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Tag Archives: Peter Drucker

The Definition of Management

16 Thursday Jun 2016

Posted by Jim Lucas in Effectiveness, Management

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Entrepreneur, management, Peter Drucker, small business

The manager is responsible for directing vision and resources toward greatest results.” J. B. Say 1767-1832

Peter F. Drucker quotes J. B. Say’s definition of the entrepreneur in his book Management: Tasks, Responsibilities, Practices. My copy of Drucker’s  1974 seminal title comes in at 811 pages. Those pages contain endlessly fascinating lessons on management as a practice–so many that even the most diligent reader can get lost in the rich detail. That’s why I always come back to Say’s definition of the entrepreneur (which Drucker equates with management) as the fastest way to get perspective on what management is and what managers do. We direct our vision and resources toward the greatest results.

Management is not knowledge but performance. Furthermore, it is not the application of common sense, or leadership, let alone financial manipulation. Its practice is based on knowledge and on responsibility.” Peter F. Drucker 1909-2005

In an earlier post I mentioned that management is not about winging it. It bears repeating. Management, according to Drucker, “Is a practice comparable to medicine, law, and engineering.” As such, it is something that can be learned.

The first and last of those learnings should be that management creates results.

JB Say portrait

Jean-Baptiste Say

Knowledge Work is More than You Know

13 Tuesday Aug 2013

Posted by Jim Lucas in Contribution, Customer Experience, Management

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knowledge worker, management, Northern California Consultants, Peter Drucker, small business, start up

The_Thinker_Musee_Rodin

Think about service businesses for a moment—especially businesses like hotels, restaurants, hair salons, and retail shops. If you peel back current fashions, modern conveniences, chains and franchises, and the cornucopia of offerings, these businesses exist much as they did in the 18th century. Merchants, hoteliers, and shopkeepers operate business models that are hundreds of years old and have very low barriers to entry compared to, say, rocket science.

In these pages, one thing you’ll learn is that service can set one business apart from another.

What’s more, knowledge sets one business apart from another—or even above the rest. Knowledge is such a powerful factor that when applied properly it actually transforms 18th century trades into 21st century businesses. Knowledge in the form of business management, human behavior, art, fashion, customer experience, sales, computer science, technical education, and so on carries with it the potential to separate your business from the millions of “entrepreneurs” who’ve gone before—and who are still out there, just opening and closing each day while conducting transactions in between.

Every day I encounter businesses—many of them national brands—that miss their opportunities to put knowledge to work for the benefit of their customers and the benefit of their own organizations. Think back on situations you’ve encountered:

  • Hotels where the receptionist asks you, “Is this your first stay with us?”
  • Coffee shops or counter-service restaurant employees who call out, “Next person in line.”
  • Hair salons who ask, “Who are you here to see?”
  • Dentists and doctors whose receptionists who say, “Just sign in and take a seat.”

Each of these, and many more, have the option to choose knowledge work over low-level, menial, dead-end jobs—and they don’t need to change careers to do it. When Peter Drucker coined the term Knowledge Worker in the late 1950s it came, rightfully, to mean people who deal primarily with knowledge like accountants, lawyers, engineers, and others.

By accepting Mr. Drucker’s famous challenge to search for the unused potential in every job, even a low level clerk can transform her work as a hotel receptionist into knowledge work by learning that people prefer to be looked in the eye, recognized, and greeted with a smile. See? It’s not rocket science.

Jim

Lucavìa
gojimlucas@lucavia.com
lucavia.com
(925) 980-7871

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An Outside Chance

05 Wednesday Jun 2013

Posted by Jim Lucas in Effectiveness, Management, Results

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consulting, Daniel Kahneman, knowledge worker, management, Peter Drucker, small business, start up

Image

Executives are responsible for getting the right things done. Effectiveness means turning concepts into results and results are what happen on the outside of the business. But which results are the right results?

We know from Nobel laureate Daniel Kahneman that:

Great Success=A little more talent + a lot of luck.

Let’s focus on the “Little more talent” side of the equation. Certainly, much of what ends up being the right results is a matter of luck—whether we think we’re in control or not. But for thepart we definitely can control we must compare our results to business goals. Otherwise, we are either flying blind or depending solely on blind luck—neither of which you’d probably argue in favor of during a presentation to your Board.

Right results will happen when effort is put toward your goals. Goals were originally set to execute your strategy. Your strategy was formed by thinking deeply about how to act on your aspirations. Your aspirations are what got you into business in the first place.

So, to become a great success increase your talent by investing in a well-conceived plan. Focus on it, test it, measure it, change it, and improve it after each iteration. As long as you’re working a plan that defines success on the outside—where your customers are—your luck will take care of itself.

Jim

Lucavìa
gojimlucas@lucavia.com
www.lucavia.com
(925) 980-7871

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© Copyright Jim Lucas 2007-2013 All Rights Reserved

Effectiveness

04 Tuesday Jun 2013

Posted by Jim Lucas in Effectiveness

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consulting, Northern California, Peter Drucker, start up

Yet men of high effectiveness are conspicuous by their absence…

Peter F. Drucker

Got Results?

04 Tuesday Jun 2013

Posted by Jim Lucas in Results

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consulting, hotel, knowledge worker, management, Northern California, Peter Drucker, retail, salon, small business, smb, start up

Image

You’re working 60 hours a week and just got promoted. Your CEO is working 90 hours a week and acquired a rival firm. The company just moved into its new offices. Funding has been approved for a team to represent the company at CES 2013. Marketing just did an internal screening of an incredible new 30-second spot to air during Mexico vs. Italy in June. None of these are results.

Results happen outside the organization where your customers perceive them. Inside your organization there are only efforts. Make your systems stronger, increase your headcount, grow your budget, hire the best people—and still, you have only effort.

On the other hand; increase sales, decrease returns, improve your customer satisfaction scores, increase the size (or frequency) of your average sale, and reduce your costs to maintain or increase your product’s value.

Now you’re seeing results.

Jim

Lucavìa
gojimlucas@lucavia.com
www.lucavia.com
(925) 980-7871

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© Copyright Jim Lucas 2007-2013 All Rights Reserved

Do Your Ideas Work?

03 Monday Jun 2013

Posted by Jim Lucas in Effectiveness, Management, Results

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consulting, knowledge worker, management, Peter Drucker, small business, start up

Image

At the core of management is the knowledge worker. I spent some time recently renewing my inner manager, which of course for me meant reading some of my favorite Peter Drucker. Over the next few posts I’ll be sharing some of Drucker’s ideas that are top of mind for me. So, if you’re thinking about management you’re implicitly thinking about knowledge workers.

In the assembly line of knowledge work, one person’s output of ideas, concepts, and theories is another person’s input. For example, were I a salesman, what I learn directly from my customers becomes input for the product manager. The product manager synthesizes all of the input she receives from salesmen and incorporates it into a future product user needs analysis she outputs to the R&D manager. She, in turn, asks one of her engineers to evaluate a set of technologies that might be applied to create products to  satisfy those user needs and then outputs those to the finance manager for a product costing analysis. This simplified illustration continues as one’s output becomes input for another.

But what is the right nature of a knowledge worker’s output? The short answer is effectiveness—and effectiveness means turning concepts into results. The information, ideas, and theories that a knowledge worker outputs should meet one test: Does it achieve business results as defined by the organization? By this measure, activity that is interesting and requires deep thought is only worthwhile if it contributes to the results of the organization. So next time you’re considering what to work on, or how useful what you’re working on now is, ask yourself, “How will my work create results for my organization?”

Jim

Lucavia
gojimlucas@lucavia.com
www.lucavia.com
(925) 980-7871

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© Copyright Jim Lucas 2007-2013 All Rights Reserved

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