Launching the ‘Monday Morning Drucker Study’ Blog
My 4 Years at Hyundai, and Rediscovering the Essence of Management
Effective December 31, 2025, I have concluded my tenure as the Head of the Center for the Future of Management at Hyundai Motor Group. My role has now transitioned to an Advisor for Hyundai Motor, and it is time for me to explore new beginnings.
The past four years leading the Center for the Future of Management have been a truly meaningful journey. Although I studied business as an MBA student and spent over 24 years as a management consultant, a conglomerate CSO, and a film studio CEO, this was the first time I had the opportunity to reflect so deeply on the true essence of management.
The Center for the Future of Management was an organization tasked with a critical mission: to define the corporate capabilities required for Hyundai Motor Group’s transformation from a traditional manufacturer into a Software & AI company. We discovered and deliberated on management agendas to build a new management system, proposed them to top leadership, and collaborated with relevant departments.
Consequently, I was given the opportunity to grapple with fundamental questions that are often taken for granted: What is the activity called ‘management’? What are the ‘capabilities’ that allow a company to grow and remain sustainable? And what is the true role of a ‘manager’?
At the foundation of these inquiries lay the theories of Dr. Peter Drucker.
Peter Drucker is known as the father of modern management. He synthesized knowledge from economics, sociology, politics, philosophy, and psychology to establish the foundations of management. However, because his theories can often feel abstract and conceptual, interest in his work has relatively waned in recent times.
For the past 3 years and 8 months, every Monday at 7:00 AM, I have been reading Peter Drucker’s Management: Tasks, Responsibilities, Practices with three leaders from different fields. We are currently reading the same book for the second time.
Among Drucker’s works, Management is particularly challenging. The original English text is 553 pages, and the Korean translation spans over 700 pages across two volumes. Since it was published in 1973, the background context or examples of its main arguments might appear outdated at first glance.
However, as we read one chapter aloud each week and discussed it for an hour, I was awestruck by how valid his core ideas remain today. I became convinced that in this ‘transitional period’ (a term I use often, and one I plan to elaborate on later), his work is the fundamental basis that every manager must ruminate upon to ensure corporate survival.
In peaceful times, one does not need to agonize deeply over the essence of management. Organizations tend to run simply by managing them in familiar ways. But what if we are in an industrial or technological transition? What if uncertainty is high, change is mandatory, and the manager must play the core role in driving that change?
When a crisis hits, there is usually immense pressure to operate the company faster and more efficiently. However, this obsession with efficiency robs managers of the opportunity for fundamental thinking. It creates rigidity within the company, often driving it toward a slow but inevitable failure—a worst-case scenario.
In that sense, I believe Peter Drucker’s Management deserves to be read again.
Starting today, I plan to share the insights and discussions from our reading group on this blog, posting at least two articles a week. I hope this will be a meaningful space to share the thoughts and deliberations I had during my time as the Head of the Center for the Future of Management.