Learning from the Streets of Hyderabad to Global Strategist: My Drucker Inspired Journey

1998. Hyderabad, India.

I was studying B.Com (Hons) and in between microeconomics and accounting I came across the idea of management and strategy. My thirst for knowledge sent me to hunt down various places to read more.

One was the British Library. This was run by the British Council, and here I came across Peter Drucker. The library did not allow you to borrow books, but you had to sit there and read. I spent hours there! This was my first encounter with the great man.

We did not have the money to buy books, and new books were expensive.

The saving grace were the streets of Koti. A suburb of Hyderabad where booksellers on the weekends would sell books on the roads and streets or as we would call gallis. This was my favourite outing. I would spend hours looking for good books at cheap prices. If you want to see this in action, check this video narrated in my language of Telugu, but you will get the gist.

This is how they look. And they still exist.

Credit: Times of India

Drucker exhumed clarity, confidence, and a capability to see the world of management in a new way. An example below from this market in Koti of one of the first books in my collection from Nov 2001. For example, Managing for Results is one of the first strategy books in the world. On his editor’s suggestion, Drucker did not use the word Strategy, as this was considered a military word and not suitable for business. Those were different days, I guess.

I learnt about leadership, about strategy, about the changing world, the importance of innovation and entrepreneurship and why we needed strategy in the social sector. The importance of entrepreneurial thinking for government. And above all, how to be an effective executive.

Drucker ignited this fire which led me to change jobs, change continents to do my MBA in Australia and start my first serious strategy role in the child protection department of Families SA in Adelaide.

Joining the Australian centre for social innovation introduced design and co-design to me. Along with the business model design process from Alex Osterwalder and finally being a partner at the global firm, Business Models Inc, I completed the transition from a Drucker disciple to a strategy designer. I continue this journey in many other roles and currently implementing Mission Oriented Innovation and large-scale system reform projects in the state government in South Australia.

Throughout this journey, I had the opportunity to work across Australia, India, Europe, and the US. Every city in Australia. Startups, NFPs, and big organisations like Microsoft, Medibank and Boeing. Federal, State, and Local governments too. Strategy and design was useful for banking as well as malnutrition. It was useful to work with senior management of billion dollar businesses, as well as policy design for societal challenges.

Drucker’s principles have guided me through all of this. The first being this strategic approach of Theory of the Business. Second, his amazing work on Innovation and Entrepreneurship. Third, the importance of the changing context of the world and matching to that to create the future and Fourth, the importance of working beyond business to the not for profit and government sectors and Fifth, the importance of managing oneself as a knowledge worker and executive.

If I have to pick one principle, it is innovation and entrepreneurship that has guided me all these years. The jump from India to Australia. From a safe government job to a NFP. From that to my own consulting business. The projects I picked over the years and even today, the idea of using mission oriented innovation for economic policy.

The last principle of Drucker to consult and write is still missing. I have written sporadically, but not as extensive as I would like. Maybe this experiment will change that.

The best way to predict your future is to create it.” – Abraham Lincoln (often misattributed to Drucker)

Have you read Drucker? If so, what’s your story?