Drucker on Leadership
New Lessons from the Father of Modern Management
Chapter One
The Fundamental Decision
Determining the Business of
the Organization
A major responsibility of any leader, according to Peter Drucker,
is to determine the real business of an organization. I learned
this lesson even before I met Drucker and became his student.
I was a young manager, but although I had held management and
executive titles in several business situations, I knew very little
about business management. As a West Point graduate who had
served in the Air Force, I knew something about leadership, but
I hadn't sufficiently applied those skills to business management.
Shortly before meeting Drucker, I became director of research
and development for a small company producing life-support
equipment for military aviators as well as commercial airlines.
The company was facing increasing difficulties resulting from the
government's purchasing policies and timing. My company would
receive a contract, and when the work was complete and the product
delivered, it would h ... read full excerpt from: Drucker on Leadership: New Lessons from the Father of Modern Management ebook