the master of the art
管理艺术大师
peter drucker, is the world’s most influential management guru. probably more than anyone else, he has helped to define management and the tasks and responsibilities of the manager.
彼得·德鲁克是世界上最具影响力的管理学大师。他帮助定义了管理的概念，界定了经理的任务和责任。在这方面，或许无出其右者。
drucker was born in vienna in 1909. after attending university in germany he worked as a financial journalist. he left germany following the rise of hitler and moved to london, where he was a merchant banker. in 1937 he moved to the us. in 1941 he took up a teaching post at bennington college and later moved to new york university. now retired, he lives in california. he has written 35 books and many articles for newspapers and journals.
1909年，德鲁克生于维也纳。在德国大学毕业后，他成为一名财经记者。希特勒上台不久，他便离开德国来到伦敦，投身商业银行。1937年，他移居美国。1941年起，他先后任教于本宁顿学院和纽约大学。目前，他已退休，住在加州。德鲁克出版过35本书，并为报刊杂志撰写过大量文章。
drucker’s interests have ranged broadly. in the 1930s and 1940s he wrote a series of thoughtful books on capitalist society, including an important study of the management of general motors. from the 1950s to the 1970s he wrote a series of books on management, which are arguably his classic works. since the late 1970s he has been more interested in the impact of technological and social change on management and business.
德鲁克兴趣广泛。20世纪30、40年代，他就资本主义社会写过一系列颇有见地的专著，其中包括对通用汽车管理模式的一项重要研究。从50年代到70年代，他出版的管理学系列丛书，被不少人视为经典之作。70年代末开始，他更加关注科技和社会变革对管理和工商活动的影响。
drucker’s writings avoid formal theories of management and organisation and instead encourage managers to ask basic questions. what kind of business are we? what kind of business should we be? famously, he urged managers to stop trying to manage processes and instead seek to manage for results, emphasising output rather than function. in his view, managers should be the pivot around which the organisation revolves, rather than directors controlling from the top down or officers leading from the front.
德鲁克的著述总是避免谈论管理和组织学的高深理论，而是鼓励经理探讨最基本的问题。我们面对的是什么样的工商活动？我们应该促进什么样的工商活动？他的著名观点是，经理的管理要重结果、轻过程，重产出、轻职能。在他看来，经理应该是组织运转的轴心，而非自上而下进行控制的指挥人员，或带头冲锋陷阵的军官。
according to drucker, it is the manager who breathes life into the enterprise and makes it function. “the enterprise can decide, act and behave only as its managers do -- by itself the enterprise has no effective existence.”
德鲁克指出，经理为企业带来活力，使其正常运转。“企业的决策、行动和行为只有通过经理才能实现。单就企业而言，它难以有所作为。”
as well as harnessing resources and creating production, the manager has an even more important task: the creation of markets. in a landmark passage, drucker says that there is only one valid purpose for a business: “to create a customer. markets are not created by god, nature or economic forces, but by the people who manage a business.” drucker emphasises the need to consider the needs and motivations of customers, not just the problems of price and distribution that had formerly dominated marketing.
除了利用资源、创造生产，经理还有更为重要的任务：开拓市场。德鲁克在具划时代意义的一次讲话中说，工商活动唯一令人信服的目的就是“创造客户。市场不是上帝、自然或经济力量创造的，而是由工商活动的管理者创造的。”德鲁克强调，除了过去支配市场营销的价格与分销问题外，还有必要考虑客户的需求和动机。
he also stresses the responsibilities of managers, which he says are threefold: to achieve economic performance, to make work productive and to manage the social effects that any enterprise has on its environment. particularly important is the third set of responsibilities. increased social responsibility, says drucker, is part of the price that must be paid for commercial success.
他还强调了经理的责任问题，并认为这包含三个层面：实现经济效益，维持企业生命力，管理企业对其环境产生的社会效应。第三层面的责任尤为重要。德鲁克说，社会责任的增多是商业成功必须付出的部分代价。
drucker sees management as an art rather than a science and constantly speaks of management in human terms. this, plus his easy, pithy writing style and ability to cut to the heart of any argument, has made him the most popular and widely read management writer of all time. perhaps the ultimate accolade came in the 1990s when a korean businessman, seeking to honour his hero, changed his own name to peter drucker.
德鲁克将管理视为一门艺术，而非科学，并且坚持以通俗的语言讲述管理。再加上他简洁、洗练的写作风格以及迅速切入主题的能力，这使他成为迄今最受欢迎的管理学畅销书作者。90年代，一位韩国商人将自己的名字改为彼得·德鲁克，以表达对心目中英雄的敬慕之情。这或许是对他的最高褒奖。
best-known books: management: tasks, responsibilities, practices (new york: harper & row, 1974); the new realities (new york: harper & row, 1989)
代表作：《管理：任务、责任和实践》（1974年纽约harper & row出版社出版）；《新现实》（1989年纽约harper & row出版社出版）。