China’s Confucion Heritage Matches Old – School Business Guru

Peter Drucker, the Austrian-born management scholar who spent most of his career practicing in the United States, and died at age 95 in 2005, is making a huge comeback in China. Now considered “old-school” in Western economies, the Chinese are embracing many of his practices. In the past few years, 14 Drucker academies have been established in major cities, where his writings form the central part of the curriculum. The intention is to teach management essentials needed to support China’s booming economy. Last year alone, 6,000 Chinese managers graduated from these academies. (Wall Street Journal)

We particularly like Mr. Drucker’s “Timeless Advice”:

· The essential activities of business are innovation and marketing; It’s a mistake to fixate on profits.
· Good management should make work productive and the worker effective.

· Set objectives. Set separate ones for each crucial area of the business.

· Take social responsibility seriously. An enterprise exists only as long as society believes it does a necessary and useful job.

· Quality is what the customer wants, not what’s expensive and hard to do.

· Knowledge workers in modern organizations may manage no one, yet their decisions’ impact can be comparable to what executives do.