Muhammad Yunus: The Unlikely Disciple

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Drucker—whose own writing draws heavily on sociology and psychology, on history and art and religion—once remarked that his work was likewise predicated on the belief that "people are diverse, often unpredictable, always multidimensional."

In the end, though, it is not just Yunus' theories Drucker would have admired; above all, it's his effectiveness. Two things are behind it.

Challenge Conventional Wisdom

The first is a willingness to punch holes in conventional wisdom. "Despite their importance," Drucker wrote in Management Challenges for the 21st Century, "the assumptions are rarely analyzed, rarely studied, rarely challenged—indeed rarely even made explicit."

Yunus thrives on challenging assumptions. He's doing it now, as he tries to reframe what most people imagine a business can be. And he did it before when he established Grameen.

Indeed, had he listened to the many reasons that offering credit to poor people was supposedly a fool's errand, Grameen never would have grown from that first $27 in loans, made 32 years ago straight from Yunus' pocket to 42 Bangladeshi villagers, into what it is today: a financially self-reliant bank that has given $6 billion in loans to millions of Bangladeshis, boasts a 98.6% repayment rate, and has put a huge dent in that nation's level of poverty. (It also has become the centerpiece of a network of two dozen socially driven companies with interests in education, health care, apparel, telecommunications, and much more.)

Avoiding Lofty Philosophy

The second factor that makes Yunus so effective is that, even though there is more than a hint of idealism in his efforts, he consciously tries "to avoid grandiloquent philosophies and…take a pragmatic approach." To that end, Grameen backs its actions with sound market analysis, nurtures its employees, actively seeks out customer input, and continually improves its products and services.

This, of course, is classic Drucker. Despite "the romance of invention and innovation," Drucker advised, "'flashes of genius'" don't get terribly far. What does carry a business forward is "hard, organized, purposeful work."

See for yourself. Check out Yunus' new book and, if you missed it, his first: Banker to the Poor. Not only are they inspirational, they are highly informational—fantastic case studies on how to manage a business the right way. Which is to say, the Drucker way.

Rick Wartzman is the director of the Drucker Institute at Claremont Graduate University and an Irvine senior fellow at the New America Foundation. He writes The Drucker Difference every other week for businessweek.com/managing/.