A Quest for Legitimacy: How Managers Can Shape the Future

Are we at the dawn of a new management paradigm? Continuing to focus only on shareholder value and short-term financial results will not be adequate to tackle the huge challenges of the future. Neither will quixotic fights against the momentum of governance systems nor romantic do-gooder approaches. What we need is for managers to build on the fundamental strengths of capitalism - with its unmatched ability to generate wealth - while infusing it with a new sense of ensuring performance and progress for all of society. We must create value while maintaining our values.

The 3rd Global Peter Drucker Forum in Vienna on November 3 and 4, 2011 will provide the platform for a dialogue about “what needs to be done” in this regard and “how to get there.” Concrete cases and initiatives will be presented and discussed.

The Forum will feature a roster of world-class speakers, including:

• Charles Handy, social philosopher and author of The Hungry Spirit
• Rakesh Khurana, professor of organizational behavior at Harvard Business School and the author of From Higher Aims to Hired Hands
• Mark R. Kramer, managing director of FSG and co-author with Michael E. Porter of the recent Harvard Business Review article Creating Shared Value
• Natsumi Iwasaki, author of the best-selling novel in Japan in 2010, featuring the ideas of Peter Drucker
• Deepa Prahalad, book author and consultant who is continuing the work of her late father, C.K. Prahalad, as reflected in his book The Fortune at the Bottom of the Pyramid
• Iqbal Quadir, director and founder of the Legatum Centre at MIT and the former CEO of Grameenphone in Bangladesh
• Peter Gomez, President of SIX Group, Initiator of the “Swiss Dialogue”
• Rick Wartzman, executive director of the Drucker Institute at Claremont Graduate University and an online columnist for Bloomberg Businessweek
• Adrian Wooldridge, management editor of The Economist

CEOs and senior executives from General Electric, Haniel Group, Raiffeisen Zentralbank, Mazars, the Zurich Stock Exchange, Deutsche Telekom and other leading corporations will provide their perspectives on “making it happen.”

The Forum will consist of major thematic sessions followed by a call to action, all linked by the common thread of building a new legitimacy for management.

• Management – aspiring for a new identity
• How to unleash the potential inside the organization
• How to contribute to building a functioning and prosperous society (case studies)
• One world – the case for the poorest of the poor
• Developping Managers for the 21^st century
• Call to Action

The format includes plenary and break-out sessions, as well as working groups. The Forum is being designed for a high degree of interactivity. The younger generation will also be involved, with winners of the Global Peter Drucker Challenge Essay Contest participating in various panels and breakouts.

The Forum will be held in the splendid historic building of the Hall of Sciences at the old Vienna University – a 17th-century building equipped with modern infrastructure, bridging the past and the present. (For more on our venue, please visit http://aula-wien.at/en/aula)

Corporate leaders and managers of institutions across all sectors are being called upon to shape the future. We now have a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to unleash the power latent in people and organizations for the benefit of both business and society. It is a quest for legitimacy adequate to the vital role of management in modern societies.

So please join the 3rd Global Peter Drucker Forum in Vienna. Just let us know your interest by clicking here, and you will be the first ones to receive the registration information by end of April.

In case of questions please contact Info[at]druckersociety.at