Autumn is the time many Americans put on their thinking caps and start learning again, after a summer break. So we’re offering zoom courses with Gary Hoover. We are excited to add new industry-specific, very affordable classes on the automobile, airline, computer, and retailing industries.
One of the courses is a repeat of our most successful course, the Peter Drucker Study Group, first offered six months ago. Peter Drucker was the most important thinker about business, management, leadership, and society. Participants read a short section of his seminal book each week for eight weeks, then have an intensive 90-minute discussion of the texts. Participants find new insights and ways of thinking about their organizations and themselves. In our contribution to inflation-fighting, we have lowered the price of the course, and there is an early bird special if you enroll by the end of day, Wednesday, August 31. It runs from September 20 through November 8. Scroll down this newsletter to see the details on the Fall Drucker Study Group and to sign up. The first time we offered this course, it sold out quickly.
Several years ago, Gary Hoover gave one-hour live presentations on the histories of several industries at the University of Texas to engaged audiences. The videos can be found on our videos page. In coming weeks, we are offering single-session classes on the auto industry, the airline industry, the computer industry, and the retail industry. Each class will start with Gary going through presentations, which build a foundation of understanding about the business. Then the class will open up for 90 minutes of discussion, covering topics including:
- What are the lessons of this history?
- Where is the industry today?
- How is it changing?
- What does the future hold?
To make these classes accessible to all, including students and workers in these industries, we have priced them well below our usual tuition, just $39 if you sign up by August 31.
Retailing History and Discussion
One hour presentation followed by 90 minute discussion, 7 PM to 9:30 PM Central Time.
Wednesday, September 14.
Price: $50, or $39 if you enroll by the end of the day, Wednesday, August 31.
Airline History and Discussion
One hour presentation followed by 90 minute discussion, 7 PM to 9:30 PM Central Time.
Wednesday, September 21.
Price: $50, or $39 if you enroll by the end of the day, Wednesday, August 31.
Auto Industry History and Discussion
One hour presentation followed by 90 minute discussion, 7 PM to 9:30 PM Central Time.
Wednesday, September 28.
Price: $50, or $39 if you enroll by the end of the day, Wednesday, August 31.
Computer Industry History and Discussion
One hour presentation followed by 90 minute discussion, 7 PM to 9:30 PM Central Time.
Wednesday, October 5.
Price: $50, or $39 if you enroll by the end of the day, Wednesday, August 31.
Drucker Zoom Study Group with Gary Hoover: 8-Week Course Limited to 10 Participants
Do you want to engage in a serious discussion about the purpose of business and the roles of leaders and managers? Do you want to expand your understanding by studying the ideas of the great business thinker, Peter Drucker?
No scholar or professor of management has been more important or had a greater impact on the world of global business and leadership than the late Peter Drucker. Unfortunately, many businesspeople, even with advanced degrees, have not had enough exposure to Drucker’s thinking.
Discussion leader Gary Hoover started reading Drucker’s many books over fifty years ago, then went on to a career selecting stocks on Wall Street, working in management at two large retail companies, starting several companies in Austin, and now writing and teaching the lessons of business history and entrepreneurial thinking. Few people combine Gary’s exposure to different industries, a historical perspective, a scholarly approach to the issues, and a lifetime of practicing business and management. These attributes make Gary the ideal person to lead a weekly Drucker study group.
For each of eight 90-minute weekly Zoom sessions on Tuesday nights, from September 20 through November 8, Gary will lead a discussion of each week’s readings and topics from Drucker’s most important work, as listed below.
How do these ideas relate to today’s world? How can you use them in your own business and life? Where do you agree with Drucker, where do you disagree?
This class will be limited to ten participants, in order to give everyone the chance to ask questions and relate Drucker’s teachings to their current or future endeavors.
The audio and video recordings of each session will be available to all participants for later reference and review. The full 8-week course has a list price of $750, with an early bird price of $449 if you enroll by midnight, August 31, unless the course sells out before then. Sign up here!
Course Outline
Required reading: the original edition of Management: Tasks, Responsibilities, Practices
By Peter F. Drucker (1974, 1985, or 1993 releases)
Paperback available on Amazon here or Hardcover here.
We will read about 300 pages of the 800-page book, covering the key ideas.
Course participants are encouraged to read more of this book and his other books.
Based on the success of this class, we may offer future Drucker study groups to cover more of this book and Drucker’s other books, as well as other management thinkers.
Class One Management September 20
Pages 1-36 plus Preface, 38 pages required reading
- Preface: The Alternative to Tyranny
- Introduction: From Management Boom to Management Performance
- 1. The Emergence of Management
- 2. The Management Boom and Its Lessons
- 3. The New Challenges
Class Two What is a Business? September 27
Pages 39-73, 35 pages
- Part 1. The Tasks
- 4. The Dimensions of Management
- Business Performance
- 5. Managing a Business: The Sears Story
- 6. What Is a Business?
Class Three Mission and Purpose October 4
Pages 74-102, 29 pages
- 7. Business Purpose and Business Mission
- 8. The Power and Purpose of Objectives: The Marks & Spencer Story and Its Lessons
Class Four Strategy October 11
Pages 103-129, 27 pages
- 9. Strategies, Objectives, Priorities, and Work Assignments
- 10. Strategic Planning: The Entrepreneurial Skill
Class Five Service Institutions October 18
Pages 131-166, 36 pages
- Performance in the Service Institution
- 11. The Multi-Institutional Society
- 12. Why Service Institutions Do Not Perform
- 13. The Exceptions and Their Lessons
- 14. Managing Service Institutions for Performance
Class Six Work and Workers October 25
Pages 168-197, 30 pages
- Productive Work and Achieving Worker
- 15. The New Realities
- 16. What We Know (and Don’t Know) About Work, Working, and Worker
Class Seven Success Stories and People as Greatest Asset November 1
Pages 246-265 and 300-311, 32 pages
- 20. Success Stories: Japan, Zeiss, IBM
- 23. “People Are Our Greatest Asset”
Class Eight Management, Social Responsibility, Business and Government November 8
Pages 313-375, 63 pages
- Social Impacts and Social Responsibilities
- 24. Management and the Quality of Life
- 25. Social Impacts and Social Problems
- 26. The Limits of Social Responsibility
- 27. Business and Government
- 28. Primum Non Nocere: The Ethics of Responsibility
I hope you can join this small group discussion of Drucker’s important ideas!
Sign up before the course is sold out!
Gary Hoover
