Honoring Peter Drucker

Peter Drucker, the dean of all management consultants and professors, was active nearly until his death last week at age 95. Drucker had incredible impact. If there were a Nobel prize for business thinking he would have won it long ago. He best articulated the value of people to the organization. And not just business organizations, but nonprofits, as well.

Management is about human beings. Its task is to make people capable ofjoint performance, to make their strengths effective and their weaknesses irrelevant.

Two of my favorites: - You should never promote an employee on the basis of his or her potential, but based only on performance. - Managers should make a decision "no later than you need it, but as late as possible, because you always have more information." And he asked more questions than he answered, since his students had to act on their own. Here is Claremont Graduate University's statement. This Wall Street Journal link should work for 7 days: Peter Drucker's Legacy Includes Simple Advice: It's All About the People