Published on Tuesday, January 29, 2008
Another good example of change and continuity: our fabulous faculty is branching out in with new research and new courses that continue the academic and intellectual excellence and purpose-driven approach to management education with which the Drucker School was founded. All of us on the core faculty taught together this fall in a unique new gateway course, “The Drucker Difference,” and we are offering it again this spring. The course spotlights Peter Drucker’s work on a broad range of topics and gives students a chance to experience the full range of disciplines represented here at the Drucker School. New faculty, like Visiting Prof. Cornelis Los, are making important intellectual contributions to understanding current issues, while existing faculty remain highly prolific. Among others, Professors Jenny Darroch, Craig Pearce, Jim Wallace, Hideki Yamawaki, Richard Smith, Kees de Kluyver, Vijay Sathe, Jean Lipman-Blumen, Ken Ferris, Roberto Pedace, Jay Prag and Murat Binay all have peer-reviewed journal papers or manuscripts in process or recently published. Prof. Joe Maciariello has revised Peter Drucker’s classic, Management, which will be published by HarperCollins this April.
We are also ushering in a new chapter of the Drucker Institute with our Distinguished Drucker Fellows in Residence Program. Our first fellows include Jiro Nonaka, an internationally recognized expert of innovation, and Charles Handy, often called the “Peter Drucker of Europe.” Charles is teaching, with Elizabeth Handy, a special executive seminar on personal and organizational identity, called “The Odyssey.” We are so deeply honored to have Jiro Nonaka and Charles Handy here to build upon and extend in new ways knowledge that reflects Peter’s principles and philosophy of a “functioning” and balanced society.
On his first day here as a Drucker Fellow, Charles Handy delivered a brilliant and inspiring talk about his “portfolio life” and his social philosophy about meaning, discovery and a purposeful life. He challenged his audience to “make visible the things we don’t see” as we climb up and down the proverbial staircase of success. He concluded his conversation with Aristotle’s question of what constitutes a good life? Charles’ interpretation of Aristotle’s answer: “to do the best at what we’re best at for the good of others.” And, in the context of organizations and businesses, to strive to create and sustain a community with a common purpose.
We continue to educate executives and managers from Edward Jones and Panda Restaurants. These two great “Drucker-like” companies have now sent more than 700 managers each through our customized executive sessions. Additionally, we are gearing up new programs for Fujitsu, and for other Japanese executives in what is called “The Knowledge Forum,” jointly with Hitotsubashi University in Tokyo.
Our international reach is constantly changing as new Drucker Societies open around the world, while others continue to expand their reach. The Drucker Workshop in Japan just launched a new journal of Peter’s management philosophy, titled “Civilization and Management.” The Drucker School has also become an academic member of the UN Global Compact, the world’s largest voluntary association committed to advancing corporate social responsibility, and we are one of the first business schools in the world to formally adopt the “Principles of Responsible Management Education” that have been sponsored by the Association for the Advancement of Collegiate Schools of Business (AACSB).
You can imagine my pride in serving as dean of the Drucker School. If you haven’t yet experienced the progress we are making – the change and the continuity – I welcome you to share the pride and to participate in the active, vital life of the Drucker School. Stop by and sit in the back of a class. Attend a public lecture. Talk to our students. Come by and give me a suggestion on how we can do even better. Send us some talented prospects or perhaps offer an internship to one of our students. For a visit without leaving your desk, please check out our new electronic video magazine, at www.cgu.webvideovision.com, and scroll through the special features, including back issues.
And for those who haven’t been here before: it will be 65 degrees and sunny here in Claremont tomorrow and I’m looking up at beautiful snow-capped mountains that frame our pretty little city of trees and PhDs. So join us sometime here in our little piece of paradise where we are making progress by respecting traditions and by charting new beginnings. Best,
Ira A. Jackson Henry Y. Hwang Dean and Professor of Management Peter F. Drucker and Masatoshi Ito Graduate School of Management Claremont Graduate University
Published on November 16, 2007
It's that special time of year when we get together with family and friends for some of life's simplest and sweetest pleasures, including food, football and fun. It's also a good time to stop to give thanks for all of our blessings. We live in a world of stark contrasts: abundant riches for some, choking poverty for many; magnificent natural beauty, and heartbreaking environmental degradation; personal freedoms, and political repression; creativity and innovation, and numbing bureaucracy and incompetence. We remind ourselves, as we prepare for the traditional Thanksgiving feast in the comfort and security of our community, that more than 160,000 brave men and women are serving in harm's way in Afghanistan and Iraq. When the Pilgrims first settled in New England back in 1620, they brought with them a deep commitment to the ethic of stewardship: the belief that we have an obligation to leave the world better than we found it. Native Americans have a poetic way of conveying a similar conviction: we must treat the earth well, because it was not given to us by our parents, but loaned to us by our children. As dean of the Drucker School, let me cite just a few of the many blessings that I consider to be among the most important in our life as a community. The blessing of purpose. In a world desperately in need of a unifying sense of purpose, at a time when so many are disillusioned by the singular pursuit of profit, individual success or consumption, we at the Drucker School have a noble and urgent mission: to make the world a better place through more effective management and more ethical leadership of organizations in all sectors of society. This unifying and ennobling mission enriches our lives and inspires our work. We are blessed to belong to a purpose-driven institution that makes our work important, inspirational and uplifting. The blessing of educating the next generation and creating new knowledge. Whether we are faculty, students, staff, alumni or just friends of the Drucker School, we are all privileged to be part of an institution that epitomizes Peter Drucker's vision of a knowledge society. We are a knowledge institution -- one where all of us are knowledge workers. Where else but here in the academy is there an institution dedicated exclusively to creating and disseminating knowledge? We are also blessed to be part of a global community. 40% of our students here at Drucker are from nations other than the United States. Our curriculum and the life experiences of our faculty reflect a wide range of diversity, which enriches our learning and broadens our cultural perspective, and understanding. Drucker Societies now exist in ten countries, ranging from China to New Zealand to Switzerland, and like-minded scholars and practitioners -- people who want to pursue Druckerian practices such as lifelong learning and corporate social responsibility and social entrepreneurship -- are planting the seeds for new Drucker Societies in places like India and Vietnam and Austria (just in time for the 2009 celebration of Peter's birth in Vienna, 100 years ago). We all have the privilege and the blessing of belonging to an institution that is intimate in scale, engaging by design, and significant beyond our relative small size. A short letter doesn't provide sufficient space to list all of the things I'm grateful for as dean of the Drucker School. But I'd be remiss if I didn't single out two groups for special mention. Our faculty, which was recently ranked #6 (out of 290 business schools surveyed) in the nation by the Princeton Review, continues to set a sterling example of accessibility, engagement and excellence -- in both teaching and applied research. And our dedicated and professional staff -- which has recently been strengthened by new directors of the Drucker Institute and the MBA Program – both give us a core of competence and caring that is the envy of other professional schools. (To get a better sense of exactly how faculty, staff and students are making a difference, check us out online at www.drucker.cgu.edu, and click on our new electronic video magazine at www.cgu.webvideovision.com). Over this Thanksgiving holiday, as we reflect upon our multiple blessings, this is an ideal occasion to recommit ourselves to work to make this world safer, more sustainable, and with greater social, economic and political justice than was bestowed to us. With warmest and best wishes, and with thanks for your friendship and your belief in our mission, Ira A. Jackson Dean and Professor Management Peter F. Drucker and Masatoshi Ito Graduate School of Management Claremont Graduate University
Friday in Seoul, the Peter Drucker Society of Korea presented innovation awards for social responsibility, innovation and lifelong learning to corporations, NGOs and a city government. In Geneva in July, Ban Ki-moon, the Secretary General of the United Nations, met with 1,000 corporate CEOs and other delegates at the Global Leaders Summit Meeting of the UN Global Compact in Geneva to discuss ways to voluntarily advance human, labor and environmental rights and to combat corruption. At the opening session, the CEO of Coca-Cola joined the head of Amnesty International and the new foreign minister of France in advocating multinational corporations to speak out, stand up and step up to the challenge of doing good while doing well. A week earlier, in Claremont, California delegates from ten nations gathered at the Drucker Institute for the first Global Symposium of Drucker Societies, dedicated to advancing responsible management practices in business, government and civil society that capture the principles and practices of Peter Drucker, the father of modern management who challenged leaders to be both effective and ethical. Leaders from China, Korea and Japan joined others from Australia, New Zealand, Europe, Canada and Brazil in calling for enlightened capitalism and strengthened nonprofit institutions to create prosperous and just societies based upon life-long learning and respect for employees and the environment.
At a time when globalization raises legitimate fears and concerns about a "race to the bottom" and a winner-take-all economy, these three events, thousands of miles apart, offer hope that globalization may yet become a "race to the top" in which responsible business leaders join with government and nongovernmental organizations in creating a rising tide that lifts many more boats and allows for sustainable growth and a better chance for the next generation.
I was privileged to host the meetings in Claremont and to serve as one of six business school deans from around the world who were delegates to the Global Compact Leaders Summit in Geneva. I was proud to be the keynote speaker at the Drucker Society of Korea Innovations award ceremony and to address Korea's CEO Forum last week about the leadership role that Korea's Peter Drucker Society is playing in applying people-oriented management practices to all sectors of society. I came away from all three events encouraged and inspired and somewhat amazed at the potential and the power of voluntary collaboration across sectors and across nations to make progress on some of the most fundamental challenges facing the world today, including global warming, income inequality, and social justice.
It was at the United Nations General Assembly back in 2000 that then-Secretary General Kofi Annan held the first meeting of the UN Global Compact --a voluntary commitment by businesses to work in partnership with others to abide by and to advance ten universal principles in the areas of human rights, labor, the environment and anti-corruption. From modest beginnings with fewer than 50 corporations signing on and with skeptics far outnumbering participants, the UN Global Compact has grown to over 3,000 participating companies -- including Microsoft and Nike and Shell and Yuhan-Kimberly, plus hundreds of other stakeholder groups from more than 100 countries, to become the world's largest voluntary corporate citizenship initiative.
Why would multinational corporations agree to embrace the UN Universal Declaration of Human Rights, and agree to combat corruption and to ensure the rights of workers to organize wherever companies operate around the globe? Why would Coca-Cola make a commitment to reduce its consumption of water in the production of its products to zero? Why would DHL commit to using its delivery capabilities to provide for disaster relief from New Orleans to Sri Lanka? Why would Cisco launch 10,000 networking academies with 500,000 students in 166 countries across the globe? Why does Procter and Gamble collaborate with the CDC and the International Nurse's Association in providing anti-malarial bed netting in Africa? Why would Yuhan-Kimberly plant a Drucker Forest, and why would the Incheon International Airport Corporation commit itself to lifelong learning for its employees and to educational innovations for communities that surround it?
Because they have decided that they are able to create value for shareholders while also advancing social and environmental benefits. They are convinced that collaboration and partnership pays off, and that in helping the "bottom of the pyramid" to participate in the positive benefits of globalization, business benefits as well as markets expand, poverty and failed states decline, and trust builds.
In the war for talent, these companies have decided that to attract and retain the best and the brightest requires a genuine and enduring commitment to principles and values. And as these companies build global supply chains to support their global brands, they are discovering that their customers as well as their employees expect them to be responsible not just profitable, a force for good.
What began less than a decade ago as largely a guilt-driven response to opponents of globalization; the corporate responsibility movement is becoming transformed as business increasingly sees itself as an agent of world benefit. In a study prepared for the Global Summit, McKinsey surveyed CEOs from around the world. 84% today view the responsible business practices of initiatives like the UN Global Compact as a core part of their business conduct. No longer managing defensively, these corporations increasingly are engaging with stakeholders, gaining reputational capital and using cutting-edge commitments in the developing world as a source of innovation and a magnet for talent. Goldman Sachs unveiled a new measure of ESG (environmental, social and governance) performance of leading companies that demonstrates a high correlation with industry leaders and financial valuation. It also includes the finding that companies that pay higher wages generally achieve better financial results.
The Global Symposium of Drucker Societies was no less startling or inspiring. Assembled in Claremont was an unusual group of business and civic and academic leaders from ten countries who are committed to taking Peter Drucker's practices and principles to new markets through new methods. Here in Korea, led by Mr. Moon, formerly of Yuhan-Kimberly, corporate CEOs are spending four hours a month in a book group discussing the relevance of Drucker's insights to contemporary Korean society -- and they are more than half way through Drucker's forty books on topics ranging from innovation and creativity to business and society and the role of the knowledge worker.
In China, "Drucker windows" -- compact libraries with a full set of translated materials -- are being established at 5-10 universities a year so that the next generation of business and civic leaders will have access to Drucker's works, and 12,000 future leaders have already graduated from coursework at so-called Drucker Academies.
Next week, a thousand business and civic leaders will meet under the auspices of the Drucker Academy of China to explore the requirements for innovation and entrepreneurship -- not only in business, but also in the social sector.
In Japan, led by Professor Atsuo Ueda, the Drucker Workshop meets twice a year in a retreat where more than 100 CEOs contemplate the lessons of the master and how they can continuously improving their social and environmental practices from one another.
The Australian Association of Management, with 35,000 members, is devoting its annual convention this week to Drucker and the importance of building strong societies through healthy and sustainable organizations and is hearing from Doris Drucker and Tom Peters, among many others, about the powerful impact of Peter's life and legacy.
In Switzerland, a newly-formed Drucker Society is promoting a new generation of social entrepreneurs in Europe, and in Dallas a group has started to coalesce around applying Drucker's analysis and insights to address local problems.
As part of the Global Summit in Geneva, the Secretary General was presented with The Principles for Responsible Management Education -- a product of task force members representing institutions such as Harvard Business School, MIT, Yale School of Management, Thunderbird, INSEAD in France, EGADE in Mexico, Keio in Japan, and Tsinghua in China. Those of us who sign on to this call for action by developing the capabilities of students to be future generators of sustainable value for business and society at large and to work for an inclusive and sustainable global economy, have an instrumental role to play. And this next generation of MBAs along with business, governmental and nonprofit leaders seem ready and eager for the challenge.
These developments alone will not cure the world of the daunting problems that face our future. But by scaling up the partnerships, innovations and practices of the growing numbers of adherents of the Global Compact, by encouraging the breath-taking work of Drucker Societies around the world, and by embedding a new set of competencies and values in the next generation of business leaders around the world through a new business school curriculum, they do offer encouragement and evidence that the forces of globalization can be harnessed for social good as well as private profit, and that business, if it adheres to principles, can play an instrumental role as a force for good around the world.
Peter Drucker once said that "the best way to predict the future is to create it." Here in Korea, in China, around the world through the 4,000 members of the UN Global Compact, at the Drucker School and the Drucker Institute in Claremont, I sense the future is being created, today.
Ira A. Jackson, Dean The Peter F. Drucker and Masatoshi Ito Graduate School of Management Claremont Graduate University Claremont, California
You are part of a remarkably talented and diverse entering class of students here at Drucker. You are about to become part of a remarkable and unique educational experience. We call ourselves not just a “B” school but also an “M” school and an “L” school – not just a business school but, rather, a school of management and leadership. Yes, we will train you with the skills to succeed in business. But we will also provide you an opportunity to become an effective manager and an ethical leader. Institutions in every sector – business, government, nonprofits, even educational institutions – desperately need what you will possess. From here, you will do well; we also hope that you will do good. If you take advantage of everything Drucker has to offer, you will not only be analytical but also creative, focused and reflective, confident and purposeful. So, please, take advantage of this exceptional journey. Explore and participate actively in this wonderful Drucker School community. You will find that faculty are accessible … staff that are here to serve … and other students from whom you can learn. You are among the smartest and most accomplished entering students in memory. Average GMAT scores for entering MBAs are up 30 points from last year. Mean GRE Quantitative scores for entering FEs are over 780. But those are just the impressive numbers. It’s the quality of your classmates and the values of this institution that truly set us apart. Let me give you just a flavor for what’s cooking here at Drucker and the sorts of opportunities that await you. This is simply a sampling. Stay current by consulting our website and by looking for other notices.
• For the first time, entering MBAs this year will enroll in a gateway course entitled “The Drucker Difference.” Here you will get to see and meet the entire core faculty in one integrated learning experience built around the teaching and research of Peter Drucker, the most influential management thinker of all time. • FE students will be taking courses from a new member of our faculty, Professor Cornelis Los (Ph.D from Columbia), who has an impressive record of intellectual and professional accomplishments, including teaching stints in Almaty, Kzakhstan, at Kent State, Ohio, in Melbourne and Adelaide, Australia, in Singapore, and at Columbia University and Baruch, Hunter and City Colleges in New York City; professional experience as Chief U.S. Economist of ING Bank, Senior Economist of Nomura Research Institute and the Federal Reserve Bank of New York; and 35 original articles on economics and finance in referred journals, five books, eight other book chapters and 13 conference article • This fall, during Drucker Day, you will hear from two of the leading management thinkers of our time – Prof. Warren Bennis of USC and Prof. Rosabeth Moss Kanter of Harvard Business School. Forbes magazine describes Warren Bennis as “the dean of leadership gurus,” and the Financial Times calls him “the professor who established leadership as a respectable academic field.” Rosabeth Moss Kanter is the author or co-author of 16 books (including “When Giants Learn to Dance” and “Confidence: How Winning Streaks & Losing Streaks Begin and End”), and is the recipient of 22 honorary degrees. Rosabeth will be discussing her latest book, “America the Principled: Six Opportunities for Becoming a Can-Do Nation Once Again.” • This spring we will bring to the campus our first two Distinguished Drucker Fellows in Residence. Prof. Ikujiro Nonaka of Berkeley and Hitotsubashi universities is arguably the world’s leading academic authority on innovation and creativity, and Sir Charles Handy of England is one of the co-founders of the London Business School and someone considered by many as “the Peter Drucker of Europe.” • Our Drucker School Student Association has active chapters of a number of clubs and provides good career networking opportunities as well as just plain fun social events. • We host a Henry Kravis Entrepreneurship Award competition that you may want to consider entering. There are new “trandisciplinary” courses offered by CGU that you might want to check out and enroll in. • We are near gorgeous beaches and, in just four months time, great skiing. Claremont itself, this lovely city of trees and PhDs, was named as one of the five best places to live in America by Money Magazine last month.
So enjoy. Take in as much of it as you can. We will work you hard and we expect you to take this educational experience seriously and with integrity. Our distinguished faculty love teaching as well as researching. They expect you to come to class well prepared and prepared to discuss and actively engage in the learning process. If you approach this privileged time in your life with the right spirit, you are about to enter a meaningful, productive, relevant, inspiring and even transformational experience that will shape you for a lifetime. We are delighted to welcome you to the Drucker community. Please feel free to drop by my office to introduce yourself, say hello, seek my advice or to offer a constructive suggestion. Best wishes and good luck!
Ira A. Jackson Dean and Professor of Management Peter F. Drucker and Masatoshi Ito Graduate School of Management
There's more to report, but I'll leave it at that for the moment. As always, I welcome your thoughts and participation. Best wishes for the remaining days of an enjoyable summer.
Ira A. Jackson Dean and Professor of Management Peter F. Drucker and Masatoshi Ito Graduate School of Management 1021 North Dartmouth Avenue Claremont, CA 91711 (909) 607-79209; Fax (909) 607-8298
Sending forth capable graduates to engage in challenging assignments around the world. At a special Spring Celebration, we had a pre-Commencement ceremony here at Drucker for our 93 newly-minted MBA, EMBA, MSFE, MAACM and PhD grads. It was a moving and memorable event that saluted the intellectual accomplishments of a great group of graduates who now go on to engage in problem-solving in business, government and nonprofits here in the U.S. and globally. Students honored Professors Vijay Sathe and Jay Prag for teaching excellence, and every graduate was recognized for their unique contributions to the life of the Drucker community. Following CGU’s Commencement two days later, where we heard from former University of California and National Science Foundation President Richard Atkinson and Congressman David Dreier and Congresswoman Diane Watson (both CGU alums), we returned to the Burkle Courtyard for a reception attended by Doris Drucker and a toast to “doing well and doing good.”
Delivering “The Drucker Difference” as a gateway course for every new student. This fall, all of us on the core faculty will be sharing Peter Drucker’s wisdom and the intellectual contributions of others to 14 aspects of theory and practice in a required class that integrates our unique transdisciplinary approach to management education.
Welcoming a new crop of eager students and accomplished managers. We had scarcely cleaned up from Commencement festivities when summer term classes began with new and returning students. And what a terrific and talented group they are! Interest continues to grow in the Drucker School. Applications for our Financial Engineering fall class are up 30% over last year – and last year applications to this quality program doubled. Newly entering FE students for the fall have average GRE Quantitative scores of 779 (out of 800), and they are intellectually curious, more geographically diverse, and bring an incredible range of outside interests. While the number of MBA students will be slightly lower next year, average GMAT scores for newly admitted students are up quite deliberately by more than 15 points. And we project a 50% increase in EMP enrollment year-over-year -- including the CEO of our largest regional hospital, an urban police commander, a construction company entrepreneur now expanding into China, a neurosurgeon, a movie producer, and the CFO of a major publicly-traded company that was recently featured in a cover story in Business Week.
Contributing new knowledge about the theory and practice of management and leadership. Our faculty continues to be prolific and influential in terms of their intellectual contributions to fields ranging from risk management to corporate strategy to shared leadership. For a comprehensive look at their impressive body of work, check out individual faculty profiles at our Drucker website: www.drucker.cgu.edu. Here’s just a little taste of what you’ll discover:
Prof. Ken Ferris, who already has published 50 journal articles, authored or edited 12 books, and written 80 case studies on issues of accounting, financial analysis, auditing and risk management, assumes the editorship of the Journal of International Accounting Research on July 1.
Prof. Joe Maciariello is busy revising Peter Drucker’s classic: Management: Tasks, Responsibilities, Practices, the Drucker casebook, and Effective Executive in Action.
Prof. Richard Smith collaborated with Kenji Kutsuna of Kobe University and Janet Smith of CMC in a paper published in the Journal of Banking and Finance, entitled: “Banking relationships and access to equity capital markets: evidence from Japan’s main banking system.”
Associate Dean and Prof. Hideki Yamawaki served as a panelist at the recent Milken Institute Global Conference and discussed technology innovation and environmental issues. His new paper on the determinants of profitability of foreign direct investments, jointly written with M. Sakakibara of UCLA, will be published shortly in Managerial and Decision Economics.
Prof. Jenny Darroch is working with colleagues on three research articles of note, including a special issue of the Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science which she is co-editing, a study of biotechnology IPOs and the NASDQ, and the marketing/entrepreneurship interface.
Prof. (and former Dean) Kees de Kluyver is completing his new book The Business of Corporate Governance and just completed the third edition of Strategy: A View from the Top (with John A. Pearce III), to be published by Prentice Hall early next year.
Investing like pros; taking risks like real entrepreneurs. Students in our asset management practicum impressed the CGU Board of Trustees Investment Committee with their successful hands-on investment of equity securities in a portion of the university’s endowment – consistently beating the S&P 500. At the Drucker School’s Henry Kravis Entrepreneurial Award competition -- established by private equity pioneer Henry Kravis, who was a founding member of the Drucker School Board of Visitors -- students from Claremont McKenna College took first prize with their concept plan for “Fantasy Congress: Connecting people with Politics” through a video game as fun to play as Fantasy Football, and EMBA Mark Gonda took second place with a creative “e-Car” concept for emerging markets in China and India.
There’s so much more to share about the activities, people and thought contributions of the Drucker School. Before I go on too long, let me close with just a brief word about one alum, three staff members, and what is happening at CGU. Melodie Mayberry-Stewart, a PhD alumnus of Drucker, was just appointed by Governor Eliot Spitzer as New York State’s Chief Information Officer. Mary Jo Carzoo, Jodi James, and Jeannie Bullard took the initiative and did all the hard work to make our Spring Celebration such a fantastic success.
More later. In the interim: best wishes to all our friends and extended family. Please share with me your thoughts and suggestions as to how we can continue to strengthen our path at the Drucker School as we move from good to great.
Regards,
Ira A. Jackson Dean
I'm writing this note on a flight back from Boulder, Colorado where a small group of us, led by CGU President Bob Klitgaard and CGU Board Chair Deb Anders, have spent two productive and constructive days working on strategy and moving CGU and Drucker from "Good to Great" with author Jim Collins. This has been an exhilarating process, focusing on how we can produce the most accomplished students, the most impactful thinking and research, and economic strength that allows us to invest, innovate and endure.
Jim Collins reminded us to embrace Peter Drucker's values and what we call "The Drucker Difference," which Jim described as "making the world more productive and more humane at the same time." Jim recalled the magic of the conversations that took place for so many in Peter's living room and in his classroom. He spoke of the "incalculable debt that I owe to Peter Drucker for encouraging me to have the courage and audacity to ask the big questions." We departed Colorado pleased with the progress we made and more committed and energized than ever before to preserving and reimagining at the Drucker School and CGU as a place where teachers and students come together and engage in great conversations that matter.
We are applying the methodology that Jim first developed in his classic work, "Good to Great," to the Drucker School and to CGU. For those familiar with this approach, you'll be pleased to know that we are feeling "clicks in the flywheel." For others, let me simply say that steady progress is being made in terms of our revitalization and that the winds of progress are blowing briskly.
Consider just some of the signs of building momentum:
Celebrating entrepreneurial excellence in honor of one of the world's leading investors. As we fly from Denver, back in Claremont a group of savvy venture capitalists are judging the finalists in the competition for the Henry Kravis Prize for Entrepreneurship. Drucker student Mark Gonda submitted a proposal for "e-Car," and three Claremont McKenna College undergraduates entered their plan for "Fantasy Congress: Connecting People with Politics." This competition is jointly sponsored by the Drucker School's Venture Finance Institute and the Robert Day 4+1 BA/MBA Program at CMC.
Tackling the frontiers of knowledge at the intersection of economics and neuro science. At the same time, back in another classroom in the Burkle Building, an unusual and pioneering conference on "Moral Markets: A Symposium on Values, Economics and the Brain" is wrapping up, jointly sponsored by the Drucker School, CGU's School of Politics and Economics, and the John Templeton Foundation.
Learning from the master of goal-setting theory. Earlier this week, we hosted an illuminating talk for faculty and staff by the world's preeminent scholar in goal-setting theory, Professor Edwin A. Locke (Dean's Professor Emeritus of Leadership and Motivation at the University of Maryland). Ed's goal-setting theory was ranked #1 in importance by organizational behavior scholars out of 73 organizational behavior management theories, and his citation count of 4,925 exceeds that of all management professors at eight leading universities.
Reflecting Drucker's impact on some of the world's most admired companies. This month's Fortune Magazine featured several companies with close ties to the Drucker School in its "Most Admired" cover story. Prominently among them: General Electric, Toyota and Procter and Gamble. P&G's A.G. Lafley, the recipient of an honorary degree last May (along with ShoichiroToyoda and Jim Collins), is consistently recognized as one of the most respected CEOs in the world. Fortune cites A.G.'s "the consumer is boss" mantra as "straight from the playbook of his mentor, Peter Drucker. Drucker argued that companies tend to overcomplicate their businesses, creating too many products, hiring too many employees, and generally distracting themselves from what made them successful in the first place: pleasing their customers."
Achieving service excellence by putting Peter's principles to practice in the brokerage business. Other Drucker School corporate partners continue to excel, including Edward Jones, which was featured in a Business Week cover story last month entitled "The Customer Service Elite." This prestigious ranking of the best customer service companies listed Edward Jones first among all financial service firms in the world. Earlier ranked the #1 brokerage by J.D. Powers, Edward Jones' remarkable emergence and success was led by CGU Trustee and Drucker School Board Chair John Bachmann, who consulted often with Peter Drucker. The Drucker School continues to train top Edward Jones leaders and managers from around the world.
Paving a green path in a world in need of models of sustainable business leadership. Yet another Fortune cover story featured Patagonia: "Blueprint for Green Business." Patagonia's former CEO, is now a doctoral candidate at the Drucker School, and Patagonia's current CFO is enrolled in our Executive MBA Program.
Sharing the wisdom of a distinguished alum who has applied Drucker insights in China. Earlier this month, a distinguished Drucker and CGU alumnus returned to Claremont to deliver a terrific talk on "Human Resource Management in China." Shuming Zhao, Dean of the School of Business at Nanjing University, is author of some 20 books and considered the leading exponent of Peter Drucker's theories and values in China. Dean Zhao is also consistently rated among the most influential management thinkers in China.
Getting serious about happiness. Drucker School Professor Mike Csikszentmihalyi, the author of "Flow", and Assistant Professor Jeanne Nakamura, an expert on creativity and mentoring, are establishing the world's first Ph.D. concentration focusing on positive psychology and the analysis of happiness. Mike, who is a founder of the field of positive psychology, is currently teaching a class called "Leadership and the Making of Meaning" with Professor Dick Ellsworth in the Drucker Executive Program that helps students explore both what meaning and leadership are for them personally as well as how to create meaning for others.
Placing Drucker School graduates in significant jobs in cutting-edge firms. Drucker students have been getting terrific jobs and meaningful internships recently at companies ranging from Goldman Sachs and Nestle, to PriceWaterhouseCoopers, Southern California Edison, Countrywide and Western Asset Management. Please join students and alumni at our first annual career connections conference, focusing on consulting, finance and marketing on April 21 at the Claremont Doubletree Hotel.
Launching the Drucker School Scholar in Residence Program with one of the world's most creative thinkers. Professor Jiro Nonaka of UC Berkeley and Hitotsubashi University has accepted my offer to become the First Distinguished Drucker Scholar in Residence. Professor Nonaka, who holds an endowed chair in Knowledge, is a pioneering scholar and author on knowledge management and organizational creativity.
GU President Bob Klitgaard and I leave tomorrow for a trip to Tokyo where we will meet with several of our strongest supporters and most valued advisors, including Masatoshi Ito, Shoichiro Toyoda, and Nobuhiro Iijima (a member of our Drucker Institute Board).
Peter observed that the best way to predict the future is to create it. We are trying to be true to that wisdom and to follow his path, here at the school that bears his name. By training graduates who do well and do good. By creating knowledge that tackles some of the big challenges facing business and society. And by building a Drucker School that has enduring value, and is built to last.
These observations are just suggestive of how we are creating the future, today, at the Drucker School and the Drucker Institute.
Participate with us. Attend commencement. Hire our graduates. Send us your employees and share with us your ideas, as we turn the flywheel and move from good to great.
All the best,
Ira A. Jackson Dean and Professor of Management Peter F. Drucker and Masatoshi Ito Graduate School of Management Claremont Graduate University
Momentum continues to build here at the Drucker School and the Drucker Institute and at CGU, generally. I am pleased to report that spring is in the beautiful air here in Claremont and that the winds of progress are blowing briskly. What follows is just a top-line summary of so many hopeful signs of institutional revitalization. Jim Collins, in "Good to Great," speaks of the flywheel effect; at Drucker, the flywheel is beginning to engage and to spin. Here are just six reasons why:
Virtually the entire core faculty at the Drucker School has responded favorably and will be jointly teaching a new required course for all entering MBA students, entitled "The Drucker Difference." The faculty has also willingly signed up to present a similar version of the course in the spring for students in the Executive Management Program. All of us will be working with Prof. Joe Maciariello to teach a component part of this new gateway course which will share the best of Peter Drucker on topics ranging from innovation to marketing, from purpose to the role of the civic sector. “The Drucker Difference” will, in effect, summarize Peter's original insights and update his teachings and writings to reflect our own research and the contributions of others who have built upon the firm foundations that Peter built. Through this collaborative and integrated course, students will be exposed as never before to the central body of Peter's life's work, and will be given a window into the deep depth of talent of our core faculty. I know of no business school that offers a gateway course of this kind, exposing entering students to the full range and talents of its core faculty, in an integrated cross-disciplinary approach that is focused on a values-driven approach to management.
The size and quality of applicants to the Drucker School continues to grow and improve each day. Applications to our Financial Engineering Management program, for instance, are up 30% over last year -- and mean GRE Quantitative scores of applicants exceed 770 (of a possible 800). Drucker Fellows to our MBA Program are equally impressive, and applications to our MAPEB (Master of Arts in Politics, Economics and Business) and MAACM (Master of Arts in Arts and Cultural Management) programs are at record levels. EMP enrollment is likely to grow by more than 40% in just one year's time, and our students are more accomplished, diverse and impressive than ever.
Faculty continue to produce an impressive volume of scholarly work and to achieve intellectual distinctions that are unusual for a school of our size. For instance:
Prof. Ken Ferris has been named editor of the prestigious Journal of International Accounting.
Prof. Jean Lipman-Blumen is presenting her recent work, “Gaining the Connective Edge: A New Leadership Model for the 21st Century” at this week's ASTD (American Society for Trainers and Developers) Annual Conference in Portland, Oregon.
Prof. Jenny Darroch participated on the panel of Marketing and Entrepreneurship at the American Marketing Association’s Winter Marketing Educator’s Conference last week in San Diego, and is working on co-editing a special issue of Journal of the Academy of Marketing Sciences on "Drucker on Marketing."
Prof. Mike Csikszentmihalyi helped moderate the concluding session of the Kravis Leadership Institute's annual Kravis-de Roulet Leadership Conference this past weekend at CMC. The conference featured presentations by Prof. Howard Gardner, author of the theory of multiple intelligences and co-author of Mike's path-breaking book, "Good Work," and Dean Robert Sternberg, who is doing pioneering work on assessing leadership characteristics of college and graduate students.
Prof. Richard Smith's study of TIAA-CREF investment choices, published in this spring's Financial Management, has caused quite a flurry of public response.
And Associate Dean Hideki Yamawaki is finishing work on galleys for his forthcoming book entitled, Japanese Exports and Foreign Direct Investment: Imperfect Competition in International Markets.
The Drucker School Student Association has launched a number of new initiatives and is contributing to a greater sense of community and engagement at the school. A new marketing association has been formed, entries are being submitted to the upcoming Kravis Business-Plan competition, a new chapter of NetImpact has been launched, and a variety of cross-program social activities and lecture series happily clutter the bulletin boards and fill the classrooms after hours. The Consulting Club is developing a program to provide pro bono services to local businesses and non-profit organizations.
Our Alumni Association and Career Services and Placement Office are also mounting meaningful new programs. Student use of our recently strengthened placement office is up 94% over this time last year. 40 students enrolled in a resume writing and interviewing technique "boot camp" last week, and a record number of recruiters are seeing our 2nd year students. Check out our website for a whole host of alumni activities, ranging from faculty-led tours of Napa vineyards to golf tournaments and executive forum lectures on topics as diverse as the future of the Inland Empire and the contemporary significance of Peter Drucker's works.
The Drucker Institute Board is meeting next month for a two-day strategic planning and visioning exercise, and is preparing for a global convening of Drucker Societies from China, Japan, Korea, Australia, Canada, Europe, South America and elsewhere, to share and spread best-practices.
I hope this suggests the energy and progress that is being made to increase the size, scope and significance of the Drucker School and the Drucker Institute. These periodic reports do not really do justice to the activities and innovations that continue to characterize life at Drucker. Let me just mention three other specific examples:
Last month, we had the honor of hosting distinguished Prof. of Knowledge Jiro Nonaka of Berkeley and Hitotsubashi universities in an intriguing talk on what he calls "Phronetic Leadership,” or the pragmatic wisdom of leaders he has studied from Honda, Cannon and Toyota.
Earlier this month, Prof Craig Pearce welcomed the 13th class of managers from Panda Restaurants, who have built a high-growth company based on the principles of engaging their people through distributed or shared leadership and of driving financial results through values and corporate purpose.
And this past Saturday I had the pleasure of joining Prof. Vijay Sathe in presenting certificates to some 20 Drucker School students who had completed a four week seminar in “Revitalization” – an extraordinary and totally voluntary commitment by both Vijay, who is on sabbatical, and students who receive no formal academic credit.
You might be asking yourselves: With all this activity and momentum, what role can I play in advancing the future of the Drucker School? With all this progress: What does the dean need from me? My unequivocal answer: Plenty! Despite all the good news, the reality is that the Drucker School and the Drucker Institute are still very much works-in-progress. We need your active participation, engagement and investment. Whether it is time, talent or treasure: we need you now more than ever. We need you to continue to refer the best and the brightest to apply to the school, and our admissions process is still open and eager to review your recommendations. We need you to participate in our outreach activities and to attend our stellar events. We need your ideas and connections to employers and internships. And, yes, we need your financial capital, as well, as we are in need of substantial investors who seek a lifelong dividend and return to society by way of more effective managers, more ethical leaders, and more applied research that can help illuminate a better way for a world desperately in need of new ideas and new approaches to intractable problems. Please continue to care and commit to Drucker. Drop me a line, audit a class, send a potential student our way, open a door for our placement professionals, or invest in our future. I'm asking you to please consider how you can contribute in helping us to advance and sustain what we call "The Drucker Difference." There is more -- much more, to report. We are also seeking the first director of the Drucker Institute, the living memorial to Peter Drucker and the hub of a world-wide consortium of like-minded scholars and activists for effective management and ethical leadership in a globalized society. We have been approached by California's Latino Caucus Institute to serve as academic partner in their leadership academies for newly-elected public officials, and we are signing on to this exciting new outreach effort. We will be hosting a new series on regional issues of interest to the community, with a kickoff event on February 1 on the state of commercial real estate development in the Inland Empire, to which you are all welcome. We will also be hosting an event soon to celebrate a new and important work about Peter's legacy, The Definitive Drucker by Elizabeth Haas Edersheim, to which you are also most welcome. In all of this, we want to share our pride and enthusiasm -- and to encourage your active participation. The path from good to great, as Jim Collins reminds us, is an ongoing journey that requires discipline, focus and passionate commitment from a community of like-minded and values-oriented people – people just like you! Best wishes,
As we usher in a new year, we are feeling confident and encouraged about current activities and future prospects. Here are just ten reasons why we are energized and enthusiastic -- and why we are hopeful that you will continue to engage with us in helping to fulfill the potential and the noble purpose that is the Drucker School: Our new class of Executive Management students for the winter/spring, 2007 is up 30% over last year and more than 100% from 2005. The class includes three managers from Boeing, two from the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, the CFO from Patagonia, an author, a management consultant, business owners, and executives from Citibank as well as from the entertainment and pharmaceutical industries. A handsome new EMP brochure will soon be available suggestive of lots of excitement and interest in this program, which has long been a flagship of the Drucker School. Contact christina.wassenaar@cgu.edu for copies which we'd appreciate you circulating among colleagues and friends, Our MBA Program is also experiencing a resurgence and revitalization, with a doubling of our entering mid-year participants over last year. Two-thirds of these new entrants are domestic students, three-quarters are fulltime, and they all look strong. Anne Roberts Masterson, assistant dean and director of the MBA Program at the Crummer School of Business at Rollins College in Florida (ranked the #1 MBA program in Florida by Forbes Magazine), will be joining us at the end of the month as our new Director of the MBA Program. Anne will add a level of professionalism and accomplishment that will help power the strengthening of this core program at Drucker for years to come. I'm also pleased to report that our Drucker School Student Association is taking the initiative to reinvigorate a number of student activities, including an active and engaged chapter of Net Impact and the Finance Club. Applications for next year's entering Master of Science in Financial Engineering (MSFE) Program are up over 275% from last year at this time, and the quality of the applicants continues to look impressive. Nine new MSFE students begin classes this month, more than twice as many as last year, and four of the nine are from the United States, giving greater geographic balance to this unique and highly acclaimed program. A recent survey of 800 current and prospective MBA students in Japan (The 6th MBA Tomo-no-kai [Friendship Club] Business School Ranking) cited the Drucker School as #3 in its worldwide ranking of programs, behind Kellogg and the Garvin School, and ahead of Harvard, Stanford, UCLA and MIT. Data submitted to U.S. News and World Report from our totally reorganized and strengthened career services and placement office shows a dramatic increase of employment rates for our MBA graduates. The number of current students taking advantage of placement services from Fatma Kassamali and Paul Hardister, our talented new director and assistant director of Career Services, is up smartly from previous years. The number of employer contacts is also up dramatically, along with the engagement of our extensive alumni network. Part of that outreach and engagement with regional, national and global employers has resulted in our designation at as a preferred educational institution by the Boeing Corporation. Drucker School faculty are increasingly in the news, and making an impressive impact on their respective fields within management. As just one example, Prof. Mike Csikszentmihalyi's pioneering work as a founder of the field of positive psychology, was recently featured in a cover story in the Economist Magazine and in this week's Sunday New York Times Magazine. We continue to host a number of important thought leaders at the Drucker School. Last month, it was Bob Eckert, Chairman and CEO of Mattel. This week, it is Daniel Pink, best-selling author of A Whole New Mind and Prof. Charles Manz of the University of Massachusetts, author of Emotional Discipline: The Power to Choose How You Feel. Next month, Prof. Ikujiro Nonaka of the Haas School and Hitotsubashi University, noted authority on knowledge management and organizational creativity. Our Venture Finance Institute, directed by Prof. Richard Smith, is gearing up to host and award the 17th annual Henry P. Kravis Award for Entrepreneurship in April. This signature program, analogous to our Drucker Award for Nonprofit Innovation, is part of a newly reinvigorated effort led by Prof. Smith to provide intellectual and applied scholarship to the field of venture finance and social entrepreneurship, eventually leading to a major new initiative in the field of entrepreneurial studies based at Drucker, involving the entire Claremont College Consortium. Look for our ads in the Economist, the Wall Street Journal, the Financial Times, the Chronicle of Higher Education, the LA Times and elsewhere as we begin the search for the Peter Drucker Chair in Management as a Liberal Art. We are actively searching for the next generation Peter Drucker: a profound and original thinker who will embrace the spirit of Peter Drucker and add his or her own unique contributions to the art and science of management in the 21st century -- exploring the new dimensions of management as a catalyst for economic progress and social justice, and the role of business in relation to government and civil society. Warmest Regards, Ira A. Jackson Dean and Professor of Management Peter F. Drucker and Masatoshi Ito Graduate School of Management Claremont Graduate University
