Practical Principles for Business Management
© C.K. Gibbs, Jr. 2016, revised 2020
- “The tone is set at the top.” (borrowed expression from many sources).
- “The best assets of a company go home at night.” (borrowed expression from many sources)
- “Stick to the knitting.” (a business axiom). Create a core business vision, mission and strategic intent which is executed effectively and efficiently; avoid distractions.
- Strive for excellence in the core business before expanding into perceived synergistic ventures.
- Do not be afraid to fail; be afraid not to try. Assess new opportunities thoughtfully and seize those that offer a high likelihood for success without disrupting successful operations.
- A keen strategic vision, especially as it applies to business opportunities and risks, is a significant asset to competitive and financial success. Strategic vision should be directed through the windshield, not the rearview mirror. (Comment: Honda was founded in 1948. Honda’s strategic intent was global domination of the gasoline combustion engine. Honda began with production of a 2-cycle engine. Harvard Business Review)
- “Business is not complicated; it is applied common sense.” (1994 personal comment by James B. Glavin, formerly CEO, The Immune Response Corporation)
- “Management makes a difference. Management is responsible for the company’s culture with very few exceptions.” (Ray Merola)
- Business does not like surprises.
- “A good battle plan you act on today can be better than a perfect one tomorrow.” (General George Patton)
- You do not have to know everything; you only need to know who to call.
- “You lose a month one day at a time.” (Roger T. Duggan, CEO, Immunodiagnostic Systems plc)
- “Don’t call a spade a shovel.” (George Dunbar, CEO, Metra Biosystems Inc)
- Integrity is hard won and easily lost. You can be successful and, at the same time, remain ethical and honest.
- Employees should strive for excellence; business does not have the time or the cost structure to wait for perfection.
- Great service levels the playing field against competing products perceived to be better.
- Oftentimes a customer may be regarded as a good customer. However, customers should be regarded as high volume or low volume as any customer who buys your product or service and pays their invoice on time is a good customer.
- Management by wandering around works. (Comment: Managers should leave their office, walk around the business or their responsible business unit and talk to employees. They could ask, for example, what tasks are they working on today, what problems do they routinely encounter, what are the biggest challenges they confront to doing their job effectively and efficiently, what suggestions they can offer that could help them become more effective and efficient. Not only does this simple act of asking and listening build respect and team work, it can also lead to simple solutions resulting in improved operations.)
- Management is a hands-on proposition. Managers who read too many how to manage books become managerially constipated.
- A key function of senior executives is the act of making coincidences happen.
- Managers should recall the earlier days of their professional careers when they said, “If I was in charge, I would…” and, whenever reasonable and possible, factor the style of those ideals into decisions that affect their current Company’s culture, employees, and operations.
- Effective leadership incorporates the principle of “follow me.”
- Effective leaders inspire those around them to achieve a level of performance that the followers may not have believed was within their abilities. (Comment: Oftentimes the follower who has accomplished much suffers a disproportionately greater disappointment for having failed to achieve their key goals.)
- Employees usually are more productive and exceed expectations when reporting to a Leader and oftentimes they are more satisfied and happier in their job versus working for a Manager.
- Leaders benefit by having a credible employee source deep inside the organization who will provide unvarnished comments as needed or upon request regarding operational issues that are keys to success, failure, and potentially developing risks. (W. C. Weathersby, formerly Group President, Bristol Myers Squibb)
- You will be respected and more creditable as a Leader if you are equally quick to recognize good performance as to criticize poor performance.
- An appetite for learning is a valuable personal life-long trait, and it is an especially valuable trait to assess when qualifying a prospective new employee or when reviewing performance of a current employee.
- Do not hire your clone. Some qualities to consider when interviewing potential new hires are their applicable experience for the immediate job description, skills that are accretive and potential benefits to the organization, a track record of professional and personal success, ability to work well within a team and organization, and their potential to accept leadership and coaching that may encourage career development within the organization as opportunities become available.
- When hiring, do not create an all-men’s club or all-women’s club. Men and women read, interpret, and analyze information differently and the blended insights can improve organizational performance.
- The intent to have quality-focused employees must be purposely designed into the organization, i.e., effectively recruited and trained. Quality focus, being a character trait, cannot be subsequently manufactured into an individual or organization.
- A successful company culture endeavors to employ and retain quality employees. The extra front-end expense is a cost-effective long-term strategy when one considers recruiting, training and opportunity costs whenever hiring replacements.
- Professional employees change jobs reluctantly. When a departure of a highly valued employee occurs, especially if more than one employee within a short period of time, evaluate company culture and leadership.
- People who are habitually late for professional or personal appointments probably are not as successful as they could be if they were habitually 5 minutes early.
- When the light bulb goes off in the mind of an employee and they decide to leave, wish them well and let them leave.
- For departing employees, the grass is not always greener on the other side of the fence; sometimes it is just artificial turf.
- Business wisdom is a difference maker. Integrity, knowledge, experience, good judgment, vision, common sense, and strong work ethic are foundation blocks for wisdom.
- “Wise people have strong opinions, weakly held. Stupid people have weak opinions, strongly held.” (“Anonymous,” borrowed expression from Seeking Alpha)
- Employees who are effective problem solvers are customarily regarded as being high value, but it is oftentimes more important to have the strategic vision to identify a threat before it becomes a problem and preemptively remedy the threat.
- In general, news is received in one of three forms: good news, mediocre news, or bad news. Although it is always welcomed to hear good news, a Leader should want to hear the bad news first as these items identify problems or potential problems that require immediate attention.
- You can be more effective if you were inside the box before you begin to think outside the box; i.e., in the right environment, experience should stimulate problem identification, creativity, problem solving and leadership qualities.
- In an organization, more stuff trickles up than trickles down, and the stuff that trickles up is typically the most complicated and difficult problems and risks.
- Listening to opinions from others should have a positive influence in sound decision-making, but Leaders are responsible and accountable for making the important decisions rather than allowing them to be made by default.
- Leadership, calm demeanor, understanding with thoughtful analysis, and patience are especially important when risk/reward is highest.
- Not all decisions are important and not everything requires a decision, but use caution when determining that something is not important. You may not know key facts.
- “Making errors is human. However, if the errors are egregious, there is a price to pay.” (Ray Merola, Seeking Alpha contributor)
- Management must assess the downside risk for every key business decision and plan accordingly to minimize or reverse a negative outcome. (Comment: This approach is not negativism; it is a realistic approach borne from history and experience.)
- If you are not the lead dog, the view never changes.” (Lewis Grizzard, author)
- When you graduate from university and enter business, your applied education has just begun. You should learn something new every day.
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