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MANAGEMENT CHALLENGES FOR
21ST CENTURY
Written by Peter F. Drucker,
Reviewed by Ashish Gomber, M. S. Ramaiah Institute of
Management, Bangalore.
Peter Drucker is known as a visionary who can plan for things
ahead of his time. His essays on Management Challenges for 21st
Century have reinforced the same wherein he takes the reader
along, as he explores the new rules of the game. He begins by
listing various assumptions widespread in the business circles and
explains how each one of them has become irrelevant in the new
economy. His wordings like,” You talk about an end to hierarchy.
This is blatant non-sense. In any organization there has to be a
final authority i.e. the boss…. and that organizations should be
as flat as possible because every relay doubles the noise and cuts
the message in half.”, are sure to excite the reader as he begins
to read the initial chapters. American chutzpah is at its best as
one cruises further.
Drucker writes about the changing relationship between superiors
and their subordinates. He uses the term ‘Knowledge worker’, which
was coined by him in one of his earlier publication and explains
how they are different from normal workers. What they expect and
how they behave. It’s interesting to read how he talks about the
industry life cycle and the different approaches to be followed at
different stages. He calls, Financial Services, as the most
prosperous and fastest growing industry of this century and
explains why its even more important for various organizations to
extend their survival since the life expectancy of people have
increased tremendously and shareholders need to get a return till
they are alive.
Drucker, talks about the need to handle change and refers to what
he calls, a Change Leader, listing various traits and qualities of
such a leader. He refers to new concepts like EVA and Benchmarking
and highlights the importance of focusing on core competencies by
businesses. The need to organize information is also aptly
explained; especially in this age of networking when large volumes
of data are available. Hence, it has become important to separate
the grain from the chaff. Going a step further, he also lists
example of a few companies like G.E. to explain how important it
is to manage information. After all, all data is not information.
Perhaps the most interesting chapter is the one on measuring the
productivity of Knowledge Workers. Drucker says that certain basic
questions be always asked like what is the task? What should it
be? What should be contributed, etc.? So as to handle the
responsibilities effectively and avoid losing the vision. He also
highlights the importance of proper implementation for any plan
because without it any plan is a failure, however, big it might
be. He says that it has become more important to understand people
around oneself be it the Boss or subordinates as the time is a
miser and a lot is to be accomplished within these deadlines.
Overall, the book offers an interesting reading and begins with a
bang though as one reaches the middle chapters, a bit of patience
is required. But, having had crossed that part, it’s again a nice
journey till the end.
Book authored by: Peter F. Drucker
Reviewed by:
Ashish Gomber,
M. S. Ramaiah Institute of Management, Bangalore. |
