彼得•德鲁克提出，全世界这么多大型的成功企业现在萎靡不振的深层原因在于他们的经营之道再也不起作用了。故事是熟悉的：一家昨天还是超级巨星的公司一转眼就发现自己处于停滞不前、挫折不断、困难重重的状态，而且常常面临似乎难以处理的危机。几乎每一个这样的危机的根本原因并不是事情没做好，甚至不是做的事是错的。确实，大部分时候公司做的是正确的事——但徒劳无功。那么，是什么造成了这种明显的自相矛盾呢？企业建立和管理所依据的假设已经不再合乎现时。这些假设决定着所有企业的所作所为，规定着什么该做，什么不该做，定义着企业眼里有意义的结果。这些假设就是德鲁克所说的企业的经营之道。

Peter F. Drucker argues that what underlies the current malaise of so many large and successful organizations worldwide is that their theory of the business no longer works. The story is a familiar one: a company that was a superstar only yesterday finds itself stagnating and frustrated, in trouble and, often, in a seemingly unmanageable crisis. The root cause of nearly every one of these crises is not that things are being done poorly. It is not even that the wrong things are being done. Indeed, in most cases, the right things are being done―but fruitlessly. What accounts for this apparent paradox? The assumptions on which the organization has been built and is being run no longer fit reality. These are the assumptions that shape any organization's behavior, dictate its decisions about what to do and what not to do, and define what an organization considers meaningful results. These assumptions are what Drucker calls a company's theory of the business.

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