A Class with Drucker - Headway | Work on yourself

DEVELOP EXPERTISE OUTSIDE YOUR FIELD ■ 73
On this particular night, <strong>Drucker</strong>’s sudden diversionary lecture was
easier to connect <strong>with</strong> his main topic. Peter told us the story of the career
of a highly successful corporate head. After graduating <strong>with</strong> a bachelor’s
degree, he had worked for five years at an entry-level position in a company.
Then he had returned for two additional years’ study at a wellknown
business school and received his MBA. On graduation, he was
hired by a large corporation, and over a twenty-year period he had
advanced to successively higher positions in this company, first in
finance, and then several years at senior levels in marketing. He had
always done extremely well, and after being named president had set out
to further grow his company. After six years at the top, he had retired in
his early sixties, leaving the firm at four times the annual sales and profitability
from the time when he became president. Unfortunately, only
two years into retirement, and still working as a respected consultant
<strong>with</strong> his former company, he died.
At the funeral, hundreds of mourners attended the services from the
man’s former company. Not only were the company’s senior executives
present, but also many of the industry’s leaders, even competitors. However,
these mourners were amazed to find another group in attendance
which had nothing to do <strong>with</strong> the deceased’s former company or business.
This group was not quite as large, but still consisted of equally
prominent leaders. All were Egyptologists. They came from academia,
museums, and several even from foreign countries. Neither group of
mourners knew about the other. What were the Egyptologists doing
there? Apparently the Egyptologists wondered the same thing about the
business people.
This top executive had a secret life. From his undergraduate days, he
had studied and become fascinated <strong>with</strong> ancient Egypt. He had developed
and maintained this interest. Vacations were spent in Egypt, and he was
the author of numerous articles in this discipline which had nothing at all
to do <strong>with</strong> business. None of the business leaders knew that their colleague
was so respected in this totally different field of endeavor. None of
the Egyptologists knew that their colleague was also a successful and
highly respected business executive.
I rather suspect that Peter’s story was allegorical. As Peter sometimes
said, “I am not a historian; I am trying to make a point.” I think it is telling
that Peter himself was not only a world-renowned professor of management,
but also held an appointment at Claremont as a professor of Japanese