A Class with Drucker - Headway | Work on yourself

DEVELOP EXPERTISE OUTSIDE YOUR FIELD ■ 71
“Case 2,” “Case 3,” etc. This, too, was out of the ordinary. I had not
known Peter previously to use written cases. In the classes that I took
from him, I never saw him do this again, although it is possible it was
done later on or in other classes. I did notice as I helped to distribute
them that these were not standard cases from a “case book” or those
developed and sold for use in class by other universities. Each case carried
a copyright <strong>with</strong> Peter’s name. He was clearly the author. No case was
longer than a couple of pages.
“We’ll be using these as a point of discussion for the next few classes,”
Peter told us. He paused and considered and then said, “Please take a few
minutes and read Case 4 now.”
Case Number 4
Case 4 concerned a corporation in which the president had been replaced.
I don’t recall whether this was due to his health, death, resignation, or
whether he was fired by the Board of Directors. The point of the case was
that the Board of Directors had replaced the former president <strong>with</strong> the corporate
attorney. The attorney was not an “acting president,” but was the
permanent replacement.
Traditionally, the company president had come up from one of the
main business functional areas of the company: marketing, finance, manufacturing,
or engineering. A corporate specialist, such as a corporate
attorney, had never before been selected. The attorney was very bright
and competent. He had a demonstrated track record of success in his area
of expertise. He was obviously well thought of by the board and respected
by senior managers in the company. However, the new president had neither
functional area business experience nor an academic degree in business.
I was not sure from the case whether he had even taken any business
courses or seminars. This raised a number of questions which <strong>Drucker</strong>
wanted us to analyze and discuss:
■ Should a specialist ever be selected as a president in a traditional
manufacturing company?
■ Could a specialist, such as a corporate attorney, be a competent
corporate president?
■ Do other leaders promoted into top management face similar
problems?