Monthly Archives: August 2010

Peter F. Drucker Quotes: Small Business Management Strategies for Entrepreneurs

Today, I will be sharing with you some small business management strategies from the father of modern management; Peter F. Drucker. Peter F. Drucker is well respected in the business world for his shrewd, hard core business management tactics and he is willing to extend some of these business management strategies to us.

                Peter F. Drucker Quotes: Small Business Management Strategies for Entrepreneurs

 

1.            "In every success story, you will find someone who has made a courageous decision."

2.            "A manager is responsible for the application and performance of knowledge."

3.            "Checking the results of a decision against its expectations shows executives what their strengths are, where they need to improve and where they lack knowledge or information."

4.            "Company cultures are like country cultures, never try to change one. Try instead to work with what you've got."

5.            "Effective leadership is not about making great speeches or being liked, leadership is defined by results, not by attributes."

6.            "Efficiency is doing things right, effectiveness is doing the right things."

7.            "Executives owe it to the organization and to their fellow workers not to tolerate non performing individuals in important jobs."

8.            "Few companies that installed computers to reduce the employment of clerks have realized their expectations. They now need more and more expensive clerks even though they call them 'operators' or 'programmers."

9.            "Follow effective actions with quiet reflection. From the quiet reflection will come even more effective action."

10.          “Innovation is the specific instrument of entrepreneurship. The act that endows resources with a new capacity to create wealth."

Peter F. Drucker Quotes: Small Business Management Strategies for Entrepreneurs

 

11.          "Knowledge has to be improved, challenged and increased constantly or it vanishes."

12.          "Making good decisions is a crucial skill at every level."

13.          "Management by objective works, if you know the objectives. Ninety percent of the time, you don't."

14.          "Management is doing things right, leadership is doing the right things."

15.          "Most discussions of decision making assume that only senior executives make decisions or that only senior executives' decisions matter. This is a dangerous mistake."

16.          "Most of what we call management consists of making it difficult for people to get their work done."

17.          "My greatest strength as a consultant is to be ignorant and ask a few questions"

18.          "Never mind your happiness, do your duty."

19.          "No institution can possibly survive if it needs geniuses or supermen to manage it. It must be organized in such a way as to be able to get along under a leadership composed of average human beings."

20.          "Plans are only good intentions unless they immediately degenerate into hard work."

Peter F. Drucker Quotes: Small Business Management Strategies for Entrepreneurs

 

21.          "Rank does not confer privilege or give power. It imposes responsibility."

22.          "Suppliers and especially manufacturers have market power because they have information about a product or service that the customer does not have, cannot have and does not need if he can trust the brand. This explains the profitability of brands.”

23.          "Teaching is not the only major occupation of man for which we have not yet developed tools that make an average person capable of competence and performance. In teaching, we rely on the 'naturals,' the ones who somehow know how to teach."

24.          "The aim of marketing is to know and understand the customer so well that the products or service fits him and sells itself."

25.          "The best way to predict the future is to create it."

26.          "The computer is a moron."

27.          "The entrepreneur always searches for change, responds to it and exploits it as an opportunity."

28.          "The most efficient way to produce anything is to bring together under one management as many as possible of the activities needed to turn out the product."

29.          "The most important thing in communication is hearing what isn't said."

30.          "The new information technology; internet and email have practically eliminated the physical cost of communications."

Peter F. Drucker Quotes: Small Business Management Strategies for Entrepreneurs

 

31.          "The only thing we know about the future is that it will be different."

32.          "The productivity of work is not the responsibility of the worker but of the manager."

33.          "The purpose of a business is to create a customer."

34.          "Time is the scarcest resource and unless it is managed, nothing else will be managed."

35.          "Today knowledge has power. It controls access to opportunity and advancement."

36.          "Trying to predict the future is like trying to drive down a country road at night with no lights while looking out the back window."

37.          "Unless commitment is made, there are only promises and hopes but no plans."

38.          "We can say with certainty or 90% probability that the new industries that are about to be born have nothing to do with information."

39.          "We now accept the fact that learning is a lifelong process of keeping abreast of change and the most pressing task is to teach people how to learn."

40.          "When a subject becomes totally obsolete, we make it a required course."

The Power of Faith in Starting a Business

Today, I want to write something a little bit different but still in line with starting a business and business development. Most individuals and even writers sometimes write on the characteristics or traits of successful entrepreneurs. But of all entrepreneurial and business write ups I have read with respect to starting a business and building a successful business, there seem to be one important element they fail to mention and that is "FAITH."

                “Go farther than you can see, and when you get there, you will see further.” – Anonymous

What has faith got to do with building a business? I know that will be the question popping up in your mind and I will try to answer it the best way I can. Though trying my best not to sound too religious, I think faith is the missing link; the unseen difference between the successful entrepreneur and the mediocre.

What is faith? I don't know how to define faith but the Oxford dictionary defines faith as complete trust or confidence. Of all I have heard about faith, I think the best is this; "Faith is the ability to act, the ability to go forward despite tremendous doubts." I don't know who made the statement above but I think the author has said it all.

                "I can't do it, never yet accomplished anything; "I will try" has performed wonders." – George P. Burnham

Faith is very important if you must build a successful business. In fact, I don't how best to stress its importance but what I do know that every great business venture is preceded by an undying faith on the part of the entrepreneur. Without faith it is impossible to go beyond mediocrity.

Now why is faith so important to the cause of building a business? Faith is probably one of the most important keys to starting a business. Well that's my own point of view, I don't know about you? I decided to bring the issue of faith to you for this reason; I have seen men achieve the impossible, just because they had little faith.

                “With faith, you can move mountains.” – The Holy Bible

                "Fear is faith that it won't work." – Mary Kay Ash

Sometimes when I study the life of great entrepreneurs, inventors and drop out billionaires; I marvel at their level of faith and self belief. Below are examples of men who achieve greatness because they had little faith.

                "Whatever happens, do not lose hold on the two main ropes of life – hope and faith." – Anonymous

                The Power of Faith in Starting a Business

 

                Men who Achieved Greatness because they had Faith

1.            What made Thomas Edison go on with the light bulb experiment even in the face of 10,000 failures? The answer is simple; he had faith that the incandescent bulb experiment will yield positive result. And did he achieve his goal? The answer is yes.

2.            People cursed the Wright Brothers for imagining the possibility of a flying machine. But the brothers had faith in their dream and the airplane became a reality.

3.            With faith, David was able to defeat Goliath the Giant.

4.            Bill Gates, Steve Jobs, Michael Dell, Larry Ellison and Mark Zuckerberg dropped out of college because they had faith in their business venture and today, they are the most celebrated entrepreneurs who became billionaires in their youth.

                "You are nuts and you should be proud of it. Stick with what you believe in." – Trip Hawkins

                "Optimism is the determination to see more in something than there is." – Anonymous

These are just few of the many individuals who have reached the pinnacle of success, just because they had little faith. I wonder what a little faith will do in your life and business. Faith can see you through business challenges and storms; faith can see you through business failures. A little faith can break you through obstacles.

                “Without faith, it’s impossible to please God.”

 

                How to develop faith to build a business

I don't know how to teach you to develop faith but I will take a clue from the Holy Bible that says "Faith comes by hearing and hearing the word of God." Hearing also implies studying and learning; as an entrepreneur, you must be an avid learner. By studying the bible and lives of successful entrepreneurs such as Henry Ford and Thomas Edison, you are building your faith that nothing is impossible.

In conclusion, I think faith is a divine key because it has the ability to attract divine assistance. Even the Bible stated clearly that "Without faith, it is impossible to please God" and the same Bible says that "With faith, you can move mountains."

As a final note, I leave you with this quote:

                "Some people intertwine self belief and faith but I stand to say they are not the same. Faith is not self belief. While faith says it can be done, self belief says 'I can do it.' While faith says there is possibility, Self belief says 'I am the possibility.' Faith without self belief is vain.” – Ajaero Tony Martins