Page 14 - The Drucker Lectures

Introduction [ xi

shape of the audience can also make things interesting. It is one thing, for
instance, for Drucker to hold forth on the vital importance of nonprofits.
But this topic gets a new twist when he contextualizes his thinking for a
group of Japanese.
Perhaps what makes this collection most remarkable, though, is the
sheer span of time that it covers—a testament to Drucker’s long and
extraordinarily productive life. I have attempted to give a glimpse into
the evolution of Drucker’s philosophy by offering brief commentary at the
beginning of each section of this book, which is divided by decade.
The first lecture here is from 1943, when Drucker was being billed in
promotional materials as “stimulating and highly informative” but also
as someone “with his feet on the ground,” capable of communicating “in
terms that the average businessman can understand and appreciate.”
The last lecture, when those exact same traits were still very much on
display (even though Drucker’s own hearing was then failing), came 60
years later, in 2003.
I selected these two talks, along with 31 others in between, with the
help of Bridget Lawlor, the talented archivist at Claremont Graduate Uni-
versity’s Drucker Institute. We looked, specifically, for lectures that hadn’t
been published before, at least not in book form. I then edited each one
for clarity and readability. I have also tried to minimize the overlap among
the lectures in this book; you should hear a few faint echoes, but no out-
right redundancies.
A handful of the lectures were given from behind a lectern, where
Drucker left a polished text to draw from. But most were pulled from
transcripts of videotapes of Drucker speaking more casually in the class-
room, and with these I have taken considerably more liberties—cutting
an immense amount of verbiage, moving pieces around, and composing
new transitions. This was major surgery, not a minor cosmetic job, and
these lectures are best thought of as “adapted from” rather than simply
“excerpted from.”
Purists may grumble about this approach. But anyone who wants to
see the originals is welcome to visit Claremont to do so. In the meantime,