Curt Fowler

“Find a purpose to serve, not a lifestyle to live.”

I was looking up some Peter Drucker articles to send to a friend and CEO and I stumbled upon an article based on Peter Drucker’s book, “The Five Most Important Questions You Will Ever Ask About Your Organization.” The book is based on original work by Drucker and added to by some great leadership experts like – Jim Collins, James Kouzes, Philip Kotler and Frances Hesselbein.

It is a book and a concept that is worth your time.

First, let me introduce you to Peter Drucker and why his work continues to have an enduring impact on great leaders around the world.

Peter F. Drucker lived from 1909 to 2005. He was born in Vienna, Austria, and moved to America in the 1930s. Drucker is widely regarded as the world’s foremost pioneer of management theory. He created or influenced nearly every aspect of modern management theory including decentralization, privatization, empowerment and understanding the knowledge worker. 

He authored 39 books, was a columnist for the Wall Street Journal and contributed to the Harvard Business Review. Businessweek called him “the most enduring management thinker of our time.” In 2002, he was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom – the nation’s highest civilian honor – by President George W. Bush.

I challenge you to find someone serious about leading well who has not read at least some of Drucker’s work.

These five questions are the questions Drucker would ask a leader today if he was sitting with him or her. I’ll introduce the questions today and we’ll dive deeper into each in subsequent articles.

As you read the question and the sub-questions jot down the answers for your organization.

1. What is Our Mission?

This gets to your Why. Why does this organization exist? What would be missing from the world if it ceased to exist?

2. Who is Our Customer?

Who is our primary or core customer? Who are our supporting customers? How will our customers change?

3. What Does the Customer Value?

What do we believe our primary and supporting customers value? What knowledge do we need to gain from our customers? How will I participate in gaining this knowledge?

4. What Are Our Results?

How do we define results? Are we successful? How should we define results? What must we strengthen or abandon?

5. What is Our Plan?

Should our mission be changed? What are our goals? How will we accomplish our goals?

I hope reading these questions has inspired you to go deeper into Drucker’s wisdom with me.

Curt Fowler is president of Fowler & Company and director at Fowler, Holley, Rambo & Stalvey. He is dedicated to helping leaders build great organizations and better lives for themselves and the people they lead.

Curt and the team at FHRS help leaders build great companies through Fractional CFO, strategy, tax and accounting services.