The more I learn the more I realize how little I know.
This book was no different, Peter Drucker is an expert on management theory and his viewpoints forced me to think and expand my understanding.
He argues that having a product is irrelevant if there is no consumer. In order to have a consumer, one has to understand them: who they are and what they want. Only by learning about the customer can he create a product that the customer wants.
The consumer is the one who defines the business. Their purchasing decisions determine where the products go and how they are being used. Learning how customers use the product can improve the ability to meet customer needs and wants more effectively.
Knowledge workers need a challenge. They become stagnant and mentally bored without it. They can achieve a challenge by performing new tasks, starting a new job, or volunteering time in a non-profit organization.
People respond differently to leadership strategies. It is important to know how each person reacts and then apply that strategy with that person.
The foundation for effective leadership is thinking through the organization’s mission, defining it and establishing it, clearly and visibly. These basic tasks, although not easy, determine the future of the organization. It sets the table for the product, the customer, the objectives for success and how the organization seeks to finds its place in the world.
The essence of management is to make knowledge productive. In this era of knowledge workers who are paid to think rather than perform manual labor, it is important to get them to contribute effectively to the organization’s mission.
When managing workers it is important to ask them to identify what they feel their role is and how they contribute to the organization. Bases on this, ask them to define their own performance goals for accountability. Their view will not be the same as the manager view and this approach helps to bridge that gap.
He also discusses time management and how we do not know how time is allocated in the day. Keeping track of the day to see how it is spent is effective at noticing patterns. Once patterns are formed, it is then a matter of eliminating the non essential tasks and focus on what each person does that contributes the most.
