Page 124 - The Drucker Lectures

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Knowledge Lecture II

1989

he idea for these lectures was conceived about a year and
Ta half ago when I got a telephone call and somebody said,
“You don’t know me, but I understand that you have done a lot
of work in research management.” And I said, “Yes, I’ve probably
made more mistakes in research management than most other
people, so I’m qualified as an expert.”
And that person said, “Three months ago I moved from being
a biochemist into being the director of one of the world’s largest
labs. And for three months I have been studying what my job
is. And I’ve come to the point where I would like to ask you a
question: Do you think research can be managed?” And I was
near the point of saying, “If you feel you have to ask this question,
why don’t you go back and be a biochemist again?” And then I
thought for a while and said, “The answer is yes—but. It can be
managed, but it cannot be managed the way most other things
are being managed. It requires very different things.” And out of
this I started to say it’s about time I try to put together what I have
learned in many years of seeing good people struggle with this
issue. And most of the things I developed to help this particular
research director—who, by the way, is still in the job and by now I
think enjoys it quite a bit—I applied to knowledge of any kind.
In most of human work, change is very slow. Continuity,
both of work and tools, is the rule. When it comes to skills, it

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