PETER DRUCKER SOCIETY EUROPE LAUNCHES ESSAY CONTEST

The Peter Drucker Society Europe (PDSE) launches the “2nd Global Peter Drucker Challenge”, an essay contest for young managers, entrepreneurs und students until the age of 35. The authors of the top three essays will be flown to Vienna and invited to actively participate in panels and breakouts at the “3rd Global Peter Drucker Forum 2011” in Vienna on November 3 and 4. In addition, up to 40 authors of high quality essays will get free access to the conference. The essay contest has the overarching theme.

MANAGEMENT, WHAT IS IT GOOD FOR?

and has as its starting point the poor reputation the term management has acquired in recent times as senior managers around the world have hit the headlines with high salaries, failing corporations, controversial downsizing programmes and an apparent focus on short term profitability rather than long term development and people. Middle managers, too, have gradually found themselves increasingly undermined and even dispensed with altogether, as skilled teams and individuals tend to more and more manage themselves.

Peter F. Drucker (1909-2005), the “father of modern management” and a harsh critic of a greed-driven economy, described this emergence of self-empowered specialists in his 1999 book “Management Challenges for the 21st Century”. In it, Drucker also insisted that we should not confine our view of management as applying to businesses only. Instead, he argues, management is a key function of all levels of modern society. “Ours,” he writes, “is a society of organizations. And management is the specific and distinguishing organ of any and all organizations.”

Good management, then, is even more important in today’s world. It has the potential to be the key to dealing with the societal complexities and challenges we face today.

So – just what is good management? How do you define and describe it? And is good management a means in itself? Does it have to have a purpose, too, and can it ever be separated from the social and common good? These are the questions the participants are asked to answer from their individual experiences and perspectives in the framework of “The Global Peter Drucker Challenge” (now in its second year after a successful first round last year).

How to participate

Participants must not to be older than 35 years. The length of the essays should be between 1.500 words and 3.000 words (which roughly translates into 5-10 pages). Essays can be submitted in both English and German – the two languages Peter Drucker wrote his articles and books in. The deadline for submitting the essays is July 15th, 2011.

The winners will be chosen through a jury consisting of business executives, academics, and representatives of the Peter Drucker Society. The winning essays will be announced at the beginning of September.

ICWE, organiser of the annual eLearning Africa conference and partner of the competition, will be sponsoring one candidate from Africa to participate in the Forum.

For more information on “The Global Peter Drucker Challenge” and to get detailed guidelines how to participate go to: www.druckerchallenge.org

Contact: druckerchallenge@gmail.com