11 Things Small Business Owners
Can Learn From Peter Drucker
By David Handler
1. Find The Obvious - Drucker looked for the obvious things in order
to identify people�s greatest needs. It takes discipline to find them�and
will lead to tremendous opportunities in your small business.
2. Help Employees Grow - Show the employees of your small business how
to learn. In the knowledge economy we have today, Drucker believed continuous
learning is the key for growth.
3. Teach - To become a better learner�teach. Drucker taught American
history, Japanese art, religion and statistics during his career, because
teaching requires learning new concepts, not just facts.
4. Measure Yourself - Whenever you make a key decision, write down your
expectations of the outcome, then go back nine months later and see how
things turned out. Drucker did this regularly in order to identify his
strengths and weaknesses as a decision-maker.
5. Be Curious - �My greatest strength as a consultant is to be ignorant
and ask a few questions,� said Drucker. Be sure to ask your employees lots
of questions to keep them focused on your goals.
6. Seek Consistency - Look for inconsistencies between what is and what
ought to be in your small business. Then, set out to align things in the
way you know they should be.
7. Know How Customers Think - Seek innovation, not novelty. Innovation
creates value, while novelty creates amusement. To determine the difference,
ask yourself not �Do we like it?��but �Will customers pay for it?�
8. Make Things Better - �The test of a leader is not what happens during
his lifetime, but what happens when he leaves.� The only thing that matters
is how leaders touch the lives of those around them.
9. Create Systems - �Efficiency is doing better what is already being
done.� Look at all of the moving parts in your small business, then systematically
determine how to do each of them better.
10. Manage Yourself - �Time is the scarcest resource and unless it is
managed nothing else can be managed.� Focus on �Genius Time� � those things
that have the biggest impact on your small business.
11. Go All In - �Unless commitment is made, there are only promises
and hopes... but no plans.� Make sure your team commits to achieving each
of your goals�and theirs.
|
