Drucker Forum: How AI and Generation Z are Changing the Logic of Leadership

The seventeenth Global Peter Drucker Forum, held on November 6 and 7 in Vienna, confirmed how management is changing today under the influence of technology, social expectations, and generational differences. The forum, which was established to commemorate the 100th birthday of Peter Drucker and is now considered one of the most influential global platforms on management, particularly emphasized the need for a human approach in the digital age this year. The main message was clear: the future of management will not be defined by algorithms, but by people who know how to use them ‘as a catalyst, not as a crutch,’ as stated by Rick Goings, former CEO of Tupperware and president of Rollins College.

The issue of trust was raised by Johnny C. Taylor Jr., president and CEO of SHRM, emphasizing that honesty has become the fundamental currency of work and that employees today expect to be told the truth, even when they do not like it. He stressed that distrust towards management is often not a distrust in competence, but in transparency.

Artificial intelligence was a theme that ran through almost every discussion. Enrique Rodríguez from Palo Alto Networks warned that organizations often make a mistake when they view AI solely as a means of cost reduction and job automation, as this is when resistance among employees arises. Johnny C. Taylor Jr. from SHRM pointed out that employees understand the reality of transformation very well and that they ‘are not naive’: according to SHRM data, about 15 percent of the workforce in the U.S. is at real risk of complete job loss due to automation. Arne Gast from McKinsey added that the focus of technology implementation should not be directed at tasks that are disappearing, but at the mission and purpose of the work that remains, and on how to help employees find meaning in new forms of work and continuous learning.

Generation Z is rapidly changing the logic of leadership. Arne Gast warned that many members of this generation do not aspire to managerial positions in the traditional sense and that their model of leadership is not based on how formally people respond to them, but on how willingly they follow. Johnny C. Taylor Jr. from SHRM emphasized that younger generations no longer accept leadership without empathy and that for Generation Z, empathy is a basic expectation, not a desirable additional trait. Enrique Rodríguez from Palo Alto Networks added that they grew up in a digital environment where, if the content is not interesting to them, they simply ‘move on,’ which is why meetings and work processes must be designed to be meaningful and engaging.

In strategic discussions, Howard Yu, a professor at IMD, presented the Perform & Transform model, according to which organizations must simultaneously maintain excellence in today’s business and invest in competencies for tomorrow. This was validated by Rita McGrath, a strategy professor at Columbia Business School, whose study of a sample of 4,793 companies shows that only eight percent achieved annual revenue growth greater than five percent, and only four percent maintained five-year net profit growth above five percent.

Particular attention was drawn to the lecture by Teresa Amabile, a professor at Harvard Business School, held as part of the traditional Charles and Elizabeth Handy Lecture. Amabile spoke about what happens when meaningful work, which has been the center of someone’s life for years, suddenly ceases to be their main role. The foundation of her lecture was her long-term analysis of 12,000 diary entries about internal work life and creativity, through which she tracked how people experience motivation, meaning, and emotional highs and lows in their daily work. Based on this research, she showed how individuals, after decades of a career marked by a strong identity, go through a period of re-seeking purpose when that work disappears or loses its central place in their lives. This very question, where to find meaning when the job that defined us disappears, resonated strongly in the context of this year’s Forum, which returned to the themes of meaning, humanity, and internal motivations in times of accelerated change and increasing reliance on artificial intelligence in almost all discussions.

The concluding words of the Forum’s founder Richard Straub encapsulated the main tone of this year’s edition. In his address, he emphasized that ‘industrial revolutions come and go, but trust, empathy, and the ability to lead people through change remain.’ He also stated that leadership must remain human, even when everything around us becomes digital. If anything characterized this year’s Forum, it was the belief that in a period of accelerated change, the advantage will go to those who learn the fastest and to leaders who remain human.