Tag Archives: meaning

Management: a Noble Practice

The theme of the 2017 Global Drucker Forum to be held in Vienna later this year is “Growth & Inclusive Prosperity – The Secular Management Challenge”. Dictionary definitions of prosperity mention a condition of being successful or thriving, especially economic … Continue reading →

Posted in Change, General, Leadership | Tagged Adler, Clayton Christensen, community, complex systems, Drucker, Frankl, Freud, identity, meaning, means and ends, pleasure, power, prosperity, purpose, utility | Leave a comment

Why Business Books Still Speak Volumes

It’s easy to be critical of business books. What had been a dull cottage industry until the publication of Tom Peters; and Bob Waterman’s In Search of Excellence (1982) became an exuberant enterprise that churns out a vast number of … Continue reading →

Posted in General | Tagged business books, management, meaning, narrative | Leave a comment

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

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 | Leave a comment

Decommoditize Yourself! – Coating Products in Meaning

Last week I travelled to Phoenix, Arizona to attend the annual meeting of Electro-Federation Canada and to deliver the opening keynote address. The association works with the electrical, consumer electronics and telecommunications industries and its membership consists of manufacturers and … Continue reading →

Posted in Change, General, Leadership, Strategy | Tagged A.G. Lafely, Anglo-Saxon capitalism, change, commoditization, community, context, cult, David Brooks, Dom Perignon, ecological perspective, ecosystem, Electro-Federation Canada, Ferrari, identity, meaning, narrative, niche, P&G, product life cycle | 1 Comment

“Go Ahead: Make Our Day” – What Clint Eastwood Might Have Said

The unintended highlight of the Republican National Convention (RNC) last week was Clint Eastwood’s rambling address on Thursday that consumed 13 minutes of precious prime time, delaying Mitt Romney’s acceptance speech. Scheduled for only five minutes in the rigidly scripted … Continue reading →

Posted in Change, General, Leadership | Tagged Anglo-Saxon capitalism, apathy, Barack Obama, challenge, change, chaos, Clint Eastwood, communities of capitalists, community, cowboy, Democratic National Convention, despair, entertainment, government service, gunslinger, heart, hope, how, identity, individual, meaning, mission, Mitt Romney, narrative, narrative centre of gravity, network, obstacles, passion, political parties, purpose, Republican National Convention, stories, support, tension, trade-off, unemployed, values, what, who, why | 2 Comments

Management Without Principles

Management “principles” have been a prominent feature of the field ever since the 1950s, when a concerted attempt was made to put management on the path to becoming a social science. With economics as their guide and physics as the … Continue reading →

Posted in Change, General | Tagged Cartesian mind, complex systems, context, contextual intelligence, ecological rationality, economics, history matters, innovation skills, management principles, Master's golf, meaning, POSDCORB, The Innovator's DNA | 1 Comment