Peter Drucker and the “Concept of the Corporation”

Peter Ferdinand Drucker was a 20^th century economist and business management leader. Many of today’s management practices were revolutionized by Drucker and published in over 30 business books.

Drucker was born in Vienna, Austria on November 19, 1909. When scarcity of employment opportunities struck after the World War I, Drucker moved to Germany to work and study. Later, he earned his doctorate degree in international law. He moved to London during the rise of the Nazis, then later to the US, where he worked as a freelance writer and university professor. He earned his US citizenship in 1943.

In 1945, Drucker was given access to the management team of General Motors. He collaborated with the executives of the company and shared with them his management ideas out of his Europe experience. This collaboration, especially with GM’s admin executive Donaldson Brown, led to Drucker’s Concept of the Corporation. This work helped GM structure its management into multiple divisions. The “concept” helped launch Drucker’s career and new ideas in corporate management.

At the dawn of mass productions and rising large corporations Drucker saw that some companies still embraced the old management style resulting to an imbalance of information and power. He wrote and delivered speeches on how managements can redo their structures for efficient use of their human resources.

He became a teacher in Management at New York University in 1950 and continued teaching until 1971. He was a Clark Professor of Social Science and Management at Claremont Graduate University between 1971 and 2005. He was an editorial columnist for the Wall Street Journal and a regular contributor to the prestigious Harvard Business Review. He also wrote for The Economist and The Atlantic Monthly.

Drucker died of “natural reasons” on November 11, 2005 in California. His 39 books were translated into 20 different languages.