This post is in continuation of a series that is categorized as Drucker Weekly.

Feedback: Key to Continuous Learning

To know one’s strength, to know how to improve them, and to know what one cannot do – are the keys to continuous learning.

Scribble:
This is one habit I’m slowly trying to inculcate. Application development and maintenance + infrastructure management are not my key strengths and I’ve wasted far too much time on them. Slowly but surely I’m setting myself free of these activities and am letting someone else handle these functions. Another aspect where I’ve been lagging is media relations and I need to devote more time to it. Also, I need to get more metric-oriented than being instinctive.

Reinvent Yourself

Knowledge people must take responsibility for their own development and placement.

Scribble:
I believe I am doing just fine on this front. I’ve done a fairly decent job of transforming myself based on the task ahead of me – be it a chemical engineering stint at RCF, a new channel development project at Cadbury, sales manager and factory supervisor at Pepsi, creatives and client relations at ReZonant to being an Internet professional and entrepreneur. The joy of learning new things and stimulating my mind keeps me ticking.

The Discipline of Management

If you can’t replicate something because you don’t understand it, then it really hasn’t been invented; it’s only been done.

Scribble:
While companies did have managers earlier, it became a discipline only after thought leaders such as Drucker understood it and told the world why they were needed. The point being made is that it’s important to understand some things fundamentally before dubbing it as a discipline. For example, Search Engine Optimization is one practice which has only been done and doesn’t yet deserve to be called a discipline.

Controlled Experiment in Mismanagement

The story of Henry Ford, his rise and decline, and of the revival of his company is what one might call a controlled experiment in mismanagement.

Scribble:
Ford believed that all it took to run a company was an owner-entrepreneur and helpers. He never believed in having manageers / decision-makers. Employees must be empowered and allowed to assume responsibility for progress to be made. Don’t try and do everything yourself. Back your employees to take decisions.

Performance: The Test of Management

Achievement rather than knowledge remains both the proof and aim of management.

Scribble:
Management is a practice more than a science or profession. There is no set formula or technique that can build great managers. Management should not be restrictive. It is about doing things which can enable knowledge workers to succeed. If it means trying out something irrational, so be it. Try everything and see what works well than adhering to scientific methods.

Crossing the Divide & Face Reality

Every few hundred years there occurs a sharp transformation. We cross a “divide.” Exploit the new realities.

Scribble:
I keep a list of ideas and business opportunities based on changes that are now becoming realities in society and some day I hope to put all of these in action. I’d like to look at Workosaur.com as one such initiative.

The Educated Person

The educated person needs to bring knowledge to bear on the present, not to mention molding the future.

Scribble:
All of us would like to live in a world that’s isolated from all the problems it confronts. But as educated people, we need to take responsibility of the problems than escape them. We must be the change. We need more Nandan Nilekanis.

Balance Continuity and Change

Precisely because change is a constant, the foundations have to be extra strong.

Scribble:
Every time there is a change, an organization must ask itself: “Who needs to be informed of this?” With newer communication and collaboration technologies, this becomes all the more critical. Most importantly, there’s a need for continuity in the organization’s mission, values, definition of performance and results must. There is also a case for treating those delivering continuous improvement like those involved with genuine innovation.

Organizations Destabilize Communities

In its culture, the organization always transcends the community.

Scribble:
We have seen this with Tata Motors trying to set up shop in West Bengal. Tata did not submerge itself or subordinate itself to that community. They preferred to move out. It was the right decision. When your culture clashes with the community, the organization’s culture must prevail – or it can’t make a contribution to that society.

Modern Organization Must be a Destabilizer

Only a society in dynamic disequilibrium has stability and cohesion.

Scribble:
Innovation and entrepreneurship must be the central piece of the organization’s strategy than an accident – only then is continuity possible.

This post is in continuation of a series that is categorized as Drucker Weekly.

The Spirit of an Organization

It’s the abilities, not the disabilities, that count.

Scribble:
From my past, I have learnt that even 2 hours per day spent doing the really important tasks is enough to get the job done. The only reason I have been able to carry on with workosaur.com as a one-person business is because I have focused on what is absolutely essential. I make good use of the time at my disposal. Had I been thinking that there are a 100 other things that I could have done with a larger team size, I would have failed. Self-pity is for losers.

The Function of Management Is to Produce Results

Above all management is responsible for producing results.

Scribble:
The title of this lesson says it all. Though one tends to look at results inside-out, it is also important to look at results outside-in. My audience does not come to because I earn profits. They come to me because my product/service serves a particular purpose in their life. That is the outside-in result which should then lead to economic benefits.

Society of Performing Organizations

By their fruits ye shall know them.

Scribble:
Workosaur.com does not exist for its own sake or because it can make money. It serves a function to the society i.e. it exists only because it helps people find jobs.

Profit’s Function

Today’s profitable business will become tomorrow’s white elephant.

Scribble:
Innovate. And always watch out for opportunities to reinvent existing businesses – like what Google has done with the browser and with Gmail and with Wave.

This post is in continuation of The Weekly Drucker Classroom #1.

Autonomy in Knowledge Work

Knowledge workers should be given autonomy and should be held accountable. Once they have defined their goals, they should be allowed to chart their work plans, and they must take responsibility for results.

Scribble:
Here’s my three month work-plan:
1. What am I going to work on? a. Content – Updation of the already existing sections (Industry Tracker, Coffee with the CEO, Workplace Tools, Business Quiz, Drucker Weekly) + Introduction of 2 Modules (BoHBR, 64Qs) & Newsletter. b. Social Media Marketing – full-functionality Facebook Page, Linkedin Groups, Twitter, Slideshare & Scribd. c. Monetization Plan 1 – VAS.
2. What results can be expected for which I can be held accountable? a. Improvements in metrics – Traffic, Time spent, Number of ‘fit’ resumes per job .  b. 10+ Paid Clients for MP1 – VAS in 1st month.

The New Corporation’s Persona

In the Next Society’s corporation, top management will be the company. Everything else can be outsourced.

Scribble:
The areas that I should be focusing on while building Workosaur.com are: Direction/Planning/Strategy, Values/Principles, Structure/Relationships/Alliances/Partnerships/JVs, Research/Design/Innovation. As far as possible I shall try and outsource everything else. In fact, I’ve been inspired by this thought right from the start and so far have stuck to it.

Management and Theology

Management always deals with the nature of Man, and with Good and Evil.

Scribble:
Always remember that you are dealing with people and each human being has his/her own motives – good and bad – that drive his/her actions. Align their individual motive with yours and you’ll do well.

Practice Comes First

Decision makers need to factor into their present decisions the “future that has already happened.” In most cases, theory does not precede practice.

Scribble:
As discussed in Classroom #1, the rise in Social Recruiting, the importance of one’s Google Resume and Employer Branding are currently at the fringe but will shape the online recruitment industry – slowly but surely. Some other points that are of importance to me:
i. Old models like those of Vault.com are no longer viable given the amount of free content at one’s disposal.
ii. Most senior professionals will soon have smart phones with 3G access.
iii. Monster vs SimplyHired

Management and the Liberal Arts

Management is a liberal art. Liberal = Deals with knowledge, self-knowledge, wisdom, leadership. Art = Deals with practice and application.

Scribble:
The important ideas don’t necessarily come from the same sphere of work. It’s important to dabble with your other interests no matter how unrelated it may be from your business. Also, refer to that most insightful Charles Munger speech.

The Managerial Attitude

The management of people should be the first and foremost concern of operating managements, rather than the management of things and techniques. Human resources are almost always underutilized.

Scribble:
Unifying philosophy is important. Every person must see his role in relation to the group or product as a whole.

Drucker’s most powerful ideas have been assembled in one place – The Daily Drucker. Culled from his lifetime of writings, The Daily Drucker presents the keys to his thinking and pulls together his remarkable body of work. Each of the 366 insights in the book are accompanied with a call to action. Each week from now I shall be compiling my notes from The Daily Drucker under a series of blog posts titled The Weekly Drucker Classroom.

Integrity in Leadership

The spirit of an organization is created from the top. When you appoint someone to a senior position it implies that you are willing to have his or her character serve as the model for subordinates. Hence, it is imperative to appoint people with intergrity.

Scribble:
Conversely, when you are considering a job offer, evaluate the character of the CEO and top management of the organization. Align your self with people who possess intergrity.

Identifying the Future

The important thing is to identify the “future that has already happened” i.e. identify the trends in your market that have already appeared, think of their longevity and impact on your life and organization.

Scribble:
Some of the trends that I could identify in the online recruitment space:
i. Recruiting via social and professional networks, blogs, microblogs – Social recruiting
ii. Personal branding on the Internet / Online reputation – Google resume
iii. Employer branding through social media

Management is Indespensable

Whoever makes two blades of grass grow where only one grew before deserves better of mankind than any speculative philosopher or metaphysical system builder.

Scribble:
Keep this in mind when up against an armchair critic.

Organizational Inertia

All organizations need a discipline that makes them face up to reality. Businesses are subject to the discipline of the market and hence forced to change with times. But governments, hospitals and non-profit organizations do not face market pressures and lose discipline.

Scribble:
If you ever do start a non-profit initiative, it should be subject to some kind of yardstick and performance metric.

5. Abandonment

There is nothing as difficult and as expensive, but also nothing as futile, as trying to keep a corpse from stinking.

Stop squandering your resources on obsolete businesses and free up your capable people to take advantage of new opportunities.

Scribble:
If your business is failing to take off, the right thing to do is to shut down and move on to something else. I think 1000 days is a good time to take this call.

Practice of abandonment

Abandon is the right action when:
i. A product, service, market, or process “still has a few years of life.”
ii. The only reason for keeping it is that “It is fully written off.”
iii. When a new and growing product, service, or process is being neglected for the sake of maintaining an old or declining product, service, market, or process.

Scribble:
Keep your ears open to these three lines of argument. I’ve heard these before and each time the management decided not to abandon the business.

Knowledge Workers: Asset Not Cost

Attract and retain the highest producing knowledge workers by treating them and their knowledge as the most valuable assets of the organization.

Scribble:
Knowledge workers are more like artists and each one should be recognized for their individual knowledge. They hate being seen as a number.