PETER DRUCKER: Facing the Totally New and Dynamic

Q. In the remaining years of the 20th century . . .

A. We are already deep in the new century, a century that is fundamentally different from the one we still assume we live in. Almost everyone has a sense of deep unease with prevailing political and economic policies, whether in the U.S. or Japan or West Germany or England or Eastern Europe. Things somehow don't fit, and there is a clear sign that while we don't yet see the new ((era)), we know the old one is no longer right, no longer congruent. For 500 years the century mark has been almost irrelevant; the new century has always begun at least 25 years earlier.

Q. What kind of new century are we in, then?

A. In this 21st century world of dynamic political change, the significant thing is that we are in a post-business society. Business is still very important, and greed is as universal as ever; but the values of people are no longer business values, they are professional values. Most people are no longer part of the business society; they are part of the knowledge society. If you go back to when your father was born and mine, knowledge was an ornament, a luxury -- and now it is the very center. We worry if the kids don't do as well in math tests as others. No earlier civilization would have dreamed of paying any attention to something like this. The greatest changes in our society are going to be in education.

Q. This is a result of advanced technology, is it not?

A. Every major change in educational technology changes not only how we learn but also what we learn. Just as the printed book totally changed the curriculum of the schools, so are the computer and tape recorder and video. The printed book is primarily a tool for adults. The new tools are for children; they fit the way children learn best. We now know how to make the accumulated wisdom of the human race relevant again. We should know that the old approach to education is theoretical and unsound. We still believe that teaching and learning are two sides of the same coin, but we ought to realize that they are not: one learns a subject, and one teaches a person. The process is increasingly going to shift to self-teaching on the basis of new technology because we now have these self-teaching tools.

Q. You call this a post-business society, but predatory takeovers and greenmail are still with us.

A. Yes. There is an old proverb that says if you don't have gravediggers you need vultures. And with management of large corporations being accountable to no one for the past 30 years, you need vultures. The vultures are the raiders who have come to clean up. But the cost to society of the hostile takeover is extremely high. It totally demoralizes a company, and above all it demoralizes middle management, the people who actually do the work.

Q. But don't you think there can be reasonable benefits even from a hostile takeover?