The Secret to Business Success
It seems that contemporary business experts are on a zealous mission to brand, trademark, or copyright business basics with a novel spin. Certainly, there is an endless assortment of narcissistic publications, seminars, and studies that claim to offer the latest and greatest in proprietary business wisdom. While the capitalistic initiative evident in these works is admirable, the incremental value of the underlying concepts grows doubtful when considered in the context of curiously similar practices already well established at the time of “discovery”.
Self-appointed management gurus are tediously rehashing obvious themes, as if each had experienced a personal revelation so divine that they are compelled to pontificate to the unenlightened. Over the years, the faithful have flocked around Management by Objectives, Quality Circles, Business Process Reengineering, Six Sigma, Total Quality Management, Lean Manufacturing and countless other movements redundantly celebrated as the true path to business success. When distilling the essence of such teachings, it becomes apparent that management crusaders and their disciples must have chronic difficulty correlating fundamental concepts that have been around for decades, centuries, or millennia. Unfortunately, the excitement surrounding a newborn phrase usually eclipses the mundane principles behind its efficacy.
Management fads and their accompanying buzzwords are typically nothing more than slick new editions of the same old stories. Recycled theories masquerading as innovative management science represent the corporate equivalent of get-rich-quick schemes. Accordingly, individuals possessing any shred of business savvy will often digest a best-selling book or proprietary program with the nagging suspicion that they have just been suckered by another infomercial.
The quintessential business secret: there are no secrets. To succeed in business, one still needs to sell a product or service for more than it costs – as was the case in 500 BC. In the end, it all boils down to the pragmatic application of common sense, pertinent experience, general business knowledge, and instinct. It is also advisable to throw in a healthy dose of skepticism to immunize against the false hope that swells with every passing panacea.
New Ideas or Déjà Vu?
Arguably, much of the enduring insight applicable in business predates popular management theory by hundreds or thousands of years. Consider a few examples:
“Where there is no vision, the people perish.”
Proverbs 29:18
“Strategy without tactics is the slowest route to victory. Tactics without strategy is the noise before defeat.”
Sun Tzu (c. 544 BC - 496 BC)
“No profit grows where is no pleasure taken; In brief, sir, study what you most affect.”
William Shakespeare (1564 AD – 1616 AD)
“First, have a definite, clear practical ideal; a goal, an objective. Second, have the necessary means to achieve your ends; wisdom, money, materials, and methods. Third, adjust all your means to that end.”
Aristotle (384 BC – 322 BC)
“The general who wins the battle makes many calculations in his temple before the battle is fought. The general who loses makes but few calculations beforehand.”
Sun Tzu (c. 544 BC - 496 BC)
“Lose no time; be always employed in something useful; cut off all unnecessary actions.”
Benjamin Franklin (1706 AD – 1790 AD)
“He who will not economize will have to agonize.”
Confucius (551 BC - 479 BC)
"Quality is not an act, it is a habit."
Aristotle (384 BC – 322 BC)
In Closing
“Many receive advice, only the wise profit from it.”
Publilius Syrus (c. 100 BC)
Exceptional businesses are distinguished not by their adoption of exclusive management theories, but by their willingness and ability to consistently employ fundamental concepts in meaningful ways. Instead of hastening to mimic the latest in fashionable theories, aspiring business leaders should examine why their organizations have failed to effectively implement comparable principles that have long been recognized. Such introspection might produce genuine wisdom – the kind that cannot be found among marketing gimmicks and management fads.
It seems that contemporary business experts are on a zealous mission to brand, trademark, or copyright business basics with a novel spin. Certainly, there is an endless assortment of narcissistic publications, seminars, and studies that claim to offer the latest and greatest in proprietary business wisdom. While the capitalistic initiative evident in these works is admirable, the incremental value of the underlying concepts grows doubtful when considered in the context of curiously similar practices already well established at the time of “discovery”.
Self-appointed management gurus are tediously rehashing obvious themes, as if each had experienced a personal revelation so divine that they are compelled to pontificate to the unenlightened. Over the years, the faithful have flocked around Management by Objectives, Quality Circles, Business Process Reengineering, Six Sigma, Total Quality Management, Lean Manufacturing and countless other movements redundantly celebrated as the true path to business success. When distilling the essence of such teachings, it becomes apparent that management crusaders and their disciples must have chronic difficulty correlating fundamental concepts that have been around for decades, centuries, or millennia. Unfortunately, the excitement surrounding a newborn phrase usually eclipses the mundane principles behind its efficacy.
Management fads and their accompanying buzzwords are typically nothing more than slick new editions of the same old stories. Recycled theories masquerading as innovative management science represent the corporate equivalent of get-rich-quick schemes. Accordingly, individuals possessing any shred of business savvy will often digest a best-selling book or proprietary program with the nagging suspicion that they have just been suckered by another infomercial.
The quintessential business secret: there are no secrets. To succeed in business, one still needs to sell a product or service for more than it costs – as was the case in 500 BC. In the end, it all boils down to the pragmatic application of common sense, pertinent experience, general business knowledge, and instinct. It is also advisable to throw in a healthy dose of skepticism to immunize against the false hope that swells with every passing panacea.
New Ideas or Déjà Vu?
Arguably, much of the enduring insight applicable in business predates popular management theory by hundreds or thousands of years. Consider a few examples:
“Where there is no vision, the people perish.”
Proverbs 29:18
“Strategy without tactics is the slowest route to victory. Tactics without strategy is the noise before defeat.”
Sun Tzu (c. 544 BC - 496 BC)
“No profit grows where is no pleasure taken; In brief, sir, study what you most affect.”
William Shakespeare (1564 AD – 1616 AD)
“First, have a definite, clear practical ideal; a goal, an objective. Second, have the necessary means to achieve your ends; wisdom, money, materials, and methods. Third, adjust all your means to that end.”
Aristotle (384 BC – 322 BC)
“The general who wins the battle makes many calculations in his temple before the battle is fought. The general who loses makes but few calculations beforehand.”
Sun Tzu (c. 544 BC - 496 BC)
“Lose no time; be always employed in something useful; cut off all unnecessary actions.”
Benjamin Franklin (1706 AD – 1790 AD)
“He who will not economize will have to agonize.”
Confucius (551 BC - 479 BC)
"Quality is not an act, it is a habit."
Aristotle (384 BC – 322 BC)
In Closing
“Many receive advice, only the wise profit from it.”
Publilius Syrus (c. 100 BC)
Exceptional businesses are distinguished not by their adoption of exclusive management theories, but by their willingness and ability to consistently employ fundamental concepts in meaningful ways. Instead of hastening to mimic the latest in fashionable theories, aspiring business leaders should examine why their organizations have failed to effectively implement comparable principles that have long been recognized. Such introspection might produce genuine wisdom – the kind that cannot be found among marketing gimmicks and management fads.
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