Peter Drucker’s Tenets

Peter Drucker, a writer of 39 books and a management consultant, was considered the “father of modern management”. An avid student of managing complex businesses, he was the advisor who helped mold many corporations into industry leaders which forged this country’s ability to become an economic super power. A Sampling of Mr. Drucker’s Tenets: “In most business failures, the board was the last to realize that things were going wrong.” “Managers... Read More

The Netflix Culture & Mistake

Netflix’s culture was described in a recent edition of the Business Insider. It makes an interesting read. At more than one hundred pages, it is quite long and detailed – but worthwhile. While it is described as a statement of its company culture, it is more of a guide and blueprint for its employees on how the company operates or, perhaps more accurately what is expected of its employees. Netflix’s culture document has three principal themes... Read More

What Leads to Business Failure?

Donald Keough’s book “The Ten Commandments for Business Failure”is an interesting, creditable book useful to Chief Executive Officers with a company culture that needs improvement. Donald Keough is the former President of The Coca-Cola Company. The book is a short, easy read that covers all the elements of a positive culture. Some of it is self-evident. But if officers, second and third tier managers all read it, it would contribute to a re-focused... Read More

Sun Tzu’s “The Art of War”

Sun Tzu’s book “The Art of War”was written in 400BC. Peter Drucker’s and Sun Tzu’s management tenets for success are essentially the same. Sun Tzu was China’s first professional General. Prior to him the Sovereign led his army which was frequently disorganized, under-funded and unsuccessful. He developed strategy and tactics of war but also detailed financial budgets, manpower required, basic training and logistics (e.g., the number of... Read More

India – What hinders its development?

Some thoughts on the interesting book “In Spite of the Gods – The Strange Rise of Modern India” by Edward Luce, the former Financial Times’ Washington Bureau Chief. He was the FTs’ South Asia Bureau Chief based in New Delhi. While his conclusion is that India will become an economic super power, its many negatives will delay its development. Some of the negatives: • Its massively ineffective and corrupt “quasi-socialist”... Read More

A Helpful History Book for CEOs

I came across an impressive book, which would be very helpful to any CEO.  It is an interesting historical effort and was referenced in a footnote of a best selling business book “Good to Great”. It proved to be a better book on management in my opinion, than the popular business publication. Barbara Tuchman wrote “The March of Folly”.  In the work, she reviews four historical debacles.  The reasons for these past failures, was primarily... Read More