This Dude's Intense: Comment by a Viewer on Jim Collins's Keynote Address Looking Ahead and Applying Peter Drucker's Timeless Principles

Today in Global Small Business: 10 Lessons I learned From Peter Drucker

©iStock/TimArbaev

What's affecting me, my clients, my colleagues and other global small business owners:

• How to get ready, be strategic, form partnerships and grow global (webinar 4/5); this global small business owner was so successful that she had dinner at The White House with President Obama.
• The cultural shift from stress and burnout is well on its way and global.
• 5 answers to exporting craft spirits worldwide.
• The beginner's guide to global e-commerce.
• A bit about unfair trade practices; are we in a global trade war?
• Ten lessons I [Jim Collins] learned from Peter Drucker (hint:  find your one big distinctive impact).

Drucker Delivered Direct To Your Door

iStock/Thinkstock

I am a big, big fan of Peter Drucker and I just noticed in marking the 100th anniversary of Peter Drucker's birthday that Harvard Business Review has some thought provoking essays written by Harvard folks as well as a feature on Drucker's classic contributions.

No matter how you look at it, Drucker was a tremendous force and influencer in the business world, especially on management thinking. If you can, take the time to review some of this information. It might make the difference between operating from good to great with your global small business.

Drucker Today

By Rosabeth Moss Kanter

While Peter Drucker was alive, he sounded early warnings about sky-high executive pay, an ossified auto industry, and emerging — market threats to U.S. economic dominance. It's not too late to benefit from his advice.

By Alan M. Kantrow

Peter Drucker's writings offer distilled, articulate analyses of modern business management. But, more important, they are a case study in how to think. Five leaders describe Drucker's influence on them in essays that accompany Kantrow's 1980 article.

By Tammy Erickson

We're not quite there yet, but, as usual, Peter's clear vision paints a picture of a world that is looking increasingly likely.

Classic Drucker Articles

Managing Oneself
Drucker challenges readers to take responsibility for managing their futures, both in and out of the office.

What Makes an Effective Executive
Eight simple practices — and one rule — every executive needs to follow to be effective.

What Executives Should Remember
A compilation of the savviest management advice Drucker offered HBR readers over the years.

The Theory of the Business
What happens when the assumptions on which an organization has been built no longer fit reality?

What Business Can Learn from Nonprofits
The best nonprofit organizations are pioneers in motivating knowledge workers and raising their productivity.

All of it can be found here.

And visit The Drucker Institute.

Separately, it appears the Google tag issue has been resolved on our blog.

Harvard Professor Who Coined "Globalization" Dies

iStock/Thinkstock

One of my favorite people (minds) on the planet and the person who coined the term "globalization" died at age 81: Theodore Levitt. The reason why Professor Levitt became such a force in my life was because in the '80s -- before any individual or company was thinking about going global -- he turned me on to the importance of looking at the world as your market. He also knew how to deconstruct and solve problems by asking the right questions. Something to this day I still find myself doing. Here are some things I will remember the most about Levitt:

• Harvard Business Review -- He holds the record with Peter Drucker for publishing the most articles in HBR.

• What turned me on to Levitt -- "The Globalization of Markets" and five other great articles authored by HBR talents.

Using the term "globalization" in a 1983 Harvard Business Review article about the emergence of standardized, low-priced consumer products. He defined that globalization as the changes in social behaviors and technology which allowed companies to sell the same products around the world.

• Marketing Myopia -- HBR Classic: A groundbreaking article originally published in the Harvard Business Review (1960) in which he asked managers, “What business are you really in?” And that's probably why Starbucks is doing so well with its business model because they figured out early on that they were not just in the "coffee" business but in the "people" business. Levitt would be proud that his ideas were turned into practical solutions. Even Wikipedia features Levitt's work. We all know that focusing too narrowly on anything creates limited results.

Another way Levitt posed a question is like this: “What problem are we trying to solve for our customers?” For tool makers, the implication is that it is not really about the tool. Rather, it is about the resulting condition that customers desire from the use of the tool. That is to say, it is holes in the ground they want, not shovels. Fascinating stuff. So pure. So simple. But so many people just don't get it. Levitt did.

• Design Sense magazine No. 26 -- And I bet you didn't know Levitt contributed to this publication. Here's the title his work went under:

"How Major Companies Change Their Names"

An analysis of successful -- and not-so-successful -- name changes by New York Stock Exchange-listed corporations in the late 1950s and early '60s. Also: excerpts from Innovation in Marketing, by Harvard Business School Professor Theodore Levitt.

• Marketing Imagination by Theodore M.Levitt -- My absolute favorite book (and according to my notes in the inside cover, I read it in 1984) on marketing that I still refer to today. It's so relevant that you never want to put it away.

• Two favorite remarks by Levitt that were made in "The Marketing Imagination" -- Henry Ford's: "They can have any color car they want, so long as it's black." -- Page 142. And Levitt's: "The purpose of a business is to create and keep a customer." -- Page 5.

HBR obituary on Professor Levitt can be found here. My sympathies go out to the Levitt family during this time of great sadness.

May Professor Levitt rest in peace in our brave new world and I thank him for helping me and millions of other people understand (global) marketing.