Change

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Friday, June 15, 2012

Peter F. Drucker: "The Five Most Important Questions..."

 

Great Ideas! Peter Dr ucker's "The Five Most Importa


















The Five Most Important Questions: You will ever ask your organization.

What is our mission?

Who is our customer?

 What does the customer value?


What are the results?


What is our plan?




 Strategy was his specialty with focus on the role and responsibility of senior management.

He was born in Vienna in 1909, left in 1933 and arrived in the U.S in ’37







 In 1942 he wrote The Concept of the Corporation about GM

 In 1971 he moved to California and helped establish the first Executive MBA program


Strategy was his specialty with a focus on the role -- and responsibility -- of senior management


Drucker published 31 books, which have been translated into more than 20 languages


Peter Drucker died in 2005 at the age of 95, having observed and advised organizations for nearly 75 years


People are the organization’s most valuable resource Management’s job is to prepare and free people to perform.

He put the customer at the center of business strategy.

The Knowledge Worker “Planned abandonment”

Peter Drucker is generally regarded as the godfather of modern management

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Peter Drucker’s "The Five Most Important Questions You Will Ever Ask Your Organization"



This book offers 5 simple questions :

What is our mission?
Who is our customer?
What does the customer value?
What are our results?
What is our plan? 


People are the organization’s most valuable resource.

Management’s job is to prepare and free people to perform.

He put the customer at the center of business strategy.


Organizations do not fail to achieve their objectives for lack of effort; they work really hard

They lack focus and tool competence to “succeed in a turbulent and exacting environment, organizations must focus on mission, demonstrate accountability and achieve results.”

 “You cannot arrive at the right definition of results without significant input from your customers.”

“The danger is in acting on what you believe satisfies the customer. You will inevitably make wrong assumptions.”

 


 Question 1 What is our Mission?
 


“A fundamental responsibility of leadership is to make sure everybody knows the mission, understands it, lives it.”


It’s why you do what you do.  Not how


Opportunities, Competence, Commitment “An exacting match”


“The dynamic interplay between continuity and change”


So what changes? Strategies, tactics, processes, structures, methods


  Very importantly Mission also guides you in what not to do



Question 2 Who is our Customer?
 


Whoever must be satisfied for the organization to achieve results


Customers are never static:
They will become more diverse
Their needs, wants and aspirations will evolve


Being clear about who the customer is provides the jumping off point for the remaining questions


Customers are often one step ahead of you


 “The purpose of a company is to create a customer.”

  The best companies don’t create customers. They create fans.


Old thinking about customers: They hear about us and, hopefully, choose our products

New thinking: We choose, and refuse, our customers


Our business is not to casually please everyone, but to deeply please our target customers  by the quality of the customer experience.

Success depends on your contribution to the success of your customers.



Question 3 What does the customer Value?

 

“This question is so complicated and important that it can only be answered by customers themselves.” 



Rule #1  There are no irrational customers.  At least in terms of their own reality and situation

Leaders tend to answer this for themselves Which is often more about the value they want to deliver



So what is it that customers value?


For one thing: An organization that seeks their feedback, is capable of solving their problems and meeting their needs


This may be the most important question ? And the one least often asked



Question 4 What are our Results?   


 


Think in terms of both Quantitative and Qualitative measures


Make them wide- ranging, relevant and hard to game


A key question: Do we -- or can we -- produce sufficiently outstanding results to justify putting resources in this area?

Can lead to “organized abandonment”

If results are the goal They must also be the test





Question 5 What is our Plan?

 


“Planning is not masterminding the future.” “In the face of uncertainties, planning defines the particular place you want to be and how you intend to get there.”


Never set more than five goals


Five elements of effective plans:  Abandonment, Concentration, Innovation, Risk Taking, and Analysis


Action steps and a budget should be outcomes of planning


Back to the beginning: Why do a self-assessment?


Simple questions can be profound

Answers are important, but the most important thing is to ask the right questions The ultimate beneficiary should be the customer

There are, however, significant benefits to you and your organization

You will:
Look within yourself and your organization
Accept and respond to customer feedback
Embrace change
Foster innovation
Encourage planned abandonment and
Demand measurable results

 



 

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