PETER F.DRUCKER

Plans are only good intentions unless they immediately degenerate into hard work.

Peter Drucker was a well known economist and a leader in business management. Born in the early 20th century, Drucker revolutionized management theories and wrote over 30 books on business, many detailing managerial practices for practical use in every industry.

Peter Ferdinand Drucker was born on November 19, 1909 in Vienna, Austria to a civil servant of the Habsburg empire. He grew up in a small village called Kaasgraben where he attended school until the defeat of Austria-Hungary during the first World War. There was a lack of employment in the area following the defeat and Drucker moved to Germany to work and study.

After working as a banker and journalist, Drucker began studying at the university in order to earn his doctorate in international law. He left Germany in 1933 during the rise of the Nazi regime and moved to London. After four years he left London in favor of the United States to become a freelance writer and university professor. During his stay, he also became well known as a business guru and finally earned his U.S. citizenship in 1943.

Two years later, in 1945, The executive directors at General Motors, one of the biggest companies in the world during that time, gave Peter Drucker access to their management teams. As a result of his experiences in Europe, Drucker formed new ideas about management and authority and shared them with the administrative executive, Donaldson Brown. As a result of their collaboration, Drucker formed the Concept of Corporation which helped form GM's management structure with multiple divisions. The new concepts of management and division of labor helped launch numerous written works that launched not only Drucker's career but also new ideas in corporate management.

Although Drucker's first work was published in 1939, it wasn't until later that he began to make major contributions to the world of business. The 20th century brought new types of mass production and large corporations that still functioned on an old management style. Drucker, having noticed the imbalance of information and power, began writing and giving speeches on how companies could rework their management structures in order to become more efficient and make better use of the people and knowledge within their company.

In 1950 Drucker began teaching Management at New York University and continued to teach until 1971. Between 1971 and 2005, Drucker was the Clarke Professor of Social Science and Management with the Claremont Graduate University. In 1975 he began working as an editorial columnist for the Wall Street Journal and contributed to the prestigious magazine, the Harvard Business Review. He also wrote articles for The Economist and The Atlantic Monthly.

Peter F. Drucker died of natural causes on November 11, 2005 in California. Over the course of his life he wrote 39 books, many of which were translated into more than twenty languages.