Drucker School of Management: Creating Business Leaders

Drucker School of Management: Creating Business Leaders of Generation Next

The Drucker MBA Program integrates Peter Drucker’s management principles with a focus on the needs of the creative economy and brings theory into practice within a collaborative team environment. The goal of the Drucker MBA program is to develop future managers and leaders by enhancing their ability to make sound strategic decisions and to lead and inspire others.

An enormous number of challenges lie before individuals who wish to make a difference, but their impression represents the resilience with which they overcome impediments to leave transformation in their wake. In today’s global marketplace, there is a critical need for managers and leaders who can provide creative management and business skills in a broad range of environments within the creative economy—broadly defined as those industries translating creativity into economic value. The Drucker School of Management embraces Peter Drucker’s philosophy that the practice of management requires a holistic perspective, blending analytical skills with a firm grasp of the human dimension of business.

What Makes Drucker Students Unique in the World of Business?

The life of a Drucker student is a powerful journey towards becoming a leader with powerful, ethical, and universal management skills informed by the guiding principles of Peter Drucker, the father of modern management. Drucker students are propelled by world-class faculty eager to learn from their students, and stimulated by classmates driven to reach their educational and professional goals.

At the Drucker School of Management, students learn these extraordinary business skills in small classes taught by internationally renowned professors who have extensive professional experience and award-winning academic credentials. The school’s targeted and market-connected curriculum encourages students to participate in client-centered projects and internships. The school routinely hosts industry events and brings experts into the classroom to ensure that the theory Drucker professors teach is directly linked to the latest industry trends.

Features That Make Drucker School an Exceptional Name in the Business Education Industry

Exceptional Programs Offered by the Drucker School of Management: The school’s rich program offerings include MBA, Executive MBA, Art Business, Arts Management, and Financial Engineering.

Facilities Offered by the Drucker School of Management: The school offers centers and affiliates including Claremont Game Lab, Sotheby’s Institute of Art, Center for Supply Chain & Logistics—expanding students’ learning experiences and their outcomes.

Faculties which lead the Students to be Global Leaders: A few notable faculties of the school include Bernie Jaworski, a lifetime achievement awardee from the American Marketing Association and also a recipient of the Harold H. Maynard Award from the Journal of Marketing for making the most significant contribution to marketing theory and thought; and Jean Lipman-Blumen, the Thornton F. Bradshaw Professor of Public Policy and Professor of Organizational Behavior who has conducted extensive research on “toxic” leadership and served as an assistant director of the National Institute of Education and as special advisor to the Domestic Policy Staff in the White House under President Jimmy Carter.

Drucker Day and Other Extra-Curricular Activities which keep the Students Motivated: Drucker Day, a signature event, is an all-day occasion designed to remember the life and legacy of Peter Drucker. It’s an annual highlight of the school; part alumni gathering and part networking event.

In addition to this, national and international short-term residential courses allow students to visit markets and get firsthand knowledge of business practices in such places as Silicon Valley, Hong Kong, and New Zealand.

Meet the Leading Personality behind the School

Jenny Darroch, the Henry Y. Hwang Dean of the Drucker School of Management and Professor of Innovation, Entrepreneurship & Marketing, has served the school as a faculty member since 2004 and has been a key personality for playing a leading role in the school. As the MBA academic director, Darroch led a review of the MBA curriculum that resulted in a renewed orientation toward the Practice of Management and Management as a Liberal Art—a hallmark of Peter Drucker’s management philosophy.

Most interestingly, Darroch also holds the distinction of serving as the first female dean of the school. Since taking the deanship, she has committed herself to building out the Drucker School’s strategic focus on creative industries, developing new opportunities, and exploring new applications for Peter Drucker’s timeless principles in the shifting management landscape; from the new Downtown Los Angeles expansion to the Claremont Game Lab, a new initiative to train students in the creation of video games under the mentorship of executives from Pokémon and other leading companies, to the Global Family Business & Transformative Innovation Center.

Drucker’s Success Timeline

The following are a few instances of successful careers that Drucker students have taken:

Anthony Page and Daniel Vesely (both MBA, ’97) studied under Peter Drucker before launching Voxx Analytics, a leading influence analytics firm that was voted a “Top Workplace” for three years in a row.
Doug Rauch (EMBA, ’94), the former president of Trader Joe’s inspired by Drucker’s writings on nonprofits, launched a nonprofit grocery store to address the issues of hunger and food waste.
Mark Hatch (MBA, ’95) co-founded TechShop, a member-supported DIY fabrication studio—or “Makerspace””—that enables entrepreneurs and inventors to innovate. Hatch, a former Green Beret, was named one of a dozen veterans who “changed business forever” by a renowned media publication in 2017.

“Words of Trust”

When do you get the opportunity to sit with a CEO in a casual environment and ask him, “How can you, as an MBA student looking back, give me advice?” and him to answer sincerely in an intimate environment. You just wouldn’t get that on your own.”

James Grant, MBA program

“…Interacting with all my classmates and learning more about them and building a bond with them—for me that was very special because I didn’t want to just come to grad school to get knowledge. I wanted to build lifelong relationships.”