of this post appeared earlier this year in the blog of the Drucker Society of Europe: To students of management Pope Francis is a fascinating study in leadership and organizational change. From his surprise election as an outsider, … Continue reading →

Posted in Change, General, Leadership, Uncategorized | Tagged Anglo-Saxon capitalism, business schools, crisis, culture, ecology, environment, externalities, faith, GNP, instrumental rationality, modernism, one-dimensional paradigm, Peter Drucker, Pope Francis, power, reason, Roman Catholic Church, science, social and moral development, transformational leadership | Comments Off

Claiming Our Humanity in a Digital Age: Big Questions in Vienna

Posted on November 24, 2015 by David

The theme of the 2015 Drucker Forum that ended in Vienna two weeks ago was “Claiming Our Humanity: Managing in a Digital Age”. Nearly 500 management academics, business people and management consultants from all over the world attended the two-day … Continue reading →

Posted in Change, General, Leadership, Strategy | Tagged Adam Smith, All Blacks, augmentation, automation, change, cult of efficiency, digital, Drucker Forum, European Enlightenment, haka, humanity, ideology of reason, Julia Kirby, Kevin Roberts, Peter Drucker, post-rational, Robin Chase, Saatchi & Saatchi, sociology of virtue, Super-VUCA, Tom Davenport | Comments Off

The VW Debacle: How Large Successful Organizations and Institutions Can Become “Bad Barrels” And What To Do About It

Posted on October 8, 2015 by David

The outlines of Volkswagen’s comprehensive program to defeat national auto emissions laws are becoming clearer. According to the New York Times the company began installing software designed to cheat on emissions test in 2008, when they realized that their new … Continue reading →

Posted in Change, General, Leadership, Strategy | Tagged Alex Gorsky, Anglo-Saxon capitalism, Aristotle, change, complex systems, context, creativity, crisis, destruction, diesel emissions, ecological perspective, efficient cause, General Motors, gun control, hip joints, ignition locks, J&J, Johnson & Johnson, material cause, means and ends, Risperdal, shareholder value, Volkswagen debacle, Winterkorn | 1 Comment

Don’t Throw the Past Away: Rediscovering the “Drucker Space”

Posted on May 20, 2015 by David

For Peter Drucker history was an essential resource. Commentators have described the scope of his writings as “Braudelian” in honor of the work of historian, Fernand Braudel, the leader of the French Annales school of history, renowned for its broad, … Continue reading →

Posted in Change, General | Tagged American Dream, Boorstin, change, Drucker Forum, Drucker Space, efficiency, European Enlightenment, Frederick Taylor, Leon Wieseltier, meaning, means and ends, narrative, Peter Drucker, Postman, Progress, purpose, Radowitz, Stahl, Technopoly, The New Republic, Wilhelm von Humboldt | Comments Off

Management by Machine: MBO as Manipulation?

Posted on March 17, 2015 by David

Recently Adrian Wooldridge, the Schumpeter columnist for The Economist, reviewed the introduction by BetterWorks, a Silicon Valley startup, of “goal science” to the workplace. The New York Times reviewed the same company on Monday. The company “makes office software that blends … Continue reading →

Posted in Change, General, Leadership, Strategy | Tagged Adrian Wooldridge, auftragstaktik, befehlstaktik, BetterWorks, change, Helmuth von Moltke the Elder, John Doerr, management by objectives, means and ends, Peter Drucker, Prussian Army, SMART, The Economist | Comments Off

The Wreck of The New Republic – How Not to Run a Turnaround

Posted on January 27, 2015 by David

The economist Joseph Schumpeter famously argued that the central feature of capitalism was “creative destruction”. Last month the destructive aspects were on full view in the wreck of the 100-year-old magazine The New Republic (TNR). In the first week of … Continue reading →

Posted in Change, General, Leadership, Strategy | Tagged Andrew Sullivan, Canwest, Charybdis, Chris Hughes, commoditization, David Brooks, Dilbert, Frank Foer, Guy Vidra, incubator, inequality, Leon Wieseltier, mission, power laws, Progressive Movement, Scott Adams, Scylla, Sean Eldridge, short-termism, The New Republic, TNR, tradition, turnaround, wartime CEO | Comments Off

Words and Looks: Leadership Lessons from A Christmas Carol

Posted on December 16, 2014 by David

Charles Dickens’ classic, A Christmas Carol, was first published on December 19, 1843. So it’s close enough to roll this blog out again. Happy Holidays to all! Management gurus have drawn lessons on leadership from diverse sources, ranging from the … Continue reading →

Posted in Change, General, Leadership | Tagged A Christmas Carol, Bob Cratchit, change, Charles Dickens, community, Ebenezer Scrooge, Joseph Marley, Mr. Fezziwig, Tiny Tim | 1 Comment

The Ecology of Innovation

Posted on December 2, 2014 by David

A few weeks ago I delivered a keynote presentation at the Innovation Congress in Villach Austria. I spoke for about 30 minutes on the topic of The Ecology of Innovation to a group of over 600 participants. I began by … Continue reading →

Posted in Change, General, Leadership | Tagged body language, ecological perspective, ecology of innovation, ecosystem, enterprise, exploitation, exploration, Innovation Congress, KPI, MIT, Sandy Pentland, Social Physics, steering, sweet zone, systems perspective, villach | Comments Off

Can Management Advance in This Way? A Question from the Global Drucker Forum 2014

Posted on November 25, 2014 by David

The 6th Global Drucker Forum ended on November 14 with a series of comments and calls to action from the major speakers involved. The last of these was HBS professor Clay Christensen, who called for more cooperation and harmonizing of … Continue reading →

Posted in Change, General | Tagged Christensen, Drucker Forum, Frank Knight, Herbert Simon, Jeb Bush, management, philosophy, positivism, post-rational, Steve Denning, uncertainty | Comments Off

Oppressive Bureaucracies Are a Symptom Not a Cause: Part I

Posted on November 11, 2014 by David

This week I am off to Austria for two conferences. I am a keynote speaker at the Innovation Congress in Villach on November 13, where I will be talking about “The Ecology of Innovation” and I will then travel to … Continue reading →