Peter F. Drucker argues that what underlies the current malaise of so
many large and successful organizations worldwide is that their theory
of the business no longer works. The story is a familiar one: a company
that was a superstar only yesterday finds itself stagnating and
frustrated, in trouble and, often, in a seemingly unmanageable crisis.
The root cause of nearly every one of these crises is not that things
are being done poorly. It is not even that the wrong things are being
done. Indeed, in most cases, the right things are being done--but
fruitlessly. What accounts for this apparent paradox? The assumptions on
which the organization has been built and is being run no longer fit
reality. These are the assumptions that shape any organization's
behavior, dictate its decisions about what to do and what not to do, and
define what an organization considers meaningful results. These
assumptions are what Drucker calls a company's theory of the business.
The Harvard Business Review Classics series offers you the opportunity
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