Peter Drucker

25
Management Lessons
It helps pave the way for thinking about effective management.
Peter Drucker author of 35
books, Presidential Medal of
Freedom winner, and still a
leading voice in the business
world. Peter was born in Vienna
in 1909 and began working as
a financial reporter in Frankfurt,
Germany, while he earned a
doctoral degree in public and
international law at Frankfurt
University.

After relocating to the United State,
he began working as a correspondent
for several British newspapers. In
1950 he became Professor of
Management at New York University,
and four years later, he published
"The Practice of Management," which
posed three now-classic business
questions: What is our business?
Who is our customer? What does
our customer consider valuable?

He worked as a correspondent for several British newspapers in US.
Peter Drucker was a leader in
management philosophy and
effectiveness. As a writer,
management consultant, and
social ecologist, he played an
influential role in shaping key
concepts around business,
innovation, decision making,
leadership, productivity, time
management, and personal
effectiveness. He first coined the
term knowledge worker back
in 1959, and helped pioneer
knowledge work productivity.
Here are his 25 Life Lessons :
First know whats right for effective decision making. To make the right compromise, first
know what right is. Dont worry whether its liked, worry whether its right. After you know
whats right, then you can compromise.
Lesson 1 : First know whats right
Think of success in terms of a range or continuum of possibilities. Know the boundary conditions
for your important decisions. Know what good looks like. Know the minimum the decision needs
to satisfy. Dont depend on everything going as planned. Know when you need to abandon a
decision. If the decision is a failure from the start, dont go down that path.



Lesson 2 : Boundary conditions for effective decisions
Time is the scarcest resource. You cant make more time. Make the most of it. Log and analyze
your time. Consider keeping lits of deadlines for urgent and unpleasant tasks. Effective people
make it a habit to work at improving their time management.
Lesson 3 : Know thy time
Dont spend your energy defending yesterday. Instead, spend your energy exploiting today and
the future. The best way to predict the future is to create it.
Lesson 4 : What our business is, will be, and should be.
Dont make a decision unless theres disagreement. Disagreement provides alternatives,
stimulates the imagination, and helps you break out of preconceived notions. Understand the
alternatives. Know why people disagree. Know both sides of the issues. The most important
thing in communication is hearing what isnt said.
Lesson 5 : Develop disagreement rather than consensus
You cant be an expert in all things. You can round out your knowledge and get
the basics, while still specializing in a few areas.
Lesson 6 : Effectiveness over universal expert.
The primary function of a business is to serve the customer and the primary goal of your business
is to create customers. The aim of marketing is to know and understand the customer so well the
product or service fits him and sells itself.

Lesson 7 : Focus on the customer
Set the goals and get out of the way. Help unblock people, enable and empower people
to reach the goals. Avoid the how trap. Management by objective works if you know the
objectives. Ninety percent of the time you dont.

Lesson 8 : Manage by objectives
Plan an ending. Determine how long the commitment will be for, and create some boundaries
around it. If you wont have enough time to finish it, dont take it on. Build in a review mechanism
so you can determine whether to continue or change course or stop. When you stop something,
you make room for something else.
Lesson 9 : Planned abandonment
Results are the best way to compare effectiveness. Quality of management is a key
differentiator. Focus on continuous productivity improvement. The productivity of work is
not the responsibility of the worker but of the manager.
Lesson 10 : Productivity objectives
Innovation is how you grow your business. The key challenge with innovation objectives is
measuring relative impact and importance. According to Drucker, there are 3 kinds of
innovation: 1) process, 2) product, and 3) market.
Lesson 11 : Innovation Objectives
Your business needs to attract land, labor and capital. Your jobs have to satisfy the business and
the people in the market. The first sign of decline is loss of attraction to qualified, ambitious
people. Design jobs to attract and retain the kind of people you want.
Lesson 12 : Resource objectives
Bake social objectives into your strategy. Society and the economy need to believe that
your business serves a necessary, useful and productive job. Think through your social and
economic impact and responsibilities.
Lesson 13 : Social responsibility objectives
Effective leadership is not about making speeches or being liked; leadership is defined by
results not attributes. Management is doing things right; leadership is doing the right things.
Lesson 14 : Leadership is defined by results only
Know that decisions are judgments. Start with opinions over facts. Know the criteria
of whats relevant. Test your opinions against reality. Making good decisions is a
crucial skill at every level.
Lesson 15 : Opinions over facts
Efficiency is doing things right; effectiveness is doing the right things. Follow effective action
with quiet reflection. From the quiet reflection will come even more effective action.


Lesson 16 : Effectiveness over efficiency
Knowledge has to be improved, challenged, and increased constantly, or it vanishes.
Lesson 17 : Importance of Knowledge
Employees are assets not liabilities. Most of what we call management consists of
making it difficult for people to get their work done.
Lesson 18 : Employees are assets
Know the minimum profitability you need to survive. Know the minimum might be higher
than you expected. Plan for minimum profitability over profit maximization.
Lesson 19 : How much profit do you really need to make?
The 5 bad entrepreneurial habits are: 1) Not invented here 2) Creaming 3) Quality
4) Premium price 5) Maximize rather than optimize.

Lesson 20 : 5 bad entrepreneurial habits
When you cant find fulfillment at work, you might find it by volunteering for a non-profit.
Lesson 21 : Non-profits provide fulfillment
We now accept the fact that
learning is a lifelong process of
keeping abreast of change. And
the most pressing task is to teach
people how to learn.

Lesson 22 : Learning is a lifelong process
Unless commitment is made, there are only promises and hopes but no plans.
Lesson 23 : No plan means no commitment
Lesson 24 : Of those things, which are right for me?
Successful leaders don't start out asking, "What do I want to do?" They ask, "What needs to be
done?" Then they ask, "Of those things that would make a difference, which are right for me?
Business should contribute to society and to the greater good.
Lesson 25 : Service to others
Thank You Very Much
Sompong Yusoontorn
Peter Drucker has added significance to the lives of many people over the span
of decades and for that we are grateful. The world has lost a great man, but I
suspect that Heaven will become a more efficient place as a result!