Author: rstraub

Managing Complexity – Invitation to join the Conversation

Posted on rstraub4 CommentsPosted in 5th Global Peter Drucker Forum

“We are at the beginning of a period of extreme flux, of extreme change and great competitive pressure in which traditional ways of doing things, traditional products, traditional processes will be challenged on all sides.”   When Peter Drucker uttered these words to a group of IBM executives, new complexities were tripping up the world. It was 1955.   In the more than half a century since, of course, the level of complexity has only increased across all of our institutions – political, economic and social. Indeed, as we move further into the 21st century, the complexity curve seems to be growing exponentially. The notion of achieving neatly laid-out objectives through systematic planning has become […]

Can Europe Become an Entrepreneurial Society?

Posted on rstraub4 CommentsPosted in 4th Global Peter Drucker Forum

In his landmark book Innovation and Entrepreneurship, published in 1985, Peter Drucker described the tectonic shift that he perceived in its early stages—the move from an employee society toward an entrepreneurial society. This shift was, and still is, being driven by unstoppable forces such as changing demographics and ever-hastening advances in information and communication technology.   As Drucker lays out what this new society should look like, he builds upon another great thinker of Austrian origin, Joseph Schumpeter, who had positioned the entrepreneur at the heart of capitalism – as the life force of a market-based, competitive, dynamic and wealth-creating economy. The question for Europe is: Has this sea change happened? Have we seen enough […]

Shareholder Value – a theory that changed the course of history – for the better or the worse?

Posted on rstraub8 CommentsPosted in 4th Global Peter Drucker Forum

During the past 30 years, “maximizing shareholder value” has unquestionably become our dominant economic creed with a vast impact on management practice.   Michael Jensen and William Meckling, authors of the famous 1976 Journal of Financial Economics article “Theory of the Firm: Managerial Behavior, Agency Cost and Ownership Structure,” can rightly claim that their paper changed the way corporations have operated: how they’ve been governed, how their top executives have been compensated, what strategic priorities they’ve set, and how they’ve dealt with their human resources.   One might argue, in short, that the article has had a transformative effect on a broad scale—so much so that we should ask whether the recent worldwide economic crisis […]

Management must be a public concern – putting Europe back on a growth path

Posted on rstraub9 CommentsPosted in 4th Global Peter Drucker Forum

Welcome to the new Global Peter Drucker Forum Blog.   As President of the Peter Drucker Society Europe I would like to introduce myself with this short bio. While I will be the main author I will also invite distinguished guest authors to contribute. The blog will cover key management subjects mainly related to the Drucker Forum.     When we discuss management as a key issue for society these days the word has a mostly negative connotation – we tend to talk about management in terms of the damages that short-termism, off-shoring, greed and bad management (in particular in the financial services sector) are inflicting on society.   A round table last week at […]