October 25, 2010

Whether iconic British Prime Minister Winston Churchill knew it or not, he followed Peter Drucker’s eight rules for being an effective executive

By Rick Wartzman

A few weeks ago, Winston Churchill went digital. The former British Prime Minister’s estate announced that it was launching its own iPhone (AAPL) app featuring Churchill’s “wit and wisdom.” A related website, along with Facebook and Twitter profiles, has also been set up. About the only thing missing, from what I can tell, is a link to the work of Peter Drucker.

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Ties between the two men go way back. In May 1939, Churchill reviewed Drucker’s first major book, The End of Economic Man, for The Times Literary Supplement, praising him as “one of those writers to whom almost anything can be forgiven because he not only has a mind of his own, but has a gift of starting other minds along a stimulating line of thought.”

But even more than by pen, Churchill and Drucker seem to be connected by deed-at least in the eyes of one Churchill authority. Daniel Myers, chief operating officer of the Churchill Center in Chicago, has in recent years been delivering to business executives a lecture that examines the British leader’s actions as “an executive success story.” More specifically, Myers details how Churchill illustrated Drucker’s eight rules for being an effective executive.

Myers came across these principles when Drucker laid them out in a 2004 Harvard Business Review article. “I read it and said ‘Wow,’ ” recalls Myers, whose educational organization boasts 3,000 members worldwide. “It’s pure Churchillian.”

Read the entire article here at Businessweek.com

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Image courtesy of the Churchill Archives Centre