Peter Drucker, the “man who invented management,”  offered these three sequential and incredibly insightful assertions:
► “There is only one valid definition of business purpose: to create a customer.”
► “Because its purpose is to create a customer, the business enterprise has two – and only these two – basic functions: marketing and innovation.  Marketing and innovation [...]

Logistics: “the planning, implementation, and coordination of the details of a business or other operation.”
Tactics: “The art or skill of employing available means to accomplish an end.”
Strategy: “A combination of the ends (goals) for which the firm is striving and the means (policies) by which it is seeking to get there.”
Definitions are interesting.  And the [...]

Shrinking is addictive. And, like all addictions, destructive.    It is addictive because it yields the short-lived high of improved operating results. The problem is:  it isn’t sustainable because the effects don’t last.  So you need another hit – more rounds of budget cuts and headcount reductions, more things that you were doing that you’ve stopped [...]

I enjoy watching the dynamic play out within a leadership team as its members work to reach agreement about a marketing / selling strategy.  Regardless of the area of special expertise that each member represents, the room is inevitably filled with opinions.  Sometimes really interesting ideas emerge from animated discussion and debate.  The dialog often [...]

I get that question a lot.  In essence, I’m being asked what value a consultant can create versus what an organization can do with existing resources or by recruiting.  Actually, it is an interesting question.
Consultants of all stripes are commonly engaged so an organization can get access to knowledge, expertise or skills it doesn’t have, [...]