What Peter Drucker Would Be Reading

Recent selections from around the web that, we think, would have caught Peter Drucker’s eye:

1.     How to avoid being “netflixed”: 5 questions for Saul Kaplan: Dan Pink interviews “self-confessed innovation junkie” Saul Kaplan, who is out with a new book called The Business Model Innovation Factory: How to Stay Relevant When the World is Changing. Kaplan says business models have shorter lives than ever, and companies often deal the wrong way with disruption, forgetting that customer needs can change in an instant: “Instead of viewing opportunities through the lens of your business model, adopt the lens of your customer.”

2.     “We Certainly Don’t Want to Divide Europe”: German Finance Minister Wolfgang Schäuble believes in Europe—and believes in it deeply. In a globalizing world, the nations of the Old World must stick together, or they’ll be overwhelmed, he told Der Spiegel in an interview. One hears complaints about unfeeling “technocrats” in Brussels, but voices like that of Schäuble are a reminder that a union is, for some Europeans, a matter of true passion. “The world is moving closer together, and we’re talking about the possibility of each country in Europe going its own way? This cannot, must not and will not happen!”

3.     The Curse of Your Qualities: You’re so cool under pressure, but people consider you aloof and arrogant. You’re so flexible and kind, but people consider you disorganized and naïve. Knowing yourself is a Druckerian virtue, but so is knowing the tradeoffs that come with your strengths, as Leslie Brokaw writes on the Improvations blog at MIT Sloan Management Review. Ginka Toegel and Jean-Louis Barsoux have been doing some research into the topic, and Brokaw summarizes their findings succinctly: “Smart leaders know that what can save you can also kill you—that traits that are good in many ways can boomerang back and hit you in the face if you take them too far.”

4.     The Dx Comment of the Week: In response to our post “Is It High Time For Higher Pay?”, in which we asked whether improved economic growth could come from paying higher wages to low-skilled workers, reader Mike Grayson had this to say:

America can only compete if there is a level playing field. The wages of American workers can only be protected if the products and services they are producing are competitive in the market place. Our government cannot continue to increase costs by piling on more regulations at home, while at the same time ignoring the inequitable trade practices abroad.