| 1. |
Welcome to the club! |
3 |
| 2. |
If you want to be a general manager, begin
performing like a general manager. |
9 |
| 3. |
Never tolerate mediocrity. |
11 |
| 4. |
Move fast with reversible decisions---move less
fast with irreversible decisions. |
13 |
| 5. |
Never try to solve all of the problems at
once---make them line up one-by-one. |
15 |
| 6. |
Never waste time on low-impact matters. |
17 |
| 7. |
Don't even listen to any significant program
presentation that doesn't include a definite time period allocated for
planning. |
21 |
| 8. |
First be effective; then devise ways to be
efficient. |
23 |
| 9. |
Seek out those rare individuals who are truly committed, and build around them. |
25 |
| 10. |
It never pays to delay personnel decisions. |
27 |
| 11. |
It is better to impose slight over-control than
to lose control. |
29 |
| 12. |
It is easier to remove controls (or ease them)
than it is to install them. |
31 |
| 13. |
The shorter the control cycle, the more
effective the results |
33 |
| 14. |
No one ever gives 100% all the time. |
35 |
| 15. |
Aggressive and consistent review of
accountability guarantees an improvement in results |
37 |
| 16. |
The effectiveness of a firm's planning and
control is inversely related to the organization level at which it is
exercised. |
39 |
| 17. |
Never accept a "numbers only"
financial report; insist on prose; "good-bad" statements and
prognoses. |
41 |
| 18. |
Manage inventories and receivables by
"profile" too, not only in total. |
43 |
| 19. |
Rank your time and project selection according
to impact on profitability. |
47 |
| 20. |
Manage an organization as nature would: (A.)
Show neither malice nor pity. (B.) Abhor a vacuum, whether of power or
action. |
49 |
| 21. |
Management's responsibility to
employees---begins and ends with creating an environment for individual
opportunity. (A.) Support those who grasp it. (B.) Replace, promptly,
those who fail---for whatever reason--- to grasp it. |
51 |
| 22. |
Plan your operational environment changes so
that the implementation periods parallel each other. |
55 |
| 23. |
Your true adversary is time. Not
competition, not legislation, not the economy---but time. |
57 |
| 24. |
It is far better to risk over-investment of time in productive planning than to rely on ad hoc solutions to unpredictable problems. |
59 |
| 25. |
Management planning is not complicated, but it
is tedious---that's why the temptation is so strong to avoid it. |
61 |
| 26. |
Law of reversed entropy apply to business
organizations: that is, energy must be applied to the system to restore,
maintain, or increase order. In the absence of applied energy, the
system will deteriorate toward increasing disorder. |
63 |
| 27. |
Results are generated by conditions---viz.,
etc., the operating environment of a firm. Don't expect changes in
results if you haven't changed the conditions. |
67 |
| 28. |
Get time on your side. |
69 |
| 29. |
Only rarely are business failures or poor
decisions the result of too much planning; almost universally they can
be traced to management ego---the temptation to say, "I don't need
a plan; I'm sure I can handle whatever develops. |
71 |
| 30. |
When management only responds to
development, the bell has begun to toll. Excellent management
predetermines developments and thereby controls its corporate future. |
73 |
| 31. |
Management control is like vitamins---You need a fresh dose every day to stay healthy; they are not supplied automatically. |
75 |
| 32. | Learn to cope with vulnerability | 77 |
| 33. | Get in the batter's box and swing. Babe Ruth struck out more times than anyone else, but he also (until Hank Aaron) hit more home runs than anyone else. | 79 |
| 34. | Never be satisfied with results. Too often, profitable companies become comfortable companies---and then they are profitable no longer! | 81 |
| 35. | A business can tolerate a truly enormous number of errors in detail---if the strategic direction is relevant and correct. | 83 |
| 36. | Spectators never appear in the record books. | 85 |
| 37. | Genuine, meaningful "ROI" improvement is generated only by corporate growth. | 87 |
| 38. | Avoid becoming responsible for someone else's problems---you should have enough of your own to work on. |
89 |
| 39. | Solving a business problem always generates even more problems. | 91 |
| 40. | Master the previous before leaping to the subsequent. | 93 |
| 41. | The first and foremost social goal of a business is to make a profit. | 95 |
| 42. | Maintain enough constant pressure to expand your sphere of authority. | 97 |
| 43. | No superior can give you authority. Your extent of authority is exactly what you extract from your peers and
subordinates. | 99 |
| 44. | The numbers can never be too hard. | 101 |
| 45. | Don't waste your time risking small mistakes. | 103 |
| 46. | If something is worth doing, it's worth doing imperfectly. | 105 |
| 47. | Be known to have ambitions---never be known as ambitious. | 107 |
| 48. | A decisive man will always prevail only because almost everybody is indecisive. | 109 |
| 49. | An effective general manager is an expert juggler. | 111 |
| 50. |
Never propose single-vector strategy plans. |
113 |
| 51. | For firms that intend to stay in business, profit plans must always be based on an order input rate in excess of the sales rate. | 115 |
| 52. | If a numbers analysis conflicts with common sense, abandon the numbers. | 117 |
| 53. | The bigger the decisions, the more subjective the decision-making process. | 119 |
| 54. | At best, quantitative analyses only justify an already "right" decision. | 121 |
| 55. | Management is always a contest of wills---that's why persistence always wins. | 123 |
| 56. | Never just "attend" a meeting---always "win" it. | 125 |
| 57. | Become immune to "paralysis by analysis" | 127 |
| 58. | The more someone asks for supplemental analyses, the less serious he is about facing the issue. | 131 |
| 59. | The "BS" content in a firm's communication system is proportional to the number of layers in the organization. | 133 |
| 60. | Never make a decision unless you really have to. | 135 |
| 61. | Nothing is as effective as a well-planned spontaneous demonstration. | 137 |
| 62. | Use approval-level sign-off for communication in all operational activities. | 139 |
| 63. | Nothing is as devastating to an opinion as a number | 141 |
| 64. | Every new general manager has but one honeymoon period---use it wisely. | 143 |
| 65. | Never become involved in the personal lives of business associates. | 147 |
| 66. | Management planning is a tow-step process: (I.) analysis---defining in detail the objective(s), and the tasks needed to achieve those objectives. (2.) synthesis---ranking by priority the sequencing and specific assignment of the defined tasks. | 149 |
| 67. | The right answer at the wrong time is always a bad decision | 151 |
| 68. | There are really only two types of problems: growth problems and liquidation problems. Growth problems are better. | 153 |
| 69. | Constantly test the ranking of planned action priorities. | 155 |
| 70. | When nothing else works... | 157 |
Understanding and Changing Your Management Style
