| Notes |
At age 42 Buford began a parallel career of television and of creating a new pathway for the second half of his life. “I had resolved that if I was blessed by skill, Providence, and rising markets, I would someday turn my illiquid interests in Buford Television, Inc. into cash in order to follow my calling to serve God by serving others.”
In 1984, at age 45, Buford, Fred Smith, Jr. and Gayle Carpenter started Leadership Network as a way of trying to help the newly emerging wave of pastors who were breaking worship attendance barriers of 1,000 and sometimes 2,000 or more. During his business years, Buford had spent countless hours talking with and seeking guidance from Peter Drucker, the father of modern management, and he now tapped into Drucker’s guidance for how best to frame Leadership Network. He later remarked that Leadership Network would not be the same—in fact, might not exist at all—were it not for Peter Drucker. (Buford later developed that 23-year mentoring relationship into a book, Drucker and Me.)
Bob Buford spearheaded the creation of two Drucker-related organizations: the Peter F. Drucker Foundation for Nonprofit Management (which, after several name changes, is now The Hesselbein Leadership Forum at the University of Pittsburgh) and the Drucker Institute at Claremont Graduate University (which began as Peter Drucker’s archives and is now a social enterprise whose mission is “strengthening organizations to strengthen society”).
Buford served as the original board chair of both organizations—which are now completely separate and distinct.
Leadership Network also provided a forum over the years for sharing Drucker’s wisdom with churches. As Drucker said, “The purpose of management for churches is not to make them more business-like, but to make them more church-like.” In the 20 years Drucker consulted with Leadership Network, the number of megachurches (over 2,000 attending) grew tenfold. |