| I don't have to tell you that the late Peter F. Drucker | | | | energize their troops. |
| is still one of the most revered names in | | | | Much of this modern obsession with defining, but |
| management circles. | | | | especially with re-defining the mission of one's |
| Shortly, those of us that studied with him directly, | | | | business is traceable to Peter F. Drucker, who |
| and the business school named in his honor at | | | | famously asked: "What business are you in?" |
| Claremont Graduate University, will celebrate his | | | | He pointed out that America's railroads were |
| centennial, the 100th anniversary of his birth. | | | | relegated to sinking revenues and profits, and had |
| This presents an opportunity to refresh some of his | | | | been outpaced by upstarts: by trucking companies |
| most profound insights as well as to reappraise and | | | | and by airlines. Drucker attributed the decline to failing |
| reconsider some of the areas in which people have | | | | to properly define one's mission. |
| misunderstood his concepts, or have simply taken | | | | Instead of saying "We're in the railroad business," |
| them too far. | | | | they should have redefined themselves as being in |
| I have a personal stake in getting the record right, | | | | the "transportation" field. Had they done this, they |
| having filled much of my Advanced Executive MBA | | | | might have adapted faster, or even have led the |
| degree program with his classes, as well as having | | | | field onto highways and into the air, instead of |
| benefited from numerous chats I had with him as I | | | | reluctantly chasing it. |
| shuttled him home from campus, on Saturday | | | | Moving to a higher level of abstraction might have |
| afternoons. | | | | served a positive purpose for railroads, just as |
| Moreover, as a fellow consultant, the fact that he | | | | Honda's decision to define itself in the human |
| took it upon himself to introduce me to his consulting | | | | "mobility" business encapsulates its very prominent |
| clients, will always stand as a cherished and most | | | | existing and future role in manufacturing cars, |
| appreciated gesture. | | | | motorcycles, jet aircraft, off-road vehicles, robotics, |
| There is a famous Drucker question that has been | | | | and walking devices to assist the injured and infirm. |
| misunderstood, misapplied, and exaggerated: | | | | But when the leap in abstraction is stratospheric, it |
| "WHAT BUSINESS ARE YOU REALLY IN?" | | | | becomes comical. "Keeping promises" might be a |
| I was having coffee at a Starbucks in Ventura, | | | | mission Hallmark could tout with a straight face, but |
| California when my gaze fixed on the otherwise bland | | | | making this the slogan of a transport firm is nothing |
| brown truck UPS parked at the curb. | | | | less than ludicrous. |
| A moment later, I noticed with some surprise its | | | | A better question might be: |
| slogan, painted prominently near the wheel well: | | | | "To survive and to thrive, must we become more |
| "Synchronizing the World of Commerce." | | | | than we are or more than we have been to the |
| Wow, that's a lofty mission, isn't it? It sounds as if | | | | customer?" |
| this one corporation is laying claim to being the | | | | The unexpected and non-trendy reply, somewhat like |
| world's timekeeper and taskmaster, all at once. | | | | that favorite phrase repeated in high school yearbook |
| Later that afternoon, I was tooling down the | | | | dedications could be: "Never change. Stay exactly as |
| freeway when I noticed a slogan on yet another | | | | you are." |
| shipping company's truck, this time on a large | | | | Had Coca-Cola gone this route they wouldn't have |
| tractor-trailer rig. Its mission: | | | | altered their time-tested secret formula, only to face |
| "Helping the world to keep its promises." | | | | massive protests, requiring a return to "Classic Coke." |
| Whatever happened to simply being in the delivery | | | | Ford might have kept its T-Birds and Mercury |
| business? Isn't that the "value" that people customers | | | | Cougars lithe and sleek and above-all, selling, instead |
| are buying? | | | | of making them big and bulky. |
| Lofty mission statements aren't new, of course. This | | | | What is value to the customer? Perhaps it is defining |
| is what "visionaries" in companies do, I suppose at | | | | your business in a way that makes sense, something |
| countless resort retreats. They fill flip-charts with | | | | that resonates with customers instead of with |
| brainstormed slogans that will conquer customers and | | | | internal visionaries and sloganeers. |