The authors of the top three essays will be flown to Vienna and invited to actively participate in panels and breakouts at the "Third Global Peter Drucker Forum 2011" in Vienna on 03-04 November. In addition, up to forty authors of high-quality essays will get free access to the Conference.

Starting point of the essay theme is the poor reputation the term management has acquired in recent times, as senior managers around the world have hit the headlines with high salaries, failing corporations, controversial downsizing programs, and an apparent focus on short-term profit rather than long-term development and people. Middle managers, too, have gradually found themselves increasingly undermined and even dispensed with altogether, as skilled teams and individuals increasingly tend manage themselves.

Peter F. Drucker (1909-2005), the "father of modern management" and a harsh critic of a greed-driven economy, described this emergence of self-empowered specialists in his 1999 book "Management Challenges for the 21st Century". In it, Drucker also insisted that we should not confine our view of management as applying to businesses only. Instead, he argued, management is a key function of all levels of modern society. "Ours," he wrote, "is a society of organizations. And management is the specific and distinguishing organ of any and all organizations."

Good management, then, is even more important in today's world. It has the potential to be the key to dealing with the societal complexities and challenges we face today.

So - just what is good management? How do you define and describe it? And is good management a means in itself? Does it have to have a purpose, too, and can it ever be separated from the social and common good? These are the questions the participants are asked to answer from their personal experience and perspectives in the framework of "The Global Peter Drucker Challenge" (now in its second year after a successful first round last year).

Participants must not to be older than 35 years. The length of the essays should be between 1500 and 3000 words (which roughly translates into 5-10 pages). Essays can be submitted in English or German - the two languages in which Peter Drucker wrote his articles and books. The deadline for submitting the essays is 15 July.

The winners will be chosen by a jury consisting of business executives, academics, and representatives of the Peter Drucker Society. The winning essays will be announced at the beginning of September.


The Berlin-based company ICWE, organiser of the annual eLearning Africa conference and partner of the competition, will be sponsoring one candidate from Africa to participate in the Forum.