Every corporate problem is directly or indirectly
a problem of management.
The success or otherwise of an organization is dependent upon the skill with which management plans, directs, organizes and controls the organization; their decision making, communicating, negotiating and coordinating. Just as for individuals, 'character' can be defined as 'the cumulative sum total of decisions made', so too with the organization: and ultimately, it is management that makes the decisions.
This site is for not just for business leaders, it is for political leaders, military leaders, church leaders, and family leaders; it is for all leaders and managers.
What is management?
In it's largest sense, Peter F. Drucker (who was without doubt the top modern management theorist) defined management as:
"... a ministry for saving our society - not, probably, from damnation, but certainly from despair. For if management does not do its work well, a society of organizations will not function. It will not meet human needs. The result will be frustration and an opening to totalitarianism ... And in the background, always, is this deep moral concern: we must work well on earth, lest destroyers like Hitler and Stalin get a foothold to do their work. Heaven and hell may not always be at risk. But human suffering and despair certainly are.
Management is so much more than exercising rank and privilege, it is so much more than making deals, it affects people and their lives. The practice of management deserves our utmost attention; it deserves to be studied."
The scope and importance of management
"Management, its competence, its integrity and its performance will be decisive both to the United States and to the.… world in the decades ahead. At the same time the demands on management will be rising steadily and steeply. ....
That the United States is the leader today, economically and socially, will make management performance decisive - and adequate management performance much harder. From the peak there is only one easy way to go: downwards. It always requires twice as much effort and skill to stay up as it did to climb up. … Only superior management competence and continuously improved management performance can keep us progressing, can prevent our becoming smug, self-satisfied and lazy.
Outside the United States management has an even more decisive function and an even tougher job. Whether Europe regains her economic prosperity depends, above all, on the performance of her managements. And whether the formerly colonial and raw material producing countries will succeed in developing their economies … depends to a large extent on their ability to produce competent and responsible managers in a hurry. Truly, the entire … world has an immense stake in the competence, skill and responsibility of management" (Drucker P, 1955c The Practice of Management, Butterworth Heinemann, Oxford, p 4-5).
There is not a nation, an economy, an army, a business, a church, a family or a person who is not reliant to a large extent directly or indirectly on management. The effects whether beneficial or detrimental of management are felt by every group, organization and individual on the planet. It is difficult to overstate the impact of management on the lives of people, societies and civilizations and yet, this impact, is rarely appreciated by people. Management is ubiquitous. Management is something performed by people, consciously or otherwise, conscientiously or otherwise, trained or otherwise and the effects on other people are rarely recognized. There exists a substantial body of management knowledge (theory), much of which is helpful and if known about and if practiced offers potentially tremendous benefit to all sorts of individuals and organizations. However this theory is rarely applied successfully, to the cost of countless individuals, organizations and ultimately societies.
Imagine the misery that could be averted if more people in positions of managerial responsibility managed others better. If people managed their own lives, if parents managed their children and homes better, if church leaders managed their congregations, businessmen their companies and politicians their countries better. The world would be a better place. All people manage their own lives to some extent. Few people do not at some stage have a role in the management of others. The Bible sets certain minimum requirements for church leadership, one of these being that an elder should manage his family well (1Timothy 3:5). The Bible treats the relation between domestic and public management competencies as axiomatic, by asking "If anyone does not know how to manage his own family, how can he take care of God’s church?" That criterion alone, if applied to politics, could have disqualified many a tyrant from ever rising to the position of leadership power that enabled him to exercise his tyranny.
The opening words of the preface to what is arguably the most important book ever written on management by one of the most important thinkers in the area reads as follows.
We have available today the knowledge and experience needed for the successful practice of management. But there is probably no field of human endeavor where the always tremendous gap between the knowledge and performance of the leaders and the knowledge and performance of the average is wider or more intractable. This book does not exclude from its aims the advancement of the frontier of knowledge; it hopes, indeed, to make some contribution to it. But its first aim is to narrow the gap between what can be done and what is being done, between the leaders in management and the average (Drucker P, 1955c The Practice of Management, Butterworth Heinemann, Oxford, p vii.).
Drucker’s aim in writing "The Practice of Management" was to narrow the gap between what can be done and what is being done, between the leaders in management and the average. In spite of Drucker’s efforts, and the passing of half a century, it seems that the gap remains in 2023.
Peter Drucker grew up in Austria and Germany during the rise to power of Hitler, his opposition to Hitler necessitated his emigration to Britain. One of Drucker’s primary motivations as a proponent of effective management practice was to preclude the conditions and culture that facilitated Hitler’s rise to power. There is no reason to suppose that a neglect of what is known about effective management could give rise to yet another dictator of Hitler’s ilk stepping into the vacuum.
Excerpt from Ph.D. dissertation entitled:
"An Inquiry into the causes of the gap that exists between the theory and practice of Management as well as the means by which this gap may be narrowed",
on which this website is based.
In it's largest sense, Peter F. Drucker (who was without doubt the top modern management theorist) defined management as:
"... a ministry for saving our society - not, probably, from damnation, but certainly from despair. For if management does not do its work well, a society of organizations will not function. It will not meet human needs. The result will be frustration and an opening to totalitarianism ... And in the background, always, is this deep moral concern: we must work well on earth, lest destroyers like Hitler and Stalin get a foothold to do their work. Heaven and hell may not always be at risk. But human suffering and despair certainly are.
Management is so much more than exercising rank and privilege, it is so much more than making deals, it affects people and their lives. The practice of management deserves our utmost attention; it deserves to be studied."
The scope and importance of management
"Management, its competence, its integrity and its performance will be decisive both to the United States and to the.… world in the decades ahead. At the same time the demands on management will be rising steadily and steeply. ....
That the United States is the leader today, economically and socially, will make management performance decisive - and adequate management performance much harder. From the peak there is only one easy way to go: downwards. It always requires twice as much effort and skill to stay up as it did to climb up. … Only superior management competence and continuously improved management performance can keep us progressing, can prevent our becoming smug, self-satisfied and lazy.
Outside the United States management has an even more decisive function and an even tougher job. Whether Europe regains her economic prosperity depends, above all, on the performance of her managements. And whether the formerly colonial and raw material producing countries will succeed in developing their economies … depends to a large extent on their ability to produce competent and responsible managers in a hurry. Truly, the entire … world has an immense stake in the competence, skill and responsibility of management" (Drucker P, 1955c The Practice of Management, Butterworth Heinemann, Oxford, p 4-5).
There is not a nation, an economy, an army, a business, a church, a family or a person who is not reliant to a large extent directly or indirectly on management. The effects whether beneficial or detrimental of management are felt by every group, organization and individual on the planet. It is difficult to overstate the impact of management on the lives of people, societies and civilizations and yet, this impact, is rarely appreciated by people. Management is ubiquitous. Management is something performed by people, consciously or otherwise, conscientiously or otherwise, trained or otherwise and the effects on other people are rarely recognized. There exists a substantial body of management knowledge (theory), much of which is helpful and if known about and if practiced offers potentially tremendous benefit to all sorts of individuals and organizations. However this theory is rarely applied successfully, to the cost of countless individuals, organizations and ultimately societies.
Imagine the misery that could be averted if more people in positions of managerial responsibility managed others better. If people managed their own lives, if parents managed their children and homes better, if church leaders managed their congregations, businessmen their companies and politicians their countries better. The world would be a better place. All people manage their own lives to some extent. Few people do not at some stage have a role in the management of others. The Bible sets certain minimum requirements for church leadership, one of these being that an elder should manage his family well (1Timothy 3:5). The Bible treats the relation between domestic and public management competencies as axiomatic, by asking "If anyone does not know how to manage his own family, how can he take care of God’s church?" That criterion alone, if applied to politics, could have disqualified many a tyrant from ever rising to the position of leadership power that enabled him to exercise his tyranny.
The opening words of the preface to what is arguably the most important book ever written on management by one of the most important thinkers in the area reads as follows.
We have available today the knowledge and experience needed for the successful practice of management. But there is probably no field of human endeavor where the always tremendous gap between the knowledge and performance of the leaders and the knowledge and performance of the average is wider or more intractable. This book does not exclude from its aims the advancement of the frontier of knowledge; it hopes, indeed, to make some contribution to it. But its first aim is to narrow the gap between what can be done and what is being done, between the leaders in management and the average (Drucker P, 1955c The Practice of Management, Butterworth Heinemann, Oxford, p vii.).
Drucker’s aim in writing "The Practice of Management" was to narrow the gap between what can be done and what is being done, between the leaders in management and the average. In spite of Drucker’s efforts, and the passing of half a century, it seems that the gap remains in 2023.
Peter Drucker grew up in Austria and Germany during the rise to power of Hitler, his opposition to Hitler necessitated his emigration to Britain. One of Drucker’s primary motivations as a proponent of effective management practice was to preclude the conditions and culture that facilitated Hitler’s rise to power. There is no reason to suppose that a neglect of what is known about effective management could give rise to yet another dictator of Hitler’s ilk stepping into the vacuum.
Excerpt from Ph.D. dissertation entitled:
"An Inquiry into the causes of the gap that exists between the theory and practice of Management as well as the means by which this gap may be narrowed",
on which this website is based.