德鲁克去世

Management guru Peter F. Drucker dies at 95

Los Angeles, Nov. 12 (AP): A mere statement from Peter F. Drucker could change the way some of America's most powerful corporate leaders ran their businesses, his admirers say.

Revered as the father of modern management, Drucker explained his principals _ stressing innovation, entrepreneurship and strategies for the changing world _ in plain language that resonated with ordinary managers, said former Intel Corp. Chairman Andy Grove.

``Consequently, simple statements from him have influenced untold numbers of daily actions,'' Grove said. ``They did mine over decades.''

The Vienna-born Ducker died on Friday at age 95 of natural causes at his home east of Los Angeles, said Bryan Schneider, a spokesman for Claremont Graduate University, where Drucker taught.

Hailed by Business Week magazine as ``the most enduring management thinker of our time,'' his techniques have been used by executives at some of the biggest companies in corporate America, including Intel and Sears, Roebuck & Co.

Drucker was considered visionary for his recognition that dedicated employees are key to the success of any corporation, and that marketing and innovation should come before worries about finances.

``He is purely and simply the most important developer of effective management and of effective public policy in the 20th century,'' former U.S. House Speaker Newt Gingrich said. ``In the more than 30 years that I've studied him, talked with him and learned from him, he has been invaluable and irreplaceable.''

Born in Vienna, Ducker was educated there and in England. He received a doctorate in international law while working as a newspaper reporter in Frankfurt, Germany. He remained in Germany until 1933, when one of his essays was banned by the Nazi regime. After working as an economist for a bank in London, he moved to the United States in 1937.

He taught politics and philosophy at Bennington College in Vermont and for more than 20 years was a professor of management at New York University's graduate business school.

In the early 1940s, Drucker was invited to study General Motors' inner workings, an experience that led to his 1946 management book, ``Concept of the Corporation.'' He went on to write more than 30 books and scores of articles.

Beginning in 1971, he taught a course for midcareer executives at Claremont Graduate School in California, which named its business school after him.

Drucker showed a knack for identifying sea changes in business and economics years in advance. He foresaw the emergence of a new type of worker whose occupation would be based on knowledge, not physical labor or management.

After the big stock market decline of October 1987, Drucker said he had expected it, ``and not for economic reasons, but for aesthetic and moral reasons.''

``When you reach the point where the traders make more money than investors, you know it's not going to last,'' he said.

Drucker also founded the New York-based Peter F. Drucker Foundation for Nonprofit Management, known since 2003 as the Leader to Leader Institute.

He is survived by his wife, Doris, and four children.

--
Jianzu Wu
Ph.D. Student
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