Drucker by the Book

When it comes to the history of McKinsey & Company, Saturday morning training sessions held by the firm more than 50-years ago have continued to be a hot spot for historians eager to unearth the personalities shaping business in the mid–20th century. And so it is perhaps no surprise to learn that management guru Peter Drucker was counted among the familiar business luminaries who way back when accepted an invitation to prod the minds of young McKinseyites. "Marvin Bower had Peter come and train the firm often," explains Elizabeth Hass Edersheim, a former McKinsey partner, who today has the singular distinction of having written books on both Bower (McKinsey's modern founder) and Drucker. Not unlike her collaborative autobiography on Bower, the request to write the "Drucker book" came from none other than the subject himself. At the time, however, she wasn't sure. "I couldn't not go and find out what he wanted," she says, recalling a surprise phone call from Drucker that triggered a greater discussion. It turned out that he wanted her to write about his ideas and how they applied to business today. For 16 months, Edersheim had unusual access to Drucker; the result is Edersheim's newest book, The Definitive Drucker (McGraw-Hill, 2007). Still, there is no shortage of writing about Drucker, including his own voluminous writings. But this book is different, Edersheim insists. She focuses on viewing Drucker's ideas in the context of business today, although many were first articulated decades ago. "Peter wrote about the human being and the company and the society as one. He was about connecting people and companies together, and that's what the world is about today," she says. Several of Drucker's ideas resonate particularly well today. "Peter was big on the identification of opportunity and action. There was never a time with more opportunity than today," says Edersheim. Another timely Drucker idea is "the need to always abandon assumptions. He believed that you were not free to move forward until you do," says Edersheim. She feels that this imperative to abandon assumptions is essential today. "This is the first time in history that we're not bound by history. We can imagine and create as never before," she says, referring to the technology and communications revolutions that have occurred. "Until a company drops its assumptions, its people won't move to tomorrow." In The Definitive Drucker, Edersheim also identifies the three big ideas Drucker based much of his work on. The first is business as the economic driver of free society. "Peter saw Hitler come to power because the economy had collapsed. He realized that without business, we won't survive." Drucker's second big idea is that business must step up to play this important role in society. "Business and society have to work together," she says. The third idea is that management's job is to make sure that this work not only gets done but gets done right. As a consultant, Drucker understood communications. "He understood that what you say is not always what people hear. As you work with clients, ask them what they are hearing," says Edersheim, who does her best to help consultants hear Drucker just as so many young McKinseyites did half a century ago. Now, watch Liz Edersheim discuss the business insights of Peter Drucker on This Week in Consulting.