Management sage Peter Drucker dies

LOS ANGELES – Peter F. Drucker, revered as the father of modern management for his numerous books and articles stressing innovation, entrepreneurship and strategies for dealing with a changing world, died Friday, a spokesman for Claremont Graduate University said. He was 95.

Drucker died of natural causes at his home in Claremont, Calif.

Drucker was considered a management visionary for his recognition that dedicated employees are key to the success of any corporation, and marketing and innovation should come before worries about finances.

His motivational techniques have been used by executives at some of the biggest companies in corporate America, including Intel Corp. and Sears, Roebuck & Co.

In 2002, President Bush honored Drucker with the Presidential Medal of Freedom. Business Week magazine hailed him as “the most enduring management thinker of our time.”

In the early 1940s, General Motors invited Drucker to study its inner workings. That experience led to his 1946 management book “Concept of the Corporation.” He went on to write more than 30 books.

Drucker was born in Vienna, and educated there and in England. He received a doctorate in international law while working as a newspaper reporter in Frankfurt, Germany. He remained in Germany until 1933, when one of his essays was banned by the Nazi regime. For a time, he worked as an economist for a bank in London, then moved to the United States in 1937.

He taught politics and philosophy at Bennington College in Vermont and for more than 20 years was a professor of management at New York University’s graduate business school. Beginning in 1971, he taught a course for midcareer executives at Claremont Graduate School in California, which named its business school after him.

Drucker is survived by his wife, Doris, and four children.