4th Global Drucker Forum

At the core of the agenda of the 2012 Drucker Forum lie key questions about the future of capitalism: How can the weaknesses of the system be repaired without crushing the innovative energies of free enterprise and competitive markets? And what is the role of managers in this transformation?

Nobel Laureate Dan Shechtman will open the conference with his vision of creating a more peaceful world through entrepreneurship. He will be followed by Roger L. Martin, one of the global leaders of the “Thinkers 50,” who will lay out the unintended consequences of an excessive focus on shareholder value and provide clues about improving capitalism. In contrast, Adrian Wooldridge from The Economist will defend the benefits of the maximizing-shareholder-value philosophy.

Lynda Gratton from London Business School, along with other leading academics, will delve into the future of management—Management 2.0. Leading executives from global companies will provide their views on the viability of the traditional corporate model and offer lessons from other models such as cooperatives and employee-owned enterprises. Paul Polman, CEO of Unilever, will tackle whether business can be a force for good. The full morning of Day 2 will be dedicated to the rise of social business and social entrepreneurship.

The younger generation will have a voice at the Forum as well: The winners of the Drucker Challenge Essay Contest will be recognized at the gala dinner and express their views at a dedicated session moderated by Julia Kirby, an editor at large for Harvard Business Review.