Comments on: A Glimpse of Drucker’s Brain: E-Interview and Reader Q&A with Jeffrey Krames

By: Sharon Walling

Sharon Walling — Thu, 04 Dec 2008 02:22:48 +0000

I don’t really have a question but a statement.

I have only been a Team Leader for a couple of years, and I’m always looking for new books on Leadership.
I have been looking at different books by Drucker and haven’t decided on one yet. This would be a good addition to my bookshelf.

By: Adam Giovane

Adam Giovane — Sun, 30 Nov 2008 06:30:11 +0000

If the trees cut down to make pulp to going into these 3 books and no one else is around, does it not make a sound? OK I’m being silly.

I read the terms of the competition after writing my question and thus don’t mind about the book but I still asked a question. So since it was past the 7 day limit, it’s not expected that I see ‘Inside Drucker’s Brain’ in my mail box any time soon.

Maybe I’ll go E-Mail Jeffrey and then post his answer below in this articles comments section.

By: Adam Giovane

Adam Giovane — Sat, 22 Nov 2008 08:11:53 +0000

Someone say free book?! ;-p

Though he passed away 5 years ago what do you think Peter’s approach was to mobile communications and technology.

It amuses and fascinates me that he didn’t like or bother with having a secretary and yet he was a phone addict. If her were still alive and well today I can picture this old man with a BlackBerry!

What was his reasoning for going without a secretary? Was it a corporate culture thing of personalizing relationships quicker by answering his own phone or a productivity quirk of having direct accurate unfiltered contact with his clients?

By: Jeffrey Krames, author of Inside Drucker's Brain

Jeffrey Krames, author of Inside Drucker's Brain — Thu, 30 Oct 2008 22:21:41 +0000

John:
What a great question! I think it would be fair to call Peter Drucker both an executive coach and a management consultant. However, he was more of a consultant than a coach. I say that because I think of an executive coach as someone who deals with smaller, more personal issues. But as a management consultant he helped some of the world’s great companies get better. He told me he considered himself a management consultant, and described some of what he did quite humorously: for example, he told me that “the client pays for the consultant’s mistakes. The only risk a consultant has is that the client doesn’t come back (or that his check bounces.”). I know he was only kidding about that last part.
The truth is that Peter Drucker was not only one of the earliest management consultants in the U.S., he was one of the best. He helped companies like GE and Proctor & Gamble well into his 90’s. I found it remarkable that GE became a client in 1951 and remained on Drucker’s client list for more than half a century! I hope that answers your very good question, John.

By: John Agno

John Agno — Wed, 29 Oct 2008 13:28:35 +0000

My question is: Was Drucker more like an executive coach than a management consultant?

Here is why I ask: Drucker never fit into the button-down stereotype of a management consultant. He always worked from a home office filled with books and classical records on shelves that groaned under their weight. He never had a secretary, answered the telephone himself and admitted he was something of a phone addict.

Drucker’s genius lay in his ability to find patterns among seemingly unconnected disciplines and to focus on opportunities rather than problems. Asked how he came up with so many original insights, Drucker said, “I learn only through listening,” pausing, “to myself.”

It was never Drucker’s style to bring people clear, concise answers to their problems but rather to frame questions that could uncover the larger issues standing in the way of performance. “My job,” he once lectured a client, “is to ask questions. It’s your job to provide answers.”

Source: John A. Byrne, Executive Editor, BusinessWeek, November 28, 2005