Drucker Institute

‘Drucker Apps’ 6/19/09: Management Insights on the Failure of GM

• By druckeradmin

This installment of Drucker Apps was inspired by this month’s bankruptcy filing by General Motors–a company that Drucker first delved deeply into in the 1940s, resulting in his landmark book, Concept of the Corporation. Decades later, he was still paying close attention to GM, observing that companies often encounter big problems and then try to patch them, as GM attempted in the early 1980s. “But patching never works,” Drucker wrote.

This edition of Drucker Apps includes:

  • The dire consequences of consistency
  • The failings of the patch kit
  • Can the Toyota juggernaut be stopped?
  • What the old guard can teach the new

To read the full Drucker Apps, click here.

Drucker Apps is distributed twice a month and available via download from our website or via our RSS feed.