The Two Ways I Use Peter Drucker in my Everyday Business

Set the right priorities for more effective time management and see what it does to your business operations.

In 2004, The Harvard Business Review published an article entitled What Makes an Effective Executive by Peter Drucker, one of the biggest selling business authors and management gurus of the 20^th century. Two concepts that really stood out for me were the importance of writing an action plan and re-evaluating priorities regularly.

Drucker writes that effective executives (or business owners) first start with a detailed action plan. Do you want to expand your store into a new product line? Have you thought about offering a new service to your customers? This article suggests that you must first start with a detailed action plan. An action plan helps by ensuring you take the time to think through your strategy and where you want to be in one year from now, but also so that you and your team know where you are going. He goes on to write that often reality does not follow the plan, however you must first start with a plan and use that plan as the basis for your time management.

The second concept that I really like is that as business owners, we must ask ourselves and our managers “What needs to be done right now for the business?” This is a much different question than “What do I want to do?” What needs to be done right now resets priorities for what is important at this point in time for your business.

In our business, I start each year with an annual action plan and focus ideas for each quarter. However every three months, I ask myself, “What needs to be done right now for the business?” Often what I find is that what I thought was important for us to tackle later in the year, doesn’t end up being as important at the time. Instead there is a new initiative or a new opportunity that pops up that is more important for the long-term success of the company. This gives you and your managers a chance to step back and see the forest from the trees and reset priorities so that your time is not wasted and you are as productive as you can be.

Take a few minutes today to read the article. It’s fantastic!

Andy

From aroung the Web:

1.  Business Week Article about Peter Drucker

2. Wall Street Journal – 5 Things a Manager Should Do