Drucker on Leadership: New Lessons from the Father of Modern Management

Part III. The Military: Drucker's Model Organization

One of Drucker's five components of effective leadership had to do with following the recommendations of a classic book on military leadership. Although Drucker left many clues in his writings, I was first led to this conclusion in the classroom by Peter's favorable comparison of the compensation of military to corporate executives. Drucker was very much against excessive compensation. He pointed out that even top executives in the military, responsible for tens of thousands of individuals and millions of dollars of equipment, received (at that time) less than $100,000 a year. The military, he told us, also had the fairest system of promotion of any large organization. According to Drucker, ...