Peter Drucker 1909 - 2005

19 days ago, Peter Drucker passed away. In my world, in the world of The Beacon Group, we owe a great deal to him. His management theories changed the face of business. He will be missed, and rightfully so. The good news is that his theories will continue shape business for decades to come.

In 1969, he coined the term 'Knowledge Worker '. So, to keep his theories alive, we chose Thomas Davenport's Thinking for a Living: How to Get Better Performance and Results from Knowledge Workers as our book of the month.

It's a wonderful read, and certainly picks up on Drucker's theories, and is worth a place on your book shelf.

If you don't believe me, believe Mr. Drucker:

"To make knowledge work productive will be the great management task of this century, just as to make manual work productive was the great management task of last century."

"The productivity of knowledge and knowledge workers will not be the only competitive factor in the world economy. It is, however, likely to become the decisive factor, at least for most industries in the developed world."

Ahh The Customer Experience

Hey you! Yes, you in mahogany row.. you know, the CEO.. how often do you get out of your office to get down, and you know see what is really happening on your organization's front line...

Oh, don't worry, your people aren't unprepared for dealing with irate customers.. it's your customers.. they're dealing with irate employees.

It never ceases to amaze me.. how often I go into business, and overhear conversations bashing the company.. from EMPLOYEES!!

My advice.. get down there and listen to them. If you're lucky you'll be able to solve their woes.. so, we, the customers don't get turned off your organization for being the only one who has to put up with it...

Get out there and listen for yourself.. and fix it...