Well before his death, Drucker had already become a legend. Over his 95 prolific years, he had been a true Renaissance man, a teacher of religion, philosophy, political science. But his most important contribution, clearly, was in business. What John Keynes is to economic, Drucker is to management.

In the 1980s, he began to have grave doubts about business and even capitalism itself. He no longer saw the corporation as an ideal space to create community. In fact, he saw nearly the opposite: a place where self-interest had triumphed over the egalitarian principles he long championed. In both his writings and speeches, Drucker emerged as one of Corporate America's most important critics. When conglomerates were the rage, he preached against reckless mergers and acquisitions. When executives were engaged in empire-building, he argued against excess staff and the inefficiencies of numerous "assistants to."

In a 1984 essay he persuasively argued that CEO pay had rocketed out of control and implored boards to hold CEO compensation to no more than 20 times what the rank and file made. What particularly enraged him was the tendency of corporate managers to reap massive earnings while firing thousands of their workers. "This is morally and socially unforgivable," wrote Drucker, "and we will pay a heavy price for it."

翻译

彼得·德鲁克在世时就已成为传奇人物。在他95年的人生中，出版了多部著作。他是一个真正的革新者，宗教家、哲学家和政治科学学者。然而他最显要的成就还是在商业领域。德鲁克对管理学贡献巨大，其价值正如比约翰.凯恩斯之于经济学。

在二十世纪八十年代初期，他开始对商业，甚至资本主义制度本身产生了巨大的怀疑。他不再认为公司是创造和谐氛围的理想场所，事实上，他的想法正与此相反。他认为公司中人人各为其利，这与他一直倡导的平等原则相违背。无论在他的著作还是他的演讲中，德鲁克都尽显风采，毋庸质疑地成为美国企业界著名的批评家之一。当大企业纷纷涌现，他尽数疯狂兼并和收购的弊端。当企业经理人们埋头建造帝国大厦时，他指出人员过剩和助理过多会造成效率低下，危害不浅。

1984 年，他在一篇文章中有力地说明公司首席行政官的工资飙升已超出了控制范围，他强烈建议首席执行官的报酬应控制在普通员工的二十倍以内。最使他气愤的是公司经理在获取高收入的同时却大批裁员。德鲁克写道，“无论从道德上还是社会意识上来说，这都是无法原谅的，我们会为此付出沉重的代价。”