| In Memorium: Without the BS
He was a man who cut through the mind-numbingly dull jargon of business-speak like a laser. His "value-added" was his ability to see to the core of what it meants to be in business and to achieve the only goals worth pursuing in a business. For Alan/Anthony he was a mentor: a person from whom we borrowed - heck, stole - liberally as we shaped our own business mission over two decades. In fact the very name of this e-newsletter, which we push to your PCs, Laptops and Blackberries was taken from him.
 He was, of course, Peter Drucker, a writer, teacher and consultant specializing in strategy and policy for businesses and social-sector organizations. He consulted with many of the world's largest corporations as well as nonprofit organizations, small and entrepreneurial companies and agences of the US government. The author of 32 books translated into more than 20 languages, he did more to create the science of organizational management than anyone else.
There is no better way for us, or you, to begin a very promising 2006 than by again opening a gift that we opened long ago and continue to use. These words come from a seminal Drucker work, Management: Tasks, Responsibilities, Practices, published in 1973:
To know what a business is we have to start with its purpose. Its purpose must lie outside of the business itself. In fact, it must lie in society since business enterprise is an organ of society. There is only one valid definition of business purpose: to create a customer.
Markets are not created by God, nature or economic forces but by businessmen. The want a business satisfies may have been felt by the customer before he was offered the means of satisfying it. Like food in a famine, it may have dominated the customer's life and filled all his waking moments, but it remained a potential want until the action of businessmen converted it into effective demand. Only then is there a customer and a market. The want may have been unfelt by the potential customer: no one knew that he wanted a Xerox machine or a computer until these became available. There may have been no want at all until business action created it - by innovation, by credit, by advertising, or by salesmanship. In every case, it is business action that creates the customer.
It is the customer who determines what a business is. It is the customer alone whose willingness to pay for a good or for a service converts economic resources into wealth, things into goods. What the business thinks it produces is not of first importance - especially not to the future of the business or its success...What the customer thinks he is buying, what he considers value, is decisive - it determines what a business is, what it produces and whether it will prosper...
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 produce results: all the rest are "costs."
Marketing is so basic that it cannot be considered a separate function within the business, on a par with others such as manufacturing or personnel. Marketing requires separate work, and a distinct group of activities. But it is, first, a central dimension of the entire business. It is the whole business seen from the point of view of its final result, that is, from the customer's point of view. Concern and responsibility for marketing must, therefore, permeate all areas of the enterprise.
To any of you interested in knowing more about our firm, this summarizes the underlying philosophy upon which our practice is built. Happy New Year!
News Briefs
Senior Partner Louis Zacharilla -
- Was a guest speaker for the Telecommunications and Information Management Program's Distinguished Speaker series at Polytechnic University. On December 1, Mr. Zacharilla spoke on how broadband technology is being used for economic development by communities large and small in both the developed and developing world. A copy of his presentation is available by sending an email to Lou.
- Will moderate a panel session at the annual Pacific Telecommunications Council conference (www.ptc06.org) on January 18. The panel, - Integrating Satellite Services into Asia-Pacific Networks - will bring together recipients of the World Teleport Association's Teleport Awards for Excellence, including David Hershberg, CEO of Globecomm Systems, to discuss the challenges and opportunities of integrating satellite into terrestrial networks.
Senior Partner Robert Bell -
- Was a featured speaker at the ResearchMoney conference, Growing a Technology Business in Atlantic Canada, in Moncton, New Brunswick on October 6. Mr. Bell spoke on the myths and facts of business innovation and marketing that apply to B2B technology start-ups.
Work in Progress |
