Brand Autopsy: The IDB Project

The IDB Project is a series of posts sharing summaries, snippets, and takeaways from INSIDE DRUCKER’S BRAIN (Jeffrey Krames)

CHAPTER THIRTEEN
The Fourth Information Revolution

“For top management tasks, information technology so far has been a producer of data rather than a product of information—let alone a producer of new and different questions and new and different strategies.” — Peter Drucker, Forbes ASAP article (1998)

Jeffrey Krames expertly chronicled Peter Drucker’s evolving opinion on the importance of computer-driven information within a business. As a business consultant for nearly six decades, Drucker experienced the technology revolution from mainframes to personal computers to the Internet to Google. Just as the technology evolved, so did Drucker’s opinion.

1954 | THE PRACTICE OF MANAGEMENT
“Each manager should have the information he needs to measure his own performance and should receive it soon enough to make any changes necessary for the desired results.”

1967 | THE EFFECTIVE EXECUTIVE
“The computer, being a mechanical moron, can handle only quantifiable data.”

1973 | MANAGEMENT: Tasks, Responsibilities, Practices
“When the new computer arrives, a frantic search begins to find things for it to do. In the end, it is being used to turn out endless reams of information that nobody wants, nobody needs, and nobody can use. Keeping the tool going becomes and end. As a result, nobody has information.”

1999 | Beyond the Information Revolution (Atlantic Monthly article)
“The truly revolutionary impact of the Information Revolution is just beginning to be felt. But it is not ‘information’ that fuels this impact. It is not "artificial intelligence." It is not the effect of computers and data processing on decision-making, policymaking, or strategy. It is something that practically no one foresaw or, indeed, even talked about ten or fifteen years ago: e-commerce—that is, the explosive emergence of the Internet as a major, perhaps eventually the major, worldwide distribution channel for goods, for services, and, surprisingly, for managerial and professional jobs.”

Clearly, Drucker was a strong believer in giving employees access to information. Yet, he was skeptical about having technology interpret data (information). He also warned as technology advances, employees are given access to an ever-increasing amount of information — maybe too much information.

Drucker was a strong believer in making decisions. Unfortunately, the abundance of information can inhibit decision-making and lead to analysis by paralysis. As we learned earlier, Drucker was all about making decisions to the extent that failure to make a decision is worse than making the wrong decision.

While Peter Drucker was skeptical about the reliance of technology for decision-making purposes, he was a strong proponent of using technology to revolutionize how companies ultimately connect with customers.

Next, Chapter FOURTEEN of the The IDB Project.