Leadership & Business Wisdom

Eliminating Cost Centers Would the roof cave in if we stopped doing this work altogether? No matter how well a business prevents cost inflation, it will still have to cut costs. This is because businesses are like people, and people …

Respect for the Business and Its Values The acquisition must be a “temperamental fit.” No acquisition works unless the people in the acquiring company have respect for the product, the markets, and the customers of the company they acquire. Though …

In Innovation, Emphasize the Big Idea Innovative ideas are like frogs’ eggs: of a thousand hatched, only one or two survive to maturity. The innovative organization understands that innovation starts with an idea. Ideas are somewhat like babies – they …

Test of Innovation Measure innovations by what they contribute to market and customer. The test of an innovation is whether it creates value. Innovation means the creation of new value and new satisfaction for the customer. A novelty only creates …

Defining Business Purpose and Mission: The Customer Who is the customer? “Who is the customer?” is the first and the crucial question in defining business purpose and business mission. It is not an easy, let alone an obvious question. How …

Balancing Three Corporate Dimensions Shareholder sovereignty is bound to flounder. It is a fair-weather model. An important task for top management in the next society’s corporation will be to balance the three dimensions of the corporation: as an economic organization, …

Legitimacy of the Corporation Unless the power in the corporation can be organized on an accepted principle of legitimacy, it will disappear. No social can endure unless it is legitimate power. And no society can function unless it integrates the …

Management and Economic Development It can be said that there are no “underdeveloped countries.” There are only “under managed” ones. Management creates economic and social development. Economic and social development is the result of management. It can be said, without …

Need for a Harmony of Interests The demand of harmony does not mean that society should abandon its right to limit the exercise of economic power on the part of the corporation. Economic purpose does not mean that the corporation …

Demands on Political Leadership Beware Charisma. Charisma is “hot” today. There is an enormous amount of talk about it, and an enormous number of books are written on the charismatic leader. But, the desire for charisma is a political death …