BusinessWeek

Peter Drucker didn't have a whole lot of nice things to say about those on Wall Street, at one point likening them to "Balkan peasants stealing each other's sheep."

Given the magnitude of the latest crisis to grip Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac, American International Group, Lehman Brothers, and their friends, one can only imagine what kind of acid analogy he might have used today.

Or perhaps he would have simply said, "I told you so." After all, so much of the trouble that has befallen… more

For a guy whose astute counsel helped to make so many CEOs rich, Peter Drucker had an intense loathing of exorbitant executive salaries.

He hated high CEO pay on every level: what it said about the individual as a leader, how it undermined the smooth functioning of the organization, and the way it tore at the fabric of society as a whole.

Drucker's strong feelings on the subject—he once termed sky-high CEO compensation "a serious disaster"—are well worth revisiting in light of the news that… more

There is certainly no shortage of management lessons to be gleaned from Michael Phelps's record-shattering performance at the Beijing Olympics--the importance of setting firm objectives and staying sharply focused perhaps chief among them.

Nevertheless, I suspect that Peter Drucker would have been more intrigued by the blows suffered in the boxing ring than by the gold gathered in the swimming pool. It was there, in the square circle, that the U.S. turned in its worst-ever showing, winning but a single bronze medal and sending disheartened fans scurrying… more

And "there is no question that the proposals of either candidate would dramatically worsen the fiscal situation," adds Maya MacGuineas, president of the bipartisan Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget, a project of the New America Foundation, a think tank.  LINK

Mervyns portrayed itself as a victim of the crummy economy and a miserable retail environment last week as it filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection. But in truth, a key part of the department store chain went bankrupt long ago. It's what Peter Drucker called the "theory of the business."

Every organization rests upon a set of such premises--fundamental notions about customers and competitors, about technology, about a company's own strengths and weaknesses. When an enterprise fails, Drucker explained, it is often because "the assumptions on… more

It's been a bummer of a summer, hasn't it?

At the gas station the other night, I found myself staring in disbelief—as I have for weeks—while the numbers on the pump kept spiraling higher and higher. The total: $67.83 to fill my Passat. I hopped back in my car and flipped on the radio, figuring a little music might take my mind off the lightness of my wallet, but the news came on instead: Fannie Mae (FNM) and Freddie Mac (FRE) were reeling. Nervous depositors… more

..."People are worried because health-care costs are growing faster than the average American's income, and it's only going to get more intense as boomers retire at an increasing pace," says Len Nichols, health-care economist at The New America Foundation, a nonprofit public policy institute in Washington...LINK

Google co-founder Larry Page made a rare trip to Washington this week. No, he wasn't lobbying for net neutrality or being grilled about Internet censorship in China. It was all about the white spaces -- and Google's growing fixation with wireless communications.

With opposition mounting, Page came to bolster Google's push to gain public access to these white spaces, slivers of wireless spectrum between the broadcast channels used by TV stations. . .

During his May 22 speech to the… more

The following article is a positive and well-deserved profile of Tim Wu -- quoting Chris Sacca of Google -- that plays off the impact of his New America paper on wireless net neutrality. Google CEO Eric Schmidt is on New America's Leadership Council.

"Tim Wu, Freedom Fighter: His wireless-phone manifesto was the inspiration for Google's new mobile-software strategy, which includes the Open Handset Alliance." 

On Nov. 5, Google (GOOG) unveiled what many in the phone business had long awaited. CEO… more

The most dangerous thing being produced in China is neither lead paint-laden toy cars nor magnet-spewing Polly Pocket dolls and Batman action figures. Rather, it is a booming capitalist culture that, far too often, places value over values.

This reality was brought home again this week, as Mattel announced its second big recall of Chinese-made merchandise in a fortnight. The news, coming on the heels of Chinese food, drugs, and other items being recalled or fingered as… more