Insights from the Founder of the Global Peter Drucker Forum Thriving in the age of AI

“Peter Drucker always said that thinking about management as being just about business reduces its true scope,” said Dr. Richard Straub.
“Institutions today are more like trees, connected under the surface. Society is like a big garden where a variety of trees grow. So, managers need to act like a gardener.”

In an interview with Fujitsu in Tokyo, Dr. Richard Straub likened the today’s ideal leader to a "gardener." He stated that it is crucial to cultivate not just a single tree (representing an individual organization) but the entire garden (representing the ecosystem) with a long-term perspective.

In 2009, Dr. Straub launched the Global Peter Drucker Forum to commemorate the achievements of Peter Drucker. Each year, the forum held in Vienna brings together thinkers, leaders, and innovators from around the world for open conversations on the future of management.

In recent years, many issues have been raised regarding how to respond to rapid changes and increasing uncertainty in business and society, such as geopolitical tensions, digital disruption, and of course, the rise of artificial intelligence.

“These principles are not ready-made prescriptions which we recommend organizations should follow,” explains Dr. Straub.

Peter Drucker believed that the important job is never to find the right answer but to find the right question. These principles are meant to highlight the domains of important questions to ask. These are designed to help business leaders to deeply think about their management transformation over several years, in response to their respective management environments and challenges.

Peter Drucker was delighted that his books became bestsellers in Japan, and during his lifetime, he frequently visited Japan, building strong relationships with business leaders like Sony’s Akio Morita and OMRON’s Kazuma Tateishi.

Dr. Straub also spent time engaging with many Japanese business leaders during his visit. Particularly, he saw common challenges between Japanese and German manufacturers.

“Many of these manufacturing companies have a long history of 80, 90, or even 100 years. The industry is fundamental to society and what they have developed really makes up the infrastructure of our society. Japan should be proud of having such a strong industry,” says Dr. Straub.

But he also sees a challenge. Long-established manufacturers with physical production assets often find it harder to act with agility, especially in a digital world. He then emphasized the necessity of management transformation, along with significant opportunities for growth.

“You cannot change whole plants overnight like you do in the software space. You need to make long-term investments for ten years or fifteen years. This is where management comes in. CEOs must examine their existing ways of business, even if these are performing well, and explore management innovations for the future.”

Even in the face of rapid change, Dr. Straub says that managers should keep in mind that there is one thing which never changes.

That, Dr. Straub says, is human nature.
“As anthropologists and philosophers have said for millennia, human nature — like hate, love and desire — is one thing that doesn't change.”

He says one of Drucker’s key themes was how to cope with workers who become psychologically destabilized when facing changes in their work environment.

“It is totally natural for people to want stability. No one wants to lose their job to AI.”

So how should managers respond? Dr. Straub says we can find a clue in Drucker’s thinking.

Peter Drucker said that the task of management is to make people capable of joint performance, to make their strengths effective and their weaknesses irrelevant. And he believed that the greatest challenge for management in the 21st century is improving the productivity of knowledge workers.

According to Dr. Straub, knowledge work consists of two types: ‘Routine Knowledge Work’ and ‘Creative Knowledge Work’.

“Unfortunately, Routine Knowledge Work, which involves gathering information and analyzing data, can be delegated to AI and is going away,” says Dr. Straub. “Managers must be nice to employees and care for them, but it is more important to help them understand how a different future may come and how they can adapt.”

Dr. Straub stated that ‘Creative Knowledge Work’ is becoming even more important today and should almost certainly constitute a greater share of human knowledge work within each organization.

Furthermore, he emphasized the necessity for organizations to grow not just as individual entities, but through their interrelationship with society.

“In the old world, you were able to control your organization. But now, you’re a part of broader ecosystem, which you cannot control. A manager’s role as a gardener of ecosystems is to ensure it works as a whole and your organization is well fit in it.”

He again stressed the need to take a longer-term perspective focused on generating value for customers and society.

The theme for the 2025 Drucker Forum, for its second year of the initiative is “Next Era Leadership: All Hands on Deck.” Its next annual conference is scheduled in November.

Dr. Straub explains his intention behind the theme saying that during times of drastic change, every member of society should play a role and work together as one.

“The Next Management is a process of sharing experiences and thinkings and learning from each other. We need to question ourselves about existing management beliefs. We want more organizations to join the initiative, so that we can create a strong momentum to transform our society.”