ESSAY CONTEST 2013

As he looked for ways to grapple with the demands of an increasingly complex world, Peter Drucker found clues in an unlikely place: Japanese art.

"The Japanese paintings are dominated by empty space," Drucker observed of one collection, made up largely of 15th-century landscapes and 19th-century sketches of monks and deities. "It is not only that so much of the canvas is empty. The empty space organizes the painting."

The same, of course, holds true for ourselves and our enterprises: It's the creation of empty space—moments when we shut off all outside distractions and give ourselves the opportunity to really think—that can determine whether we're organized effectively, especially in an era when an onslaught of data and information threatens to overwhelm us all.

This November, as hundreds of executives and scholars gather in Vienna at the fifth annual Peter Drucker Global Forum to wrestle with the theme “Managing Complexity,” Drucker’s insight is sure to prove particularly powerful. But so is his multidisciplinary approach.

What can managers learn from artists and scientists,
who are continuously challenged with regard to inspiration and imagination?

How can we “free up” the creative potential within organizations?

How can we best stimulate creativity and innovation? What are the inhibitors in most organizations—and how can we best surmount them?

How can we ensure that the high level of creativity that has been observed among pre-school students get protected and preserved throughout all the years of their education, and into their careers?

How can our overwhelming flows of information (up to the level of Big Data) coexist with creative thinking?

Are machines taking over creativity?

How can we make cities the hotspots of creativity?

How do you see the balance between creativity and empirical analysis in solving complex problems?

Is management an art or science? Why?

What work of literature or fine art holds the greatest management lessons?