A Class with Drucker - Headway | Work on yourself

244 ■ A CLASS WITH DRUCKER
doing for the U.S. government. He published another book in 1942, The
Future of Industrial Man.
<strong>Drucker</strong> had begun working for U.S. intelligence, doing research and
writing about German industry. In the cubicle next to him he befriended a
man named Marvin Bower who was doing similar work. Marvin Bower
founded the world-famous McKinsey Consulting Company. Then in 1943,
Peter received a full-time offer from Bennington College in Vermont. There,
at yet another small girls’ school, he taught philosophy, government, and
religion. Like Sarah Lawrence, Bennington too is now co-educational.
So it took Peter ten years to achieve a full-time university position at a
school which, though it had a good academic reputation, was hardly in the
same league as the University of Cologne. This speaks volumes for <strong>Drucker</strong>’s
self-development principles, including being prepared and flexible, but
especially staying committed to a fixed goal, even though it might be necessary
to vary one’s strategy to achieve it.
The year 1943 was especially big for Peter. First off, he finally obtained
a full-time faculty position after ten years. Also, General Motors contacted
him about looking at its management practices, probably based partially
on the book he had published the previous year. This was a major shift
in activity for <strong>Drucker</strong>. He would not be analyzing macroeconomics, but
microeconomics. Once he decided to do this work, he could not be dissuaded.
Fellow academics advised against it as it would be out of his
field and could affect his academic reputation negatively. Risk again.
<strong>Drucker</strong> completed the study. From all accounts, his study was not well
received by <strong>Drucker</strong>’s clients at General Motors. Nevertheless, it led to his
ground-breaking book two years later in 1946, Concept of the Corporation.
Meanwhile, Peter had decided to try his hand at academic administration
and served as a dean at Bennington for two years. Once again, he was
taking a risk. As noted earlier, he decided this wasn’t his thing. He returned
to full-time teaching, research, and writing.
In 1949, Peter received another offer to teach full-time at New York
University. This appointment allowed him to focus on where he defined
his niche and where he could have the maximum impact <strong>with</strong> his contributions:
executive education. He accepted the offer and remained at
NYU for twenty-two years. By then, he was well established in his profession
and doing exactly what he wanted: writing, speaking, and making
major contributions based on his kind of research, along <strong>with</strong> his
analyses, and thinking.