2005年NPR美国国家公共电台十二月-Management Expert Drucker Dies at 95

The legendary¹ political economist² Peter Drucker has died at age 95. Drucker wrote more than 3 dozen books and countless³ articles, but for such a prolific⁴ writer, he offered rather pithy⁵ advice.

The most important thing is to know what you're good at, and very few people know that. All of us know what they're not good at.

NPR's Jack⁶ Speer has this appreciation⁷ of the man known as the the father of modern management .

Born in Vienna in 1909, Peter Drucker was a child of privilege. His parents counted among their friends, such luminaries⁸ as Sigmund Freud. As a young man, Drucker earned a law degree, he went on to obtain his doctorate⁹ in international law at University of Frankfort, though he always maintained that was more to please his father than himself. Troubled by the rise of the Nazis¹¹, Drucker moved to London to work for a merchant bank. Jack Beatty, a Drucker biographer told NPR's Todd Monk¹², the Nazi¹⁰ period had a lasting¹³ influence.

"He just got out of Europe before the Third Reich and he is conscious that he's had this extraordinary luck, and I think that's been a, that he's been spared really. And I think that this also has affected¹⁴ him, he feels that he owes the world something."

Drucker immigrated¹⁵ to America in 1937 and it was in his adopted country that he did his most influential¹⁶ work. In his very first book, the End of Economic Man, Peter Drucker analysed the causes of totalitarianism, the insecurity, fear, depression and unemployment, the demons¹⁷, as he put it, that created the conditions for the emergence¹⁸ of the dictator. Joseph Maciariello was a friend and colleague who now teaches at the Drucker School of Management in Claremont, California. He explains how Peter Drucker was able to reshape modern management theory.

"He's been a critic but from the inside. He's been a friend of business. So he's spoken eloquently¹⁹, um, um, to executives about how to improve their performance while also being a critic, so yeah, that's it, that's a tough, tough act."

Today the idea that business management is a field worthy²⁰ of serious academic study is uncontroversial. But before Peter Drucker, there really was no theory of management. His 18 months in-depth examination of General Motors led to the publication in 1946 of one of his most influential works, Concept of the Corporation. The book was disavowed by GM management. Within a decade, Drucker published the work that would seal his reputation as a business guru, the Practice of Management. Peter Senge, a senior lecturer of MIT who worked with Drucker explains why the book holds up even today.

"One of the reasons his books in general as well as the classic one in 1954 have held up is he has a remarkable²¹ ability to kind of intellectualize from a very practical foundation, so I think he's had a big impact on managers, not just academics who have read his material, because they get a feeling this is a person who kind of, knows what my life is like, knows what it feels like to actually be in an organization."

Drucker counseled managers and union leaders to give employees more control over their working environment, he held the purpose of business was to create customers and businesses should be profitable, but insisted employees were a resource, and not a cost, Drucker disdained²² business fads²³, things like stock options for executives. In a 1990 interview with Bill Moyers on PBS, he summed up what defines a truly effective manager.

"Leadership is performance and not personality. What you accomplish and what you enforce others to perform, that does a great function of, you're making incredible demands, ur, not making it easy for people."

And Peter Drucker did not exempt²⁴ himself from those incredible demands, writing well into his nineties , often on a manual typewriter. In a 2004 article for the Harvard Business Review, Drucker had some advice for today's business leaders, listen first and speak last. Peter Drucker, according to those who knew him, was perhaps the concealment²⁵ listener.

Jack Speer, NPR News, Washington.

1 legendary   

adj.传奇（中）的，闻名遐迩的；n.传奇（文学）

参考例句：

• Legendary stories are passed down from parents to children.传奇故事是由父母传给孩子们的。
• Odysseus was a legendary Greek hero.奥狄修斯是传说中的希腊英雄。

2 economist   

n.经济学家，经济专家，节俭的人

参考例句：

• He cast a professional economist's eyes on the problem.他以经济学行家的眼光审视这个问题。
• He's an economist who thinks he knows all the answers.他是个经济学家，自以为什么都懂。

3 countless   

adj.无数的，多得不计其数的

参考例句：

• In the war countless innocent people lost their lives.在这场战争中无数无辜的人丧失了性命。
• I've told you countless times.我已经告诉你无数遍了。

4 prolific   

adj.丰富的，大量的；多产的，富有创造力的

参考例句：

• She is a prolific writer of novels and short stories.她是一位多产的作家，写了很多小说和短篇故事。
• The last few pages of the document are prolific of mistakes.这个文件的最后几页错误很多。

5 pithy   

adj.(讲话或文章)简练的

参考例句：

• Many of them made a point of praising the film's pithy dialogue.他们中很多人特别赞扬了影片精炼的对白。
• His pithy comments knocked the bottom out of my argument.他精辟的评论驳倒了我的论点。

6 jack   

n.插座，千斤顶，男人；v.抬起，提醒，扛举；n.（Jake）杰克

参考例句：

• I am looking for the headphone jack.我正在找寻头戴式耳机插孔。
• He lifted the car with a jack to change the flat tyre.他用千斤顶把车顶起来换下瘪轮胎。

7 appreciation   

n.评价；欣赏；感谢；领会，理解；价格上涨

参考例句：

• I would like to express my appreciation and thanks to you all.我想对你们所有人表达我的感激和谢意。
• I'll be sending them a donation in appreciation of their help.我将送给他们一笔捐款以感谢他们的帮助。

8 luminaries   

n.杰出人物，名人（luminary的复数形式）

参考例句：

• In that day there will be no light; the luminaries will dwindle. 亚14:6那日、必没有光．三光必退缩。 来自互联网
• Includes household filament light bulbs & luminaries. 包括家用的白炙灯泡和光源。 来自互联网

9 doctorate   

n.(大学授予的)博士学位

参考例句：

• He hasn't enough credits to get his doctorate.他的学分不够取得博士学位。
• Where did she do her doctorate?她在哪里攻读博士？

10 Nazi   

n.纳粹分子，adj.纳粹党的，纳粹的

参考例句：

• They declare the Nazi regime overthrown and sue for peace.他们宣布纳粹政权已被推翻，并出面求和。
• Nazi closes those war criminals inside their concentration camp.纳粹把那些战犯关在他们的集中营里。

11 Nazis   

n.（德国的）纳粹党员( Nazi的名词复数 )；纳粹主义

参考例句：

• The Nazis worked them over with gun butts. 纳粹分子用枪托毒打他们。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• The Nazis were responsible for the mass murder of Jews during World War Ⅱ. 纳粹必须为第二次世界大战中对犹太人的大屠杀负责。 来自《简明英汉词典》

12 monk   

n.和尚，僧侣，修道士

参考例句：

• The man was a monk from Emei Mountain.那人是峨眉山下来的和尚。
• Buddhist monk sat with folded palms.和尚合掌打坐。

13 lasting   

adj.永久的，永恒的；vbl.持续，维持

参考例句：

• The lasting war debased the value of the dollar.持久的战争使美元贬值。
• We hope for a lasting settlement of all these troubles.我们希望这些纠纷能获得永久的解决。

14 affected   

adj.不自然的，假装的

参考例句：

• She showed an affected interest in our subject.她假装对我们的课题感到兴趣。
• His manners are affected.他的态度不自然。

15 immigrated   

v.移入( immigrate的过去式和过去分词 )；移民

参考例句：

• He immigrated from Ulster in 1848. 他1848年从阿尔斯特移民到这里。 来自辞典例句
• Many Pakistanis have immigrated to Britain. 许多巴基斯坦人移居到了英国。 来自辞典例句

16 influential   

adj.有影响的，有权势的

参考例句：

• He always tries to get in with the most influential people.他总是试图巴结最有影响的人物。
• He is a very influential man in the government.他在政府中是个很有影响的人物。

17 demons   

n.恶人( demon的名词复数 )；恶魔；精力过人的人；邪念

参考例句：

• demons torturing the sinners in Hell 地狱里折磨罪人的魔鬼
• He is plagued by demons which go back to his traumatic childhood. 他为心魔所困扰，那可追溯至他饱受创伤的童年。 来自《简明英汉词典》

18 emergence   

n.浮现，显现，出现，（植物）突出体

参考例句：

• The last decade saw the emergence of a dynamic economy.最近10年见证了经济增长的姿态。
• Language emerges and develops with the emergence and development of society.语言是随着社会的产生而产生，随着社会的发展而发展的。

19 eloquently   

adv. 雄辩地(有口才地, 富于表情地)

参考例句：

• I was toasted by him most eloquently at the dinner. 进餐时他口若悬河地向我祝酒。
• The poet eloquently expresses the sense of lost innocence. 诗人动人地表达了失去天真的感觉。

20 worthy   

adj.(of)值得的，配得上的；有价值的

参考例句：

• I did not esteem him to be worthy of trust.我认为他不值得信赖。
• There occurred nothing that was worthy to be mentioned.没有值得一提的事发生。

21 remarkable   

adj.显著的，异常的，非凡的，值得注意的

参考例句：

• She has made remarkable headway in her writing skills.她在写作技巧方面有了长足进步。
• These cars are remarkable for the quietness of their engines.这些汽车因发动机没有噪音而不同凡响。

22 disdained   

鄙视( disdain的过去式和过去分词 )； 不屑于做，不愿意做

参考例句：

• I disdained to answer his rude remarks. 我不屑回答他的粗话。
• Jackie disdained the servants that her millions could buy. 杰姬鄙视那些她用钱就可以收买的奴仆。

23 fads   

n.一时的流行，一时的风尚( fad的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• It was one of the many fads that sweep through mathematics regularly. 它是常见的贯穿在数学中的许多流行一时的风尚之一。 来自辞典例句
• Lady Busshe is nothing without her flights, fads, and fancies. 除浮躁、时髦和幻想外，巴歇夫人一无所有。 来自辞典例句

24 exempt   

adj.免除的；v.使免除；n.免税者，被免除义务者

参考例句：

• These goods are exempt from customs duties.这些货物免征关税。
• He is exempt from punishment about this thing.关于此事对他已免于处分。

25 concealment   

n.隐藏, 掩盖，隐瞒

参考例句：

• the concealment of crime 对罪行的隐瞒
• Stay in concealment until the danger has passed. 把自己藏起来，待危险过去后再出来。