One of Shropshire’s top businessmen and a former government adviser, who is now an academic and author, is to give a talk at Oswestry Library.
Professor Peter Starbuck’s presentation, entitled The Nature of Management, will illustrate management’s role within the human and natural world, taking his audience through the vast sweep of history. It will be held on Wednesday October 16, from 2-3pm and is free to attend.
Dr Starbuck is an entrepreneur, logistician and management consultant – and an acknowledged world expert on Peter F Drucker (1909-2005), the Austrian-born ‘father of modern management’. He has written six books and more than 90 academic papers on Drucker, and is Honorary Member of the Drucker Society – Europe.
Dr Starbuck has penned three other non-fiction works, including a book on business in collaboration with close friend, the late TV star Jeremy Beadle.
He explains: “Management is not only my specialism but my passion. My talk will explore humankind’s development of management from the earliest civilisations to the present day and will illustrate how management’s key principles can be observed at work amongst the plants, insects and animals.
“I believe the subject matter has general appeal rather than only for those interested in management.”
The themes of the talk are explored in greater detail in Dr Starbuck’s ground-breaking book, How Nature Managed First, which is a guide to the major works of leading management thinkers and the fascinating parallel behaviours of the animal and plant kingdoms. It is also a general history of the world and the movers and shakers who have shaped the way we live today.
Peter’s success in the construction industry – his firm WSJ carried out a string of major housing and public building projects from the 1960s to the 1990s – led to him being appointed as an adviser to 10 Downing Street on affordable housing. As a strategic director for the City institutions, he worked with the financial regulator, stockbrokers, merchant banks, investment companies and the financial press.
His entrepreneurial endeavours continue to this day as a contributor to non-profit organisations and prolific writer on management concepts.
In April 2022, at the age of 86, Dr Starbuck received an Honorary Degree from the University of Chester, putting him in distinguished company. Previous recipients include His Majesty the King when Prince of Wales, Baroness Joan Bakewell DBE, former poet laureate Sir Andrew Motion and actors, sports stars and TV personalities Dame Joanna Lumley DBE, Sue Johnston OBE, Sir Tony Robinson, Martin Lewis OBE, Beth Tweddle MBE and Mark Cavendish MBE.
Peter lives in Oswestry with his Welsh wife Heather. For years they have enjoyed international travel, visiting 180-plus different countries and territories in all, mainly to explore the natural world. As recently as two years ago, the couple embarked on an African safari that saw them out in the bush encountering some of the planet’s most exciting, dangerous and endangered wildlife.
Professor Peter Starbuck.