Blog: Claudia Imhoff

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Peter Drucker - Considered the Greatest Management Guru - Dies at 95

How familiar we are with these phrases - "management by objective" and "knowledge worker" and we owe it all to Peter Drucker. Sadly this highly regarded business guru's voice has been silenced. Mr. Drucker died last Friday.

Here are just a few of his accomplishments.

Mr. Drucker, known as the "Father of Modern Management", was born in Vienna, Austria in 1909 and came to the US in 1937 as a freelance journalist. It was his third book, "Concept of the Corporation", published in 1946 that made him a household name. He studied General Motors for this book, digging into the company's inner workings. Interestingly, GM later disavowed the book.

He wrote and advised companies of management for 7 decades. His seminal book, "Practice of Management", is still relevant today. He thought the purpose of business was to get customers and be profitable but neither was possible without the lifeblood of good employees. Good employees are worth their weight in gold to the organization. He constantly reminded managers to "listen first and speak last".

He finished is 35th (!) book at age 94. He will be missed.

Yours in BI success,

Claudia

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