Peter Drucker Society Europe

Sudden and massive awareness of intractable problems is an effect of the Internet information age. Whether this is a benefit or a hazard is difficult to answer. Where we might agree is that we are sharing this planet and so global challenges affect our personal world. For instance everyone in Europe is now affected by the refugees’ influx and while the immediate cause appears obvious and intractable the underlying issues of poverty and unrest driving the violence are addressable. We tend to view threats through simple lenses and it takes a deeper understanding of the problem to have an impact when the threat is global. Even with the necessary deep thinking and evidence […]
http://www.druckerforum.org/blog/?p=1176

Today’s new deal at work reprises work schemes of the late 1800’s, plus a few meaningless perks. Dan Lyons’ account of his time at the software company HubSpot describes a workplace in which employees are disposable, “treated as if they are widgets to be used up and discarded.” And HubSpot is scarcely unique: The description of Amazon’s work environment is just one of many similar cases. An increasing number of companies offer snacks, foosball, and futuristic jargon to keep employees’ minds off their long hours and omnipresent economic insecurity. Whether that works, and for how long, is an open question. Of course, in the new economy ever fewer companies hire people like Lyons as employees in […]
http://www.druckerforum.org/blog/?p=1182

After collecting and studying innovation data from over 1,000 companies in 62 countries, I’m often asked whether Small and Midsize Enterprises (SME) are more innovative and entrepreneurial than larger corporations. In times when the market dynamics, technology development, and diffusion are faster then ever, it is a natural question. So let´s dig into some key findings and see what we can learn. All companies have a conscious or unconscious strategy, leadership, culture, capabilities, and competencies they use to improve and innovate business internally (e.g. processes) and externally (e.g. value proposition). According to Steve Coley (2009) the innovation work can be divided into three parallel Horizons, each one representing an S-Curve. The first Horizon 1 […]
http://www.druckerforum.org/blog/?p=1188

Hosted by the Swiss Management Association (SMG), a audience of roughly 100 senior executives met in Zurich for the first Swiss Drucker Forum launch event. The evening’s theme was “rediscovering entrepreneurial management”. Peter Drucker observed: “We know that theories, values, and all the artefacts of human minds and human hands do age and rigidify, becoming obsolete, becoming ‘afflictions’”. This is also true for management. Traditional management is becoming an “affliction” for many organisations. It buries their innate “entrepreneurial competence” (Drucker) under layers of bureaucracy. The interactive panel, moderated by Lukas Michel, Associate Drucker Society Europe, discussed the changes needed if established organisations are to become more entrepreneurial again. Panel members were Tammy Erickson, Executive Fellow […]
http://www.druckerforum.org/blog/?p=1209

Entrepreneurship is vital to growing markets. And across most of Europe, entrepreneurship is lacking because of poor macro economic conditions, which push investment away from the Old Continent or re-direct all the available capital into savings rather than FDI. In 2013, the Global Entrepreneurship Monitor found that in Europe’s largest economies, only 6% of the working population set up or ran a new business.[1] By contrast, in BRIC countries and the U.S., 10%-17% engaged in this kind of early-state entrepreneurial activity. Europe’s paucity of substantial investment in innovation highlights the urgent need for European businesses and governments to work together to develop a new entrepreneurial innovation model to tackle financial deficits, create financial stability, and […]
http://www.druckerforum.org/blog/?p=1194