Introduction: Management Challenges
for the 21st Century

by Peter Drucker — his other books
top of the food-chain

Amazon Link: Management Challenges for the 21st Century

More economic landscape vistas

Introduction: Tomorrow’s “Hot” Issues

Where, readers may ask, is the discussion of COMPETITIVE STRATEGY, of LEADERSHIP, of CREATIVITY, of TEAMWORK, of TECHNOLOGY in a book on MANAGEMENT CHALLENGES?

Where are the “HOT” ISSUES OF TODAY?

But this is the very reason why they are not in this book.

It deals exclusively with TOMORROWS “Hot” Issues—the crucial, central, life-and-death issues that are certain to be the major challenges of tomorrow.

CERTAIN? Yes.

For this is not a book of PREDICTIONS, not a book about the FUTURE.

The challenges and issues discussed in it are already with us in every one of the developed countries and in most of the emerging ones (e.g., Korea or Turkey).

They can already be identified, discussed, analyzed and prescribed for.

Some people, someplace, are already working on them.

But so far very few organizations do, and very few executives.

Those who do work on these challenges today, and thus prepare themselves and their institutions for the new challenges, will be the leaders and dominate tomorrow.

Those who wait until these challenges have indeed become “hot” issues are likely to fall behind, perhaps never to recover.

This book is thus a Call for Action.

These challenges are not arising out of today.

THEY ARE DIFFERENT …

In most cases they are at odds and incompatible with what is accepted and successful today.

We live in a period of PROFOUND TRANSITION and the changes are more radical perhaps than even those that ushered in the “Second Industrial Revolution” of the middle of the 19th century, or the structural changes triggered by the Great Depression and the Second World War.

READING this book will upset and disturb a good many people, as WRITING it disturbed me.

For in many cases—for example, in the challenges inherent in the DISAPPEARING BIRTHRATE in the developed countries, or in the challenges to the individual, and to the employing organization, discussed in the final chapter on MANAGING ONESELF — the new realities and their demands require a REVERSAL of policies that have worked well for the last century and, even more, a change in the MINDSET (mental patterns) of organizations as well as of individuals.

(calendarize this?)

Paragraphs dissected and colored to make comprehension easier.

Management Challenges for the 21st Century Contents

Managing in the Next Society

“The greatest danger in times of turbulence is not turbulence; it is to act with yesterday’s logic”. — Peter Drucker

The shift from manual workers who do as they are being told — either by the task or by the boss — to knowledge workers who have to manage themselves ↓ profoundly challenges social structure …

“Managing Oneself (PDF) is a REVOLUTION in human affairs.” … “It also requires an almost 180-degree change in the knowledge workers’ thoughts and actions from what most of us—even of the younger generation—still take for granted as the way to think and the way to act.” …

… “Managing Oneself is based on the very opposite realities: Workers are likely to outlive organizations (and therefore, employers can’t be depended on for designing your life), and the knowledge worker has mobility.” ← in a context

These pages are attention directing tools for navigating a world moving relentlessly toward unimagined futures.

What’s the next effective action on the road ahead

It’s up to you to figure out what to harvest and calendarize
— working something out in time (1915, 1940, 1970 … 2040 … the outer limit of your concern) — nobody is going to do it for you.

It may be a step forward to actively reject something (rather than just passively ignoring) and then working out a plan for coping with what you’ve rejected.

Your future is between your ears and our future is between our collective ears — it can’t be otherwise. A site exploration starting point → The memo THEY don't want you to see

What needs doing?

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