A Year With Peter Drucker

“What is our business?” can, therefore, be answered only by looking at the business from the outside, from the point of view of customer and market.

Drucker argues that the purpose of a business is to create a customer and to satisfy human needs. Marketing thus becomes the primary function of a business and the lens through which the entire business should be viewed.

To make our institutions perform responsibly, autonomously, and on a high level of achievement is thus the only safeguard of freedom and dignity in the pluralist society of institutions. Performing, responsible management is the alternative to tyranny and our only protection against it.

Effective leadership and management of society’s organizations is therefore the alternative to tyranny and the remedy for preserving responsible freedom and equality of opportunity.

Your job is to be prepared to recognize and seize opportunities as they come.

The decision “What should my contribution be?” balances three elements. First comes the question: “What does the situation require?” Then comes the question: “How could I make the greatest contribution with my strengths, my way of performing,

my values, to what needs to be done?” Finally, there is the question: “What results have to be achieved to make a difference?” This then leads to the action conclusions: what to do, where to start, how to start, what goals and deadlines to set.

“Where and

how can I have results that make a difference?”