Peter Drucker's contribution to international management. Cheat Sheet: Contribution P

For 66 years of scientific activity, Peter Drucker has published 35 books on economics, management theory and philosophy.

Before the Second World War, the American management theory was dominated by the views of F. Taylor and G. Ford, who viewed management as an exact science. P. Drucker, brought up on the traditions of liberal humanism, viewed management as a kind of new philosophy.

Instead of analyzing in detail each challenge that arises, he explored the underlying general principles management. The shift in emphasis from productivity to the end result allowed P. Drucker to develop the concept of "management by goals", in accordance with which the task of a leader is to set goals and take actions aimed at their implementation. Key figure commercial enterprise is its leader, who plays a major role in combining various resources and creating a product.

One of the most important to this day remains the book "Effective Management", first published in 1964 and has not lost its relevance to this day, as well as a number of other books, such as: "Encyclopedia of Management", "On Professional Management", "Management Tasks in the XXI century ”,“ Management practice ”.

Largely thanks to Peter Drucker, his books, speeches and influential consulting activities, we now have a separate discipline of science called management.

In a concentrated form, the main ideas of P. Drucker are presented in the appendix to the book by J. Tarrant:

The bulk of the sales training process is completely useless. At best, it will help bring the incompetent salesperson out of a state of complete idiocy.

If you have too many problems, you may need to get out of business. There is no law that says a company should last forever.

Goal management will work if you know the goals. However, 90% of the time these goals are unknown to you.

We subordinate economics to politics; but we analyze moral and political issues in economic terms.

We must stop talking about profit as a reward. It is just a kind of cost. In fact, there are no rewards; there are yesterday's and tomorrow's expenses.

Let us consider in more detail the role of some works.

"The Encyclopedia of Management" Peter Drucker himself calls this book a guide to his work; it appeared as an answer to the questions constantly asked by the readers of the younger generation:

“What books are the best places to start reading Drucker’s work? Which of his works should be considered the most important?

This edition is compiled from ten books by Peter Drucker, published over 60 years of scientific and creative activity. According to the author, this is not only the best, in my opinion, introduction to the business, to which I have devoted all my life.

This is not just an anthology that any author can only dream of. I am confident that this is a truly unique, coherent introduction to management theory, covering the basic principles, problems, challenges and opportunities of management. "

"Effective Governance".

The book "Good Governance", written by the "father of management" Peter Drucker, has essentially become a textbook on all types of business of all sizes.

It examines the economic problems that have to be solved in each case to ensure its effective functioning and obtain maximum results.

All the principles outlined in the book have been tested in practice and are successfully applied in modern business.

"About professional management".

The book "On Professional Management" is a collection of interesting articles, classics of management science by Peter Drucker, published over the years in the Harvard Business Review.

In particular, the book contains answers to many important questions, for example, a lot has been said about the problems of modern management; about a society of a new type - a society based on knowledge; on the directions of management development in the future, on the effectiveness of managerial decisions, and so on.

"Tasks of management in the XXI century."

The book "Tasks of Management in the XXI Century" is devoted, first of all, to the global problems that the world economy and all mankind will face in the XXI century. Serious changes await humanity, and we must all be ready for them.

As the title suggests, this is a book about the future. Moreover, this is not a book of prophecy, because it considers only those trends that have already identified themselves in a number of countries.

But Peter Drucker begins by debunking the stereotypes of management science during the twentieth century. Such, for example, that there is - or should exist - some only correct type of organizational structure, that management is business management, that there is - or should exist - only one correct type of employee management.

For example, such as:

“The organization must be transparent. Employees must know and understand the structure of the institution in which they work ":

“The organization must necessarily have a person who makes the final decision in the area of ​​his competence. And there must be someone who takes the lead in a crisis situation ":

"The amount of power should be commensurate with the scope of responsibility":

“Each employee should have only one“ boss ”.

On my own behalf, I will say that, as practice shows, more than half of management problems in modern organizations are associated with the violation of these basic principles.

In what follows, Peter denotes the most important "realities" of the new century.

He refers to them: 1. A sharp decline in the birth rate in developed countries. 2. Changes in the distribution of disposable income. 3. Changing the definition of effectiveness. 4. Globalization of competition. 5. The growing mismatch between economic globalization and political disunity.

Drucker analyzes the opportunities that these "realities" open up for business and, in particular, for business management. The author also examines many other problems facing managers of the new century (the problem of managing knowledge workers, for example), including even their personal problems associated with self-determination and "life planning".

And although some of Drucker's forecasts and opinions already seem naive (for example, his approach to information system enterprises), the density of useful information and the number of "catchy" ideas in this book requires any business management and mandatory attention.

Job responsibilities. Under the leadership of a leading (senior) engineer, responsible executor or the head of the topic (assignment), he participates in scientific research or technical development. Develops work plans and programs for individual stages of work. Carries out collection, processing, analysis and systematization of scientific and technical information on the topic (task). Designs kinematic, electrical, installation and other schemes for various purposes, calculates the necessary parameters and values. Compiles descriptions of the device and principles of operation of the designed products, objects, as well as justification of the adopted technical solutions. Designs means of testing and control, tooling, laboratory models, controls their manufacture. Takes part in bench and industrial tests prototypes(batches) of designed products, installation and adjustment of equipment during research and experiments. Performs tuning and adjustment of complex and precise equipment, monitors its condition and correct use. Monitors the operation of the equipment, conducts complex experiments and measurements, keeps records of the experiments, performs the necessary calculations, analyzes and summarizes the results, compiles technical reports and operational information on them. Prepares the initial data for drawing up plans, estimates, applications for materials, equipment, etc. Develops design and working technical documentation, prepares completed research and development work. Participates in the implementation of the developed technical solutions and projects, in the provision of technical assistance and in the implementation of field supervision in the manufacture, installation, commissioning, testing and commissioning of designed products and objects. Summarizes the experience of implementing research results and developed technical solutions. Studies special literature and other scientific and technical information, achievements of domestic and foreign science and technology on research or development issues. Prepares informational reviews, as well as reviews, feedback and conclusions on technical documentation. Participates in the examination of scientific works, in the work of seminars, conferences, scientific and technical societies. Compiles sections of scientific and technical reports on the work performed. Takes part in the preparation of publications, drawing up applications for inventions and discoveries.

Must know: methods of research, design and experimental work; special scientific, technical and patent literature on research and development; the procedure for using abstract and reference and information publications, as well as other sources of scientific and technical information; production technology of the relevant branch of the economy; purpose, composition, design, principle of operation, installation conditions and technical exploitation designed products, objects; equipment of a department of an institution (organization), features of its operation; standards, technical conditions and other guidance materials for the development and execution of technical documentation; methods and means of performing technical calculations and computational work; domestic and foreign achievements of science and technology in the relevant field of knowledge; requirements for the organization of labor in the design; fundamentals of economics, labor organization and organization of production; basics labor legislation; rules and regulations of labor protection.

Qualification requirements. Higher professional education without presentation of requirements for work experience.

1.Introduction 3

2. The main ideas and concepts developed by P. Drucker 4

2.1 Goal Management 6

2.2. The concept of a company 7

2.3 Knowledge Society 11

2.4 Theory of Business 13

2.5 Effectiveness 15

3.Conclusion 18

4. List of references 20

1. Introduction

Peter Ferdinand Drucker(Peter Ferdinand Drucker) is one of the most renowned management scientists and the author of many books on management issues. His works are widely known in the world. Peter F. Drucker was born in 1909 in Vienna (Austria). The future guru was educated at home and in the UK, after which he worked as a newspaper reporter in Frankfurt (Germany), while preparing to defend his doctoral dissertation. Later, Drucker worked as an economist in the London branch of one of the major international banks, and in 1937 he moved to the United States. In America, at Bennington College and New York University Graduate School of Business, he embarked on a teaching career. On June 21, 2002, Peter Drucker received the Medal of Freedom from the hands of US President George W. Bush. He has been the recipient of honorary doctorates from many universities around the world. The last years of his life, Peter Drucker spent in Claremont, California. Moving away from vigorous activity, he, nevertheless, continued to advise. On November 11, 2005, Peter Drucker passed away eight days before his 96th birthday.

Peter Ferdinand Drucker- a renowned writer, consultant and theorist in the field of management, consulted by the heads of the world's largest corporations, non-profit organizations, government agencies. Drucker wrote 31 books, which have been translated into more than two dozen languages. Thirteen of them are devoted to economics, politics, public life, and fifteen books - to management. He also published two stories and an autobiography, was the co-author of a book on Japanese painting. The main contribution of the scientist is the systematization of knowledge on management problems and the allocation of management as a separate science. The modern society today is turning from an industrial society into a “society of managers”, since it is this category of workers that comes to the fore. It is precisely the phenomenon of management that can explain why the labor of highly qualified workers is used more and more at enterprises. No society, no social system before could afford this, and it is management that is able to use the ever-deepening division of labor, to unite workers different specialties and lead them to achieve common goals. The role of management is to turn knowledge and education into the direct productive force of society, into what is called the true capital of any economy. Almost 150 years ago the concept of "management", the self-science of management, was unknown. Since then, according to Drucker, management has radically changed the entire system of socio-economic relations in the highly developed countries of the world. In his works, Drucker traces the entire path of this transformation, showing how governance created the world economy, established a new economic order. He examines the challenges that managers in developing and developed countries face and will meet in the future, focusing on the principles of governance that will help managers build successful businesses around the world.

2. Key ideas and concepts developed by Peter Drucker.

While living and working in London, Peter Drucker published his first books (1939 and 1942): The End of the Economic Man and The Future of the Industrial Man. The ideas expressed by Drucker in these works interested one of the leaders of General Motors, who invited him to conduct a study of the top management of the company and the basic principles of its functioning. Based on this research and his experience in consulting projects carried out by him for other large corporations (General Electric, Sears, Roebuck), Drucker published two more works: in 1946 - the book "The Concept of the Corporation", and in 1954 - "Practice management ". As the conclusions based on these works, the author determined the absence of the concept of management as a profession: managers do not realize what they are doing.
a set of manager functions. Drucker believed that: « The ability to make the right decisions is the most important skill for all levels of management» ... Drucker also highlighted 3 fundamental functions of a manager:

1) business management;

2) management of managers;

3) employee management.

The third important conclusion was the definition of business as a firm, which includes 3 concepts. Firstly, as a "business", that is, an economic institution formed to create products that meet the needs of the market, clients of the firm. Secondly as a humanitarian and social “organization” that employs people and pledges to pay them for their work. Thirdly as a "social institution" integrated into society and therefore subject to the influence of public interests. The main thing in the first books of Drucker is an attempt to present management in the form of a systematized sum of knowledge, that is, a new scientific discipline. Drucker concluded that the success of the leading US corporations is associated with the use of the same techniques of effective business management. The scientist attributed to them the decentralization of operational decision-making, optimization of the number of management personnel, "enrichment" of labor, a clear awareness of their belonging to a particular business. The most significant contribution of the scientist to the theory of management is considered to be the analysis of the most important of these methods, which allowed him to develop the concept of "management by goals".

2.1. Management by goals.

The central idea of ​​this concept is in the plurality of goals of the organization (not only the traditional maximization of profit, but also the focus on long-term success). The task of the rational manager is to balance the various goals of the organization. Definition of goals for each area management activities allows: Firstly, explain the entire range of economic phenomena in several generalizing formulations; Secondly, to test these judgments in practice; third, predict the behavior of the firm; fourthly, check the reasonableness of decisions in the process of their adoption, and not after their implementation; fifthly, improve future performance based on the analysis of past experience. The use of the goal-based management mechanism as a method of increasing the effectiveness of the organization allows you to combine planning and control, increase the involvement of managers at all levels in the process of setting goals and stimulate processes feedback... Another important advantage of this concept is the combination of tasks facing the individual manager, the common goals of the company. Management by purpose, therefore, assumes that the management of an organization is a function of a group of managers, and a non-exclusive privilege of one person. Since an integral part of management by goals is the wide participation of lower-level workers in it, top managers must maintain cooperation with them and their participation in decision-making. Drucker identified a set of goals that determine long-term success, which includes improving the company's position in the market, labor productivity, profitability indicators, innovative activity, physical and financial resources, the activities of managers and the development of their abilities, the activities of employees and their attitude to work,
the company's responsibility to society.

2.2. The concept of an entrepreneurial society.

Peter Drucker in 1984 publishes a book entitled "The Market: How To Lead. Practice and Principles." In this work, Drucker introduces the term "management revolution" to mean innovation and entrepreneurship. The author writes that they (innovation and entrepreneurship) help achieve the changes that various historical revolutions have tried to achieve, but only without bloodshed, civil war, concentration camps and economic failures. innovation activities and entrepreneurship are distinguished by purposefulness, certainty and controllability. Drucker talks about the need for an entrepreneurial society in which innovation and entrepreneurship are sustainable, normal and indispensable. The leaders of all institutions are required to transform innovation and entrepreneurship into normal, continuous, everyday activities, in the practice of their personal work and the work of their organization. Thus, the manager takes the first role, and the concept of "manager-entrepreneur" arises. Drucker notes that entrepreneurship is of a better quality, and an entrepreneur is one who creates fundamentally new goods or services. In addition, Drucker interprets the spheres of entrepreneurship: small business, intra-company entrepreneurship (technological, organizational), entrepreneurship in the social sphere (new approaches to labor motivation). In his work, Peter Drucker also identifies the conditions for the formation and existence of an entrepreneurial society. The author considers the identification of areas of refusal, that is, those areas in which innovative and entrepreneurial activities do not bring the desired results, as the primary task of state policy and measures that need to be carried out in an entrepreneurial society. So, in his opinion, planning in the traditional sense is incompatible with an entrepreneurial society and an entrepreneurial economy. At their core, innovative activities should be decentralized, prompt, concrete, and should be microeconomic in nature. It is best to make sure that they are implemented gradually, be flexible and effective. The author also warns that the development of high technology should not be considered innovation. The most likely outcome of high-tech-only policies could be another costly fiasco. First of all, high technology is only one area of ​​innovation and entrepreneurship, but by no means the only one. The bulk of new introductions falls on other areas. Drucker identifies two areas in which an entrepreneurial society requires innovative social activities. The first section - politics aimed at social protection of the reserve labor force. The absolute number of unemployed people is small. But the point is that production workers employed in traditional industries are concentrated in very few places. They have a limited degree of freedom, that is, they are limited in changing jobs, places of residence, etc. They have neither sufficient education, nor high qualifications, nisocial competence, nor self-confidence. This category of workers in developed countries forms the stratum whose level of education and general culture has not undergone radical changes in this century. But these workers are the highest paid group in industrial society.
society will not show concern for their employment - even by providing them with less well-paid jobs - they will turn into a purely negative force. This problem is solvable if the economy turns into an entrepreneurial one. New businesses set up within the entrepreneurial economy create new jobs. But even if the entrepreneurial economy does create new jobs, organizational measures are still needed to train and employ workers released from traditional industries. They cannot do this on their own. If these measures are not taken, then the liberated industrial work force will show increasing resistance to everything new, including the means of his own salvation. Another necessary social innovation is distinguished by its radicalism, complexity, and unusualness. It consists in organizing a systematic replacement of the obsolete social policy and outdated service sector structures, since the active period of social policy
very limited and limited period of effective activity of service agencies. In addition to these two innovative measures of a social nature, Drucker singles out as one of the most important conditions for the functioning of the entrepreneurial society tax policy... It is important both as a tool that influences the behavioral norms of economic agents, and as a symbol of the values ​​and priorities of society. Currently, in developed countries, getting rid of the traditional irrationalities of the past is severely punished by the existing tax system. An equally important instrument than tax and fiscal policy aimed at encouraging entrepreneurship (or at least not restraining it) is the protection of new enterprises from the need to fulfill government tasks of a bureaucratic nature (reporting, certificates, etc.). These costs are expressed not only in the financial costs associated with the underutilization of the most qualified staff, his
working time and effort. These costs are invisible, because it is not directly
appear in government budgets, but are hidden, for example, in doctor's accounts,
a nurse who spends a good half of her working time filling out all kinds of official reports.

Peter Drucker also identified the primary challenge facing members of the entrepreneurial society and which should be treated as an opportunity for their own growth: continuous learning and retraining. Caring for personal growth and professional career motivates individual members of the entrepreneurial society to increasingly take responsibility for their continuous learning. and retraining. They can no longer be guided by the notion that the knowledge gained in
childhood and adolescence, they will serve as a "foundation" for the rest of their lives. early years knowledge should be viewed as a "launching pad" for a run, takeoff, and not as a base for erecting a building in which one intends to spend his whole life.8 People should be ready to independently determine the directions of their activities.
The intensity of knowledge and skills renewal depends on the level of initial training and how much their professional career is related to
entrepreneurship. In this regard, the area
activities of employees. For example, skills acquired by a carpenter over the years
teachings, can serve him faithfully without significant changes for forty years, that is, almost until the end of his economically active life. As for doctors, engineers, teachers, lawyers, managers, etc., they should proceed from the assumption that the knowledge, skills and abilities they have acquired will become obsolete in fifteen years. Specialists of this level should be prepared for the fact that in fifteen years after they have mastered knowledge and skills at the present level, they will actually have to solve completely different problems, they will have different goals, and in many cases their professional "career" may go in a different direction. From these considerations follows the next concept of Peter Drucker - the concept of "knowledge society".

2.3. Knowledge Society

The main idea of ​​the concept of a knowledge society is the expression of the most
Peter Drucker: "In a knowledge society, managers must be willing to give up everything they know." In such a society, knowledge is the primary resource and an all-encompassing resource for both individuals and the economy as a whole. Such traditional factors of production as land, labor and capital do not disappear, but recede into the background. They can be acquired and quite easily acquired just with the help of specialized knowledge. According to this concept, a new type of worker appears - the knowledgeworker. Drucker distinguishes two categories of workers: managers and specialists (managers of a certain level, consultants, programmers, software users, etc.).

Users and programmers can work both independently and in
companies. The main difference between their activities is that they create a product with their own funds, without using company funds. A fair question arises: how to manage such workers? In answering this question, Drucker considered the three types of commands:

Pair tennis, characterized by high interdependence
partners, the need to reconcile their strengths and weaknesses and the lack of freedom;

· Baseball, where the place and functions of each player are strictly defined and clearly articulated;

American football with a significantly greater degree of freedom, according to
During the course of the game, any player can take the initiative and perform various functions.

Drucker believes that the structure and type of work of most organizations can be compared with one or another category of sports teams and
appropriate style of work with personnel. Drucker also notes that the dynamics of knowledge clearly dictate to managers that each organization should build change management in its own system, which is close to this particular organization. On the one hand, this means that each organization must be prepared to give up everything that it
does. Managers must learn after a certain amount of time
Regarding each process, each product, each procedure and policy, periodically ask the question: "If we do not already do this, should we do it, knowing what we now know?" If this question is answered in the negative, the following question should arise: "So what should we do now?" And the organization should do something specifically to solve this problem, and not call for another research. The organization should be able to refuse from any unpromising and unprofitable activity, and not try to prolong the life of some successful product of production. Sometimes such a strategy will bring more benefits than the latter.
On the other hand, it is the sacred duty of every organization to devote itself to creating something different. This idea is characterized by the assertion that each management in its activities should use three basic principles. Firstly, a process called kaizen by the Japanese, which involves continuing to improve the company's product. The goal of kaizen is to improve a product or service in such a way that in two or three years they can become a really different (from “different”) product or service. Secondly, every organization must learn to use their knowledge to develop their own success and its further application, and not just rest on hand. Thirdly, every organization must learn to innovate as a systematic process. Without these three principles, a mission-based organization will soon outlive itself, losing its productive capacity and with it the ability to attract and retain professional workers with specialized knowledge on which productivity depends.

2.4 Business theory.

Another concept developed by Peter Drucker is the concept of business theory. It is based on attempts to answer the question of what happened to well-known firms in the 80-90s. The author analyzed the causes of the crises of large corporations (for example, General Motors and IBM) and made the appropriate conclusions. For General Motors, the main problem was the loss of understanding of its market, and for IBM - its product, that is, the companies were unable to adapt their business theory to modern conditions... The main development of Drukerastal is three elements that make up the theory of business. First element–Perception of the organization's environment: society and its structure, market, consumer and technology. Second element- an idea of ​​the specific (special) mission of the organization. Third element- an understanding of the company's key capabilities or core competence - a set of capabilities that determine competitive advantages and are necessary to fulfill the organization's mission. The author notes that these three points are deceptively simple. It usually takes years of intense work, reflection, and experimentation to develop a well-defined, comprehensive, and actionable business theory. To be successful, an organization must work its way out and grow in its own way. For business theory to work, there are four important points to keep in mind:

1. Ideas about the environment, the mission of the organization and the core
competencies must correspond to reality. That is, it is necessary
take into account the changes taking place in society, its structure, and, accordingly, in the needs and capabilities of consumers, and already, proceeding from this, somehow develop and change your business.
2. The concepts of these three elements must correspond to each other.
friend. Perhaps it was the most strong point General Motors,
defining the dominant position of the company for decades. The company had a wonderful combination of market vision and optimal manufacturing process. In the mid-1920s, the company decided that it also needed a completely new, hitherto unknown key capability: financial control. production process and the theory of capital allocation. The result was modern cost accounting and the first rational capital allocation process.
3. All people in an organization must know and understand its business theory.
This is easy to implement at the initial stage of the organization's activities. However, with its gradual formation and coming to success, there is more and more a tendency to take business theory for granted. Then a kind of negligence appears in the work of the organization, it begins to "cut corners". The company starts doing what feels right, rather than what is right. She stops thinking, asking questions. She remembers the answers but forgets to ask questions. Business theory becomes culture, but culture is not a substitute for discipline, and business theory is primarily a discipline.
4. Business theory must be constantly tested. It is not engraved on
stone. It consists of assumptions about things that are in constant
dynamics, movement - society, markets, consumers, technologies. Thus, the self-theory of business must assume the possibility of changing it.

2.5. Efficiency.

In 1966, Peter Drucker published a book called Effective
manager". It is interesting that in this work the scientist acted not only as a theoretician, but also as a practitioner giving specific advice. The author writes that efficiency cannot be taught, but you can and should learn yourself. He says that managers who are unable to steer their activities in an effective direction are unlikely to be able to properly manage their colleagues and subordinates. Managers who do not know how to effectively organize their own work process set a bad example for those around them. In order to work effectively, it is not enough to be hardworking, well-informed, or have high intellectual abilities. Efficiency is something independent and special. However, you do not need to have special abilities, aptitudes, or acquired skills to be effective. The effectiveness of the manager is expressed in his ability to perform certain - rather simple - tasks. Efficiency comes from a few practical components. Drucker identifies five basic elements to improve the performance of a managerial worker. Firstly, effective managers need to know where they are spending their time. The ability to control your time is an essential element of productive work. This step is purely methodological in nature: recording time, keeping control records with its measurements. This forces the employee to take a closer look at where he spends his time, at his activities and goals, which will significantly affect the level and quality of work performed. Secondly, effective managers must focus on achievements that go beyond the boundaries of their organization. They should be focused not on getting the job done, but on the end result. A good manager, before embarking on a task, ask himself the question: "What results should I achieve?" The very process of work and its methods are relegated to the background for him. The manager learns to analyze his role in the organization and determine his contribution to its activities. The answers to the questions posed should lead to an increase in requirements for oneself, to reflections on the organization's own goals and objectives, as well as to the definition of values. Most importantly, the questions should lead to the idea of ​​the need to improve their performance. They stimulate the manager to take on greater responsibility and abandon the role of a subordinate person, for whom everything that suits the bosses is good. In other words, concentrating on his own contribution, the manager learns to focus not on the means as such, but on the final goals. Thirdly, effective managers must build their activities on preferential, strong qualities, both their own and managers, colleagues and subordinates, and must also look for positive moments in specific situations. You cannot start working with solving unrealistic tasks at the given moment. Activating character strengths is reflected in behavior. It is respect for the individual, both his own and others. This is a system of values ​​and actions. But this is again a teaching in the process of doing work and self-development in practice. By emphasizing strengths, the manager brings together the individual purpose and needs of the organization, the individual abilities and performance of the organization, the individual accomplishments and capabilities of the organization. Fourth, effective managers focus their attention on a few critical areas in which the execution of assigned tasks will bring the most tangible results. They must learn to prioritize work directions and not deviate from them. Waste of energy and time leads to the most negative results. The focus at this stage is on the functional indicators of the manager and the organization.
What is being analyzed is not what is happening, but what you want to happen in the surrounding conditions. In this case, it is not information that is subject to development, but character: prudence, self-confidence, courage. In other words, it develops leadership based on determination, determination and confidence. AND fifthly, effective managers must make effective decisions. And this is, first of all, a question of consistency, that is, the process of completing the task must take place in the required sequence. It should be remembered that an effective decision is always a judgment based, rather, on a coincidence of opinions, rather than on consistency of facts. Excessive haste leads to poor decision making. There should be few solutions, but they should all be fundamental. In making decisions, you need to be guided by the correct strategy, and not momentary tactical considerations. The author pays the most attention to the manager's self-development, which plays a huge role in his becoming an effective employee. He must acquire the appropriate knowledge and skills. He must master a lot of new skills for himself as he moves through the activity. But any skills and knowledge will not help a leader much if he does not develop himself from the point of view of efficiency. Self-development of managers in order to improve their own efficiency is the central link in the development of the organization. To the extent that managers seek to provide specific benefits, they increase functional level organization in which they work. As a result, the organization not only becomes capable of more productive activities, it acquires the ability to perform a variety of functions and strives for a variety of goals.

3. Conclusion.

The main contribution of Peter Drucker to the modern theory of management is that he was able to collect and systematize the knowledge of many scientists about the problems of management, thereby separating it into a separate science. own developments scientist, he had an amazing gift to formulate ideas, which later became the postulates of management related to the specification and explanation of the processes taking place in the organization on the way to improving its structure, productivity and meeting the needs of consumers. Considering the fact that today the national natural and climatic resources are increasingly losing their former significance for both economic growth and the cultural development of any country, after reading Drucker's works, you begin to better understand not
just the importance of the factor of management in modern society, but also the transformation of it is the main, decisive factor in the progress of human civilization.
According to Drucker, the following management principles can be distinguished:

1. Management is an integral part of human life. Without him
impossible no Team work people. Governance makes people's strengths effective and weaknesses irrelevant.
2. Management is deeply embedded in the culture of any country. And here is a big
feedback matters: the impact of cultural and historical traditions on governance.

3. The task of management is to establish in the organization such a system of clear and
simple goals and values ​​that would make all workers allies in their achievement.

4. The task of management also includes: providing the enterprise and
every employee has an opportunity to grow and develop. Continuous training and retraining must enter the flesh and blood of any organization at all levels.

5. The performance of work by each employee should be based on personal
responsibility for the assigned case. Everyone should clearly understand their responsibilities and be able to evaluate their personal contribution to the common cause.

6. Control over all parameters also depends on management.
activities of the organization.

7. Finally, you should always remember that the main end result of the enterprise is customer satisfaction.

4. References.

1. Katkalo V.S. Peter Drucker and modern management// Bulletin
SPbSU. 1995. Series 5, issue 3 (No. 19).

2. Peter F. Drucker. Market: how to become a leader. Practice and principles.
Moscow, 1992.

3. Peter F. Drucker. An effective manager - Moscow: BCI, 1994.

4. Michael Mescon. Fundamentals of management. Michael Mescon, Michael Albert, Franklin Hedowry, Moscow, ed. Case, 1996.

Management practice

Peter Ferdinand Drucker

This book about management has long become a classic, because for the first time it presents a holistic understanding of what management is, and proposes to consider a manager as a separate important link in the company. Despite the fact that the first edition of the book was published more than 60 years ago, it is still relevant today, because it describes the fundamental concepts and principles that both students and professionals need to know.

Peter Drucker

Management practice

Peter F. Drucker

The Preface of Management

Reprinted with permission from Joan D. Winstein, Co-Trustee of the Drucker 1996 Literary Works Trust and Andrew Nurnberg

Science Editor Nina Nasikan

Legal support of the publishing house is provided by the law firm "Vegas-Lex"

© Peter F. Drucker, 1954, 1986

© Translation into Russian, edition in Russian, design. LLC "Mann, Ivanov and Ferber", 2015

This book is well complemented by:

Effective leader (http://www.mann-ivanov-ferber.ru/books/paperbook/theeffectiveexecutive/)

Peter Drucker

Management. Challenges of the XXI century (http://www.mann-ivanov-ferber.ru/books/paperbook/challenges/)

Peter Drucker

Drucker for every day (http://www.mann-ivanov-ferber.ru/books/paperbook/drucker/)

Peter Drucker, Joseph McIarello

Lessons from outstanding leaders (http://www.mann-ivanov-ferber.ru/books/secrets_of_the_great/true_north/)

Bill George and Peter Sims

Foreword

Prior to the publication of this book in 1954, other books on management had been written and published, albeit comparatively few. In 1946, I published my first book on this topic, Concept of the Corporation. A few years earlier, in 1938, Chester Barnard's book "The Functions of a Leader" appeared. Management articles written by Mary Follett and written in the 1920s and early 1930s were collected in 1941 and published in a collection entitled Dynamic Administration. Australian-born Elton Mayo, a professor at Harvard University, has published two of his small books about work and the worker: The Human Problems of an Industrial Civilization and The Social Problems of an Industrial Civilization. - in 1933 and 1945, respectively. Translation into English language the works of the French theorist and practice of management Henri Fayol Industrial and General Administration ("General and industrial management»), First published in Paris in 1916, appeared in 1930; and Frederick Taylor's book Principles scientific management”Was published even earlier, in 1911, and has been reprinted many times since then.

Each of these books continues to enjoy great and well-deserved popularity. Each of them at one time represented a major achievement and laid a solid and long-term basis for scientific management. Moreover, these works still remain unsurpassed in the relevant field of expertise. To this day, readers have not been offered better guidance on what we now call organizational psychology and organizational development than the writings of Barnard and Mary Follett. When we talk about “quality circles” and “employee participation in management,” we are only repeating what Elton Mayo wrote forty and fifty years ago. Henri Fayolle presents the material in a somewhat old-fashioned language, but his ideas about the functioning and organization of management are still original and relevant. Over the years, little has been said about the functions and policies of senior executives compared to what I wrote in my book, The Concept of the Corporation. To understand the peculiarities of the work of qualified specialists in the field of information analysis and processing, that is, specialists in the field of knowledge, and to find out how to increase the productivity of such work, we still have to turn to Taylor's legacy today.

Nonetheless, The Practice of Management was the first real book on management. In it, this science was considered for the first time as a whole and for the first time an attempt was made to present management as an independent function, management as a special type of work, and a manager's performance of his functions as a special type of activity. All previous books on this topic have dealt with some aspect of management, such as communications (like Barnard's book Leadership) or senior leaders, organizational structure and corporate politics (like my own book, The Concept of the Corporation). Management Practice covers business management (Part I), executive managers (Part II), employee and job management (Part IV). It also talks about management structure (Part III) and decision making (Part V, Chapter 28). It is also about the nature of management, its role, tasks and problems; it also speaks of managers as people performing managerial work and holding managerial positions: their qualifications, self-improvement, official duties, values. In Chapter 13, entitled “The Spirit of the Organization,” the reader will find everything about what is now defined (and described) as corporate culture. The Practice of Management was the first book in which, when discussing the goals of an organization, we formulated a definition of the area of ​​key results. It shows how to set goals and use them to choose the direction of the business and evaluate its performance. In fact, the term "goals" first appeared in this book - at least I was not able to find it in the earlier literature. Finally, Management Practice discussed for the first time both the management of an existing business and the introduction of progressive changes into it, on the basis of which the business of tomorrow emerges.

Perhaps most important - and undoubtedly more innovative - was the fact that this book first looked at the whole business in this book. All previous books on management, and even most modern books, have dealt with some aspect of the enterprise. Moreover, they usually study only the internal dimension: organization, politics, relationships between people within the organization, authority and other aspects of the company's life. Management Practice considers an organization in three dimensions: first, as a business, which is an institution whose task is to obtain certain economic results outside of itself, in the market or for clients; secondly, as a human and social organization one that gives people work, is designed to improve them, is obliged to pay them for their work, to organize them to ensure productive work and which, therefore, requires management, since it embodies certain values ​​and forms a relationship of power and responsibility; thirdly, as a certain social institution embedded in society and the local community and, accordingly, subject to the influence of public interests. It also discusses the social responsibilities of business, a term that was largely unknown at the time this book was published.

Thus, about thirty years ago, The Practice of Management created what is now commonly called the discipline of management. It was neither an accident nor a stroke of luck - this is the goal set by the author when writing the book.

When I wrote The Practice of Management, I already had ten years of successful consulting work behind me, although my starting point was neither business nor management. True, much earlier I had to work in banks - no more than one year in Germany and three years in England. But I became a writer and journalist and, besides that, taught the theory of public administration and political science. Thus, I came to management almost by accident. In 1942, I published the book Future of Industrial Man, in which I argued that many of the social tasks carried out in earlier societies by the local community and family were subsequently taken over by organizations and, in particular, commercial companies. This book caught the attention of one of the top executives of the world's largest manufacturing company, General Motors, and in the late fall of 1943, he invited me to conduct an in-depth study of the top management of this company, its structure and basic policies. The result of this work was the book "The Concept of the Corporation", which was completed in 1945 and published in 1946.

This work evoked conflicting feelings in me. On the one hand, she brought me deep satisfaction, on the other, disappointment. There was nowhere to wait for help. The scarce literature on management and commercial companies that I could use to write this book was completely out of line with reality. Each of these books dealt with one - and only one - aspect of management, and in complete isolation from all other aspects of managing an organization. They reminded me of a book on human anatomy, devoted entirely to the discussion of a single joint, such as the elbow, and even casually did not mention the forearm, let alone the muscles and the skeleton in general. Even worse, I have not come across a single study that examines most management issues. Meanwhile, in my opinion, the most interesting, informative and valuable would be the presentation of management and the work of a manager precisely as an all-embracing, integral, “three-dimensional” phenomenon. It took me quite a bit of time to understand that management should always take into account the results of activities, for the sake of which, in fact, every business exists, the internal organization of people involved in solving a common problem for all, and external " social characteristics»- parameters determined by the impact on society and responsibility to it. However, in the books at my disposal, it was impossible to find any information on most of these issues, let alone their relationship. At that time, there were many books that examined the impact of government policies on business. Moreover, training courses on government regulation of business were then - and still are - extremely popular. But what about the impact of business on society in general and local communities in particular? I had in my hands a lot of materials on corporate finance, but there was practically nothing about business policy and other similar issues.

After completing my research, I continued to work as a consultant for General Motors for a while. Then I was offered to advise a number of other large corporations: Sears, Roebuck, Chesapeake & Ohio Railroad, General Electric. And every time I was faced with the same situation: an almost complete lack of research, reflection and knowledge regarding the work, functions and problems of management - just scattered fragments and specialized monographs. So, I decided, first of all, to sketch the general outlines of this "unexplored continent" called management, and then to figure out what exactly is missing in this diagram and what needs to be improved, and finally to add a whole picture from the results obtained, presenting it in the form of a well-systematized and an organized, yet compact enough book. While doing consulting, I have met many capable young people, middle and senior managers, including those who only recently and for the first time in their life took a responsible position, either as a manager or as a highly qualified specialist in their field. All of these people were aware of the fact that they were managers (their predecessors, who made their careers even before World War II, often did not even think about it). These young and motivated people understood that they needed systematic knowledge - concepts, principles, tools - to successfully cope with management work. But they did not have such knowledge, and they had nowhere to get it. It was for them that I wrote my book. This generation brought rapid success to my work, changing the concept of a manager as a bearer of a "title", thanks to which managers began to be perceived as people who perform certain jobs and functions, as people who are entrusted with a lot of responsibility. Immediately after its publication, the book began to enjoy great success not only in the United States of America, but throughout the world: in Europe, in Latin America and especially in Japan. The Japanese even believe that it laid the foundation for their economic success and industrial power.

Some of my subsequent books on management have taken an in-depth look at this or that topic of Management Practices. For example, the book "Effective Enterprise Management" (published in 1964) was the first book on business strategy, and the book "The Effective Leader" looks at the manager as a manager and executive In the organisation. The book "Management: tasks, responsibilities, practice" was written not only as a systematic reference material for practicing leaders, but also as a methodological guide for students studying management. When writing it, I set myself the goal of creating an exhaustive and strictly scientific manual, while, according to the plan, "The Practice of Management" was to become an accessible and stimulating material. Managing in Turbulent Times, written in 1980, takes an in-depth look at the fundamental questions raised in Management Practice (What is our business? What might it be? What should it be?) ; however, it looks at how businesses innovate and maintain continuity during times of great change, thus turning those changes into opportunities.

The Practice of Management remains the same book that management students, young people dreaming of becoming managers, and experienced managers continue to

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considered the main textbook for this discipline. “If you want to limit yourself to just one book about management,” the chairman of one of the largest banks in the world says to his subordinates, “read“ Management Practice ”. In my opinion, its success is due to its balance: the presented material exhausts all possible topics and at the same time is accessible and easy to read. Each chapter is compact enough, nevertheless, it presents the fundamentals of management in their entirety. Of course, this is a consequence of the goals I set when writing the book. I wanted to write a book that would give executives I’ve worked with in my former client companies everything they need to get the job done successfully and prepare them to be effective executives; at the same time, the material of the book should be clear, readable so that busy people, who can spend limited time reading, easily perceive and understand the basic ideas of management. Keeping this balance, it seems to me, provided the book good sales and great popularity for thirty years, despite the appearance of a huge number of other books on management, written and published over the years. This balance, in my opinion, made the book the preferred choice. study guide for practicing managers and for those who are just about to become a manager, both in government and commercial organizations. I hope that in the future it will fulfill the same function and bring the same benefit to new generations of students, providing knowledge and inspiration to both novice managers and experienced leaders.

Peter Drucker

Introduction

The nature of management

The role of management

The leader is the driving force, the life-giving element of any business. Without his leadership skills, production resources will remain only resources and will never turn into production. In a competitive environment, the viability and success of a company depends mainly on the quality and effectiveness of management. The only advantage of any organization can be considered the qualifications and efficiency of its leaders.

In an industrial society, management is a special, leading class of leaders. We are no longer talking about "capital and labor", but we are talking about "management and labor". The concept of "capital responsibility" disappeared from our vocabulary along with the concept of "capital rights". Now we hear about "management responsibility" and also (unfortunate phrase) about "management exclusive rights." We are now building a comprehensive and specific education system for leaders. In 1952, for example, the administration of US President Dwight D. Eisenhower was purposefully formed precisely as a management administration.

The emergence of management as the most important, special and advanced institution has become a key event in the history of modern society. Rarely in history has a new fundamental institution, a new leading class, emerged as quickly as management. Never before has any new public education succeeded so quickly in proving its necessity and even irreplaceability. And it is quite rare for a new institution to encounter such insignificant resistance, shocks and conflicts in the process of its formation.

Probably, management will remain one of the main and most significant social institutions as long as Western civilization exists. The reason for this is not only that management is based on the nature of the modern industrial system and the needs of modern companies, to which this system provides its production and human resources. The fact is that it expresses the fundamental beliefs of modern Western society - the belief that constant management of economic resources will provide a person with a livelihood, and the conviction that economic transformations contribute to human well-being and social justice. As Jonathan Swift said about this more than 250 years ago: the one who grew two blades of grass where one grew, deserves more respect than any philosopher-contemplator or creator of another metaphysical system.

Arguments that material resources can and should be used to elevate the human spirit should not be regarded as vulgar materialism. Moreover, such a view is generally incompatible with our usual understanding of this direction of philosophical thought. This is a kind of new, modern and clearly Western idea. Before the emergence of Western civilization in its current form and beyond its limits, the limited material resources have always been viewed as an obstacle to human activity and his ability to control environment, and not as an opportunity and a tool with which he can subjugate nature. Resources have always been considered God-given and immutable. Therefore, all societies, with the exception of the modern West, saw economic change potential threat for the individual and society as a whole, and the primary duty of the government was to prevent these changes.

Thus, management as a force responsible for the productivity of resources and, accordingly, for economic progress, reflects the spirit of the modern era. This new social institution is necessary for the modern world, which is why it developed so rapidly, meeting only slight resistance on the way.

The importance of management

Leaders, their skills, integrity, and effectiveness are critical to the future of the United States of America and to the world. The demand for them will grow rapidly and steadily.

The Cold War, with no end in sight, imposes an additional burden on our economy that we can only bear with continued economic growth. It is necessary to constantly meet the country's military needs while simultaneously building up and expanding the peaceful sectors of the economy. In fact, an unprecedented effort is required from the economy in switching from peaceful to military production and vice versa. The ability to satisfy this need of society depends on its survival in the modern world, which mainly determines the demand for high competence of managers, and especially heads of large corporations.

Today, the United States of America is a leader in the economic and social development which makes management efficiency a critical factor, and achieving that efficiency much more difficult. After all, there is only one road from the top - down. And in order to stay at the top, you have to apply twice as much effort as in order to rise up. In other words, it is quite possible that after a while the United States of the 1950s will begin to resemble the Great Britain of the 1880s, doomed to degradation due to the lack of foresight and the will to take decisive measures. There is evidence that there is a growing tendency in this country to stand up for the status quo instead of moving forward. A

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for capital equipment in many industries is rapidly becoming obsolete. Productivity is growing at a fairly fast pace only in industries that have emerged relatively recently, while in many others, growth slows down or even stops. Only the highest qualification of management personnel and constant improvement of their work efficiency are able to keep the forward movement, relieve us of complacency, complacency and laziness.

Overseas, management plays an even more important role than in the United States of America. Whether Europe will be able to return to its former economic prosperity depends primarily on the effectiveness of its managers. Whether the former colonial countries, which played the role of raw material appendages of the metropolitan powers, will be able to achieve success in the development of their economies and become countries of the free world, and not join the ranks of the communist bloc, is largely determined by whether they will be able to quickly raise their own qualified leaders. Of course, the fate of the entire free world today depends on the competence, skills and responsibility of management.

Management tasks

Despite the enormous importance, obviousness and ubiquity of management, it remains a poorly studied and obscure institution of modern society. Even company employees do not always understand what their management is doing and what its functions are, how managers run the company and why they act in a particular way, whether they are coping with their tasks or not. Indeed, the typical picture that arises at the mention of leadership in the imagination of normal, informed and reasonable people (among them, by the way, many hold managerial positions and are highly qualified in their field of activity), resembles the medieval geographer's idea of ​​Africa as a conservation area , where the cyclops and two-headed pygmies live, where the immortal phoenix bird flies and the elusive unicorn lives. So what is management and what are its functions?

There are two well-known answers to this question. One of them defines management as leadership. In other words, this term is synonymous with the word "leader". According to the second point of view, a manager is an employee who directs the work of other people. In other words, "it is his job to make other people do his job."

These definitions are, at best, only an attempt to name those who belong to management (but, as will be shown below, do not even tell us this). Nor do they reveal the essence of what management is and what functions it performs. The answer to these questions can be obtained only by analyzing its functions. After all, management is a body, and you can understand the purpose of any body only by describing and understanding its functions.

Management is a special organ of the enterprise. When we talk about a company or corporation (for example, United States Steel or the British Coal Board) that has decided to build a new plant, or lay off staff, or behave honestly towards its customers, we are talking about management decisions, management actions, management behavior. In reality, this means the decisions, actions and behavior of the company's management - after all, by itself, it is not capable of actions. Whatever organizational structure company, it cannot live and function without management. (In this sense, both private enterprises, and nationalized industries in Great Britain, and traditional state monopolies, as, for example, the Post Office, as well as ministries and departments in the Soviet Union are no different from each other.)

So, it is obvious that management is a special organ of the company; this fact is taken for granted. However, this distinguishes him from the governing bodies of other public institutions. The government, army or church, and indeed any other institution, must also have a body whose functions have much in common with management. commercial structure... But management as such is the management of a commercial enterprise that exists to produce products and provide services. Of course, by fulfilling its main function in accordance with political and ethical social attitudes, a business enterprise strengthens the economic power of society. But political and ethical principles(by the definition of logic) - side conditions that limit, modify, stimulate or slow down the economic activity of the company. And the main function, the life principle that determines its nature, is economic efficiency.

The most important function of management is to ensure economic efficiency

Each decision and action of management must be subordinate, first of all, to the task of ensuring economic efficiency, achieving a certain economic result. The very existence of management and the power that it possesses is justified only if its activities produce the necessary economic results. However, these results can also be non-economic in nature, for example, a sense of satisfaction with the life of company employees, a contribution to the well-being and culture of the local community, and much more. Nevertheless, it should be noted that the work of management is considered unsatisfactory if the company does not achieve the required economic results, does not produce the product the buyer needs at the price he is willing to pay for it; if the production potential at its disposal does not improve (or is not maintained at the same level).

The uniqueness of management lies in the ability to achieve all the listed goals. For example, the General Staff may ask itself a well-grounded question whether the measures it is taking to strengthen the country's defense capability are in line with its economic structure and well-being. However, if military decisions were based on the economic needs of the country, it would be in jeopardy, since the economic consequences of these decisions are a secondary, limiting factor, and by no means their main reason. As a special organ of the military organization, the General Staff should prioritize state security. To act differently would be to neglect their immediate responsibilities and expose the country to the threat of war. In the same way, management must always prioritize the economic performance of the company (of course, not forgetting the impact of its actions on society - both inside and outside the company).

So, according to our first definition, management is an economic organ, or rather, an economic organ of an industrial society. His every action, decision, step is measured by economic indicators.

The most important task of management is company management

This statement, seemingly quite obvious, leads to less obvious and widespread conclusions, since it imposes strict

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limitations and requires creativity. Firstly, it means that the qualifications, competence and experience of management cannot be permanently transferred and applied to the organization and management of other institutions. In particular, the success of this or that leader in the management of the company does not yet guarantee that he will be as successful as, for example, in the government. A career in business management should not be seen as preparation for successful work in government, in the army, in the church, or in the education system. Competence, qualifications and experience in analytical and administrative work are universal and, therefore, quite applicable in different companies. However, these are very important qualities may be secondary to the achievement of the goals of non-profit organizations. It is still hotly debated in the United States of America whether Franklin Roosevelt was a great president or a real punishment for his country. However, even his worst enemies do not consider it necessary to say that Roosevelt was a lousy administrator, criticizing only his most important political decisions. It never occurs to anyone to claim that these decisions can be determined by the supply of the goods the buyer needs at a price he is willing to pay for them, or by maintaining and even improving the resources used for the production of material goods. For a politician, the most important task of a manager is just one of many factors that need to be taken into account.

Secondly, management as an art of management will never become an exact science. Of course, this work can be systematically analyzed and classified. Indeed, there are professional characteristics and a scientific aspect of management. It would be wrong to say that company management is based on the intuition and natural abilities of a particular person. The requirements for management and its elements are amenable to analysis and systematic organization, and a person with the most ordinary abilities is quite capable of mastering them. Admittedly, this book is based on the fact that the idea of ​​"intuitive" managers will soon sink into oblivion, since any leader is able to increase his effectiveness in all areas of management, including in company management, systematically studying the principles, acquiring organized knowledge and constantly analyzing own work experience in all companies, in all management positions. Nothing else will do more to improve his skills, quality and performance. The fact is that, in my opinion deep conviction, the influence of the manager on modern society so great that it is required of him tremendous self-discipline and compliance with the high standards of service to society, inherent only to true professionals.

However, the main test of management should be considered the economic results of his company. Concrete achievements, not knowledge, serve as proof of the manager's professional suitability and, at the same time, his goal. In other words, management is practice, not science, although it includes elements of both. Nothing will do more harm to the economy and society than trying to make management professional, for example, by graduating graduate managers or restricting access to this field of activities for people who do not have an appropriate degree.

Nevertheless, the ability to provide an effective employee with all the conditions for the successful performance of their work serves as a good test of the quality of management. Any serious attempt to make management scientific or turn it into a profession will inevitably cause a desire to get rid of all these "minor troubles" and the unpredictability of business life, associated risks, ups and downs, ruinous competition, irrational decisions of the buyer, which ultimately can deprive the economy of its freedom and ability to develop. It is no coincidence that the pioneers of scientific management ended up demanding a complete cartelization of the economy; The most striking example of this approach is the work of Henry Gantt, an associate of Frederick Taylor. The German Rationalization Movement, which emerged in the 1920s, directly following American scientific management, also tried to make the world as safe as possible for professional management by cartelizing the economy. In our own country, scientific management advocates played an important role in the technocratic movement, trying to create a nationwide supercartel through the National Industrial Recovery Act (1933) in the first year of President Roosevelt's New Deal.

The authority and responsibility of management are strictly limited. Of course, in order to successfully fulfill their responsibilities in managing the company, the management is given considerable social and managerial powers, which gives the right to exercise a certain degree of power over employees. Without a doubt, the enormous importance of enterprises in an industrial society inevitably makes management one of the leading groups in it. However, since the main task of the head is the achievement of certain economic results by the company, the power of managers is limited only to the fulfillment of their direct duties. Thus, any attempt to take advantage of their special position in order to influence people outside the circle of responsibilities associated with the need to obtain certain economic results, can be assessed as a usurpation of power. Moreover, management is only one of several leading groups in society; and it is in his own interest to never be or become the only leading group. The social responsibility of management is partial, not all-encompassing, and accordingly, its powers of authority extend only to a limited area of ​​activity. If he declares himself the only leading group (or at least the most powerful among them), then he will either immediately receive a rebuff and lose even the power to which he has the right, or he will push the country towards a dictatorship that will take away power and position not only from himself , but also for all other groups of a free society.

The role of management as an organ of the enterprise limits its scope and potential, but at the same time imposes the obligation to be creative in its work, since its main task is to manage. And management cannot be passive; on the contrary, it requires active actions aimed at achieving a result.

Previously, economists viewed entrepreneurship as a passive activity: in their opinion, business success was ensured by a quick and reasonable adjustment to economic

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Of course, in any case, it is important to quickly adapt to economic changes, taking weighed and reasonable decisions for this. But management is not only about passive response and adaptation. It implies responsibility for attempts to shape the economic environment, for planning, initiating and implementing changes in it, for the constant desire to overcome the limitations imposed by economic circumstances on the entrepreneur's freedom of action. Thus, the circle of the possible - or the "economic conditions" that economists talk about - is only one pole in company management. And the circle of what is desired for a given company represents the other pole. And despite the fact that, apparently, a person will never be able to completely subjugate the environment in which he acts, and he will always be limited by the framework of real possibilities, the special task of management is to first make the desired possible, and then turn it is possible into reality. Management cannot be considered a simple product of the economy, since he himself is its creator. It will be possible to talk about management only if management learns to control and change economic circumstances as a result of conscious purposeful actions. Thus, company management means management based on goals. This most important position formed the basis of this book.

Managing managers

To implement economic activity an enterprise is required. Thus, the creation of a productive enterprise based on human and material resources is the second function of management. More precisely, it is a manager management function.

An enterprise, by definition, is obliged to produce more or better than all the resources invested in it and used for this. The enterprise is a single whole and something more than just the sum of its parts. Moreover, the quality and quantity of the product produced must exceed the mechanical sum of the resources invested in production.

To create a full-fledged enterprise from a set of resources, it is not enough just to combine them in a certain logical sequence, and then add a little capital and the money will flow like a river. Although many nineteenth-century economists thought so (and some of their followers still think so). In order for a company to fulfill its assigned task, resources must be transformed. And this cannot happen by itself from such an inanimate resource as capital. This requires management.

It is also clear that only human capital is capable of growing and developing. All other resources are subject to the laws of mechanics. They, of course, can be used more or less rationally, but by themselves they do not provide a greater result than the sum of all the components. At the same time, when adding up inanimate resources, one should always minimize the inevitable "shrinkage" and "weariness" arising at the "exit". Of all the resources at our disposal, only the human one grows and develops. Only intencio populi (an expression of the great medieval political thinker and statesman Sir John Fortescue) - the purposeful, focused and united efforts of free people - can produce an authentic whole. Indeed, a society capable of creating a whole greater than the sum of its constituent parts has been called exemplary since the time of Plato.

By growth and development, we mean the ability of a person to independently determine their contribution to a common cause. Nevertheless, we still define an ordinary employee (as opposed to a manager) as a person who carries out orders and orders and does not bear any responsibility for decisions concerning his work or the work of his colleagues. From this point of view, an ordinary employee (or performer) is no different from other material resources, and his contribution to the work of the company is subject to the laws of mechanics. Meanwhile, this is a serious delusion, which does not lie in the incorrect definition of the work of the performer, but in our inability to understand that many of the tasks of an ordinary employee are, in fact, managerial and would become much more productive if viewed in this way. Thus, this does not in any way change the position that it is the management of managers that ensures the work of the company.

This fact is reflected in the terminology that we use to describe the different types of activities that can be used to create a well-functioning, productive enterprise. We speak of "organization" —the formal structure of an enterprise, but by this we mean the organization of managers and their functions; there is no place for brick, mortar, or ordinary worker in the organizational structure. We are talking about "leadership" and "spirit" of the company. But leadership is set by managers and manifests itself mainly in management, in whose environment the spirit of the company is born. We are talking about the "goals" and the results of the company. But these are the goals of its management, and the effectiveness of activities is determined by the results of the work of management. And if the company does not perform satisfactorily, then a new manager is hired, not new staff.

Managers, by the way, are the most expensive resource of the company. We constantly hear that a good engineer or accountant with 10-12 years of experience is tantamount to a direct investment of $ 50,000 over and above the contribution he has already made to the company's success. Of course, this figure is arbitrary, although the magnitude of the error in this case may not be greater than with a careful calculation of the return on investment in the equipment of the enterprise. But even if it turned out to be much smaller, it would still be large enough to convince us that investments in managers (who, by the way, are never taken into account in the accounting records) outweigh investments in any other resource. Consequently, the main requirement for managing any business is to use investments with maximum

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efficiency.

Managing managers improves the productivity of company resources. And since management is a complex and multifaceted phenomenon (even in the smallest enterprises), managing managers inevitably becomes not only vital, but also very complex.

Worker and job management

The last function of management is the management of the worker and the work. The work must be done, and the resource by which this is done is the entire staff, from low-skilled employees to real professionals, from simple movers to executive directors. Work should be organized so that employees perform tasks appropriate to their abilities and skills with maximum productivity and efficiency. For this, the employee must be considered as a resource that has special physical qualities, talents and shortcomings and requires the same attitude towards itself as any material resource, for example, raw materials used in the production of a product. However, unlike other resources, people have (which also needs to be taken into account) individuality, civic position, the ability to control the quality and volume of work performed by them, which means that they need motivation, a sense of involvement in a common cause, a sense of satisfaction, incentives, and reward, leadership, occupation of a certain position in society. And it is management, and only it, that is able to satisfy these needs, since this must be done through work in a company where management puts everything into action.

In any managerial work, there is another important factor, which actually cannot be called a function of management - rather, it should be considered an additional dimension. This is the time factor. It is always necessary to consider both the requirements of the moment and the long term. Management problems cannot be solved if the long-term interests (and possibly even survival) of the company are sacrificed in the name of immediate benefit. However, it is also irresponsible to risk making a profit this year in the name of grandiose prospects for the distant future. It often happens that management demonstrates excellent economic results while managing the company, but after his departure the company quickly goes to the bottom, providing an example of incompetent management due to the inability to balance the needs of the present and the future. The momentary "economic results" achieved through thoughtless depletion of capital are, in fact, fiction. In each case, when it is not possible to balance (or even better - to harmonize) the needs of the present and the future, capital, that is, the resources used to produce a product, is exposed to danger and destruction.

Since management makes decisions about certain actions, it is extremely necessary for it to take into account the time factor. After all, any action is always aimed at achieving certain results in the future. Each person whose task is to act (and not just know) has control over the future. For two reasons, time is of particular importance to management - and it poses a particular challenge. Firstly, the essence of economic and technological progress is such that the opportunity to reap the fruits of managerial decisions and make sure they are correct or erroneous every year is postponed to an ever more distant time. Fifty years ago, it took Edison about two years to go from finding acceptable design solutions to producing the first test device. Nowadays, his followers would spend at least fifteen years on the realization of their idea. Fifty years ago, according to calculations, new equipment fully paid off in two or three years; nowadays, when the capital investment per employee is about ten times higher than the same indicator at the beginning of the last century, the self-sufficiency period in the same industry is already ten to twelve years. And it will take even longer to build and fully payback an organization of people (such as a sales force or a group of leaders).

Secondly, perhaps only management always has to live simultaneously in the present and in the future; this is another feature of the temporal dimension. The military leader also has to operate with the present and the future. But he has to live simultaneously in the present and in the future only in exceptional cases. In peacetime, he thinks only about the future, since the present for him represents preparation for a possible war. In the war period, he takes into account the present and, perhaps, the near future: he only cares about the victory in the ongoing war, and everything else fades into the background. But management has to ensure the success and profitability of the company in the present, otherwise it may not have a future. At the same time, management is obliged to ensure the future growth and development (or at least the survival) of the company, otherwise it can be considered that it has not coped with its responsibility to maintain the productivity of its resources and preserve capital. (The only parallel to this time dimension problem is the dilemma often faced by the politician - the dilemma between public responsibility and the need to be re-elected as a prerequisite for contributing to the public good. what is handed out to voters, and what actually happens after being elected to a position of responsibility does not have to be consistent, but the manager's efforts to achieve results today, in the present, will affect the future of the company, and attempts to ensure future results (for example, investing in research and development work or equipment) affect the current results.)

The Complex Nature of Management

The three functions of management — company management, managerial management, and employee and job management — can be studied, analyzed, and evaluated separately. Each of them is influenced by the present and future time dimension. However, in day-to-day work, management cannot separate these functions, just as it is impossible to separate decisions regarding the present moment from decisions concerning the future. Any management decision always affects all three management functions and this should be taken into account. The most important decisions to achieve in the future are often made as decisions about the present, such as making an ongoing research budget, resolving conflicts, promoting and firing employees, and monitoring production or customer service standards.

This is not to say that one of these functions is more important than the others, or that more skill and competence is required from management to perform it. Indeed, economic efficiency is in the foreground, since it is for the sake of producing material goods that the company exists. However, if the enterprise does not

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works, it cannot be cost effective, no matter how great the management is. The same applies to ineffective worker and job management. The economic results obtained from ineffective company management are, in fact, illusory: they only lead to a senseless waste of capital. Economic efficiency achieved by mismanaging an employee or job is just as deceiving because it increases costs that reduce the company's competitiveness and sows hatred and enmity between different groups of workers. In the end, all this makes the work of the company impossible in principle.

Business management is of paramount importance because a company is an economic institution; but the management of managers, employees and work is also an equally important function of management. A society that is not an economic institution is extremely interested in these two spheres of management, since fundamental social attitudes and goals are realized in them.

In this book, we will consider the present and the future inseparably, and each of the three main functions of management (managing the company, managers, employee and work) separately. However, do not forget that in practice, managers always combine these three functions in each individual action. We must also not forget that the specificity of management is to perform all three functions simultaneously, using the same people to implement the same solution. Strictly speaking, to answer the question "What is management and what are its functions?" it is possible only by saying that management is a universal body that manages a company, managers, and also an employee and work. If we miss at least one of the functions, then we will no longer have to talk about management, since in this case there will be no company or industrial society.

Management problem

In the context of the industrial revolution, management is faced with a serious test of its competence and its most difficult problem called "Automation".

A lot of dark "sci-fi" literature has been written about automation. The least fantastic of these articles tells about factories where any operation is performed by pressing the appropriate button (although there is a lot of outright nonsense in them). The emergence of new technologies makes us remember the slogans of the "planners" of the 30s of the twentieth century. The authors of these opuses tried to intimidate the gullible reader with the impending nightmare of a technocratic paradise, in which a person does not make decisions and, accordingly, does not bear any responsibility for them; in such a world there is no need for control, since the decision to press certain “buttons” (as a result of which innumerable material goods are produced and distributed) are made by the “electronic brain”.

These mathematical fables tell us that only gigantic companies will be able to survive due to the colossal investment required to introduce new technologies. We are told (especially in Europe) that the inevitable elimination of competition will lead to the possible and even necessary nationalization of the monopolies thus created. The factory of the future, operated by buttons, will practically not need workers (although it is not clear who will be able to buy the products mass-produced by such factories if most of us are unemployed). Such enterprises will only need technical personnel: electronic engineers, theoretical physicists, mathematicians, even watchmen - but not managers. Futurists have disagreements on various issues regarding the future, but they agree on one thing: managers will not be needed.

True, this is mainly the opinion of supporters of a managed economy and central planning (especially in Europe). Almost all predictions logically follow from the recommendations that these planners have treated us to quite recently. Now, when the free world has abandoned the theory and practice of a planned economy, attempts are being made to force us to swallow the same "drugs" under the pretext that in any case we will inevitably have to take them.

What is automation

All these inferences and assessments, all these fears have nothing to do with what the emergence of new technologies will actually bring us. In order not to be unfounded, but to rely on facts, there are many examples (for example, from the oil refining industry or from the production of synthetic materials) of what automation is and what it leads to.

Automation is by its nature not a technical phenomenon. Like any technology, automation is primarily a certain system concepts, and its technical aspects are rather results, not causes.

The first concept is metaphysical. In the variability of the observed phenomena, one can notice a certain stability and predictability. The second concept concerns the nature of work. New technologies, unlike individual production, do not focus on the qualifications and skill of the worker as a unifying principle of work, and also, in contrast to the theory mass production, put forward by Henry Ford, and on the product as an organizing principle. The main thing in this concept is the process as a single and harmonious whole. Accordingly, the goal is to optimize the process as the production of a significantly greater variety of products with maximum stability, lowest cost and least effort. Indeed, the less variability and fluctuation in this process, the greater the variety of products produced.

Finally, new technology includes the concept of control aimed at maintaining a balance between goals and means, results and effort expended. Automation requires that the meaningful and the essential be pre-installed and used as a standard and self-starting process regulator.

The mechanism for such control can be extremely simple.

In the claims department of a life insurance company, policies that need special handling - for example, due to the absence of some required documents or information, ambiguity of wording - is transferred to an employee who deals with them individually. An employee can be trained to perform his functions within a few days (moreover, this processing can be done by machine). This method allows approximately 98 percent of correctly drawn up insurance policies to be processed quickly and smoothly, despite thousands of options for payment method, distribution among beneficiaries and other nuances. Simple culling adequately controls and allows this process to be carried out successfully.

Sometimes sophisticated equipment is required for control. It can be carried out in the form of "feedback", while in order to correctly execute and correct the process, if necessary, its results are returned

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to one of the earlier stages.

The simplest example of this is a "safety valve" in a steam boiler, which rises under steam pressure, opening an opening for excess steam to escape. This decreases the pressure and the safety valve returns to its original position and closes the outlet. The human endocrine system operates on the same principle. The feedback principle is also used in electronic system anti-aircraft gun control.

Yet the control mechanism for automation is secondary. However, it is important that this mechanism is built into the process and supports it, either by eliminating anything that cannot be processed, or by adjusting it to provide the desired result.

Only after these concepts have been carefully thought out can the effective use of machines and mechanisms begin.

With this conceptual reflection, the mechanization of repetitive operations becomes both possible and economically viable. For example, using a machine, you can move material from one device to another, change its position in the device, transfer it from one machine to another. It is possible to mechanize the processing of materials by abandoning labor that does not require high qualifications (as a rule, this is the execution of repetitive operations by an employee in mass production). You can also mechanize setting up equipment and making routine decisions (for example, is the machine overheated, is the cutting tool blunt).

However, such mechanization cannot yet be considered automation. This is just the result of automation, and it is not really necessary. There are many examples of efficient mass production without a conveyor, such as sorting checks in a clearinghouse. There are also many examples of automation without using any "automatic machines" at all, not to mention the notorious "buttons".

Thus, the methods, tools and equipment used in automation, as in any technology, are determined by the task being performed and are specific to it. They are not the essence of automation, just as automation is not limited to their application. Automation is a work organization principle. Therefore, it can be applied, for example, in clerical work to the same extent as in industrial production.

Automation and worker

The widespread belief that robotic labor will replace human labor is a misconception.

“Once I was put in charge of the computer,” says one of my students. "Therefore, I am shocked by the statements of some people that the computer controls my work."

In fact, with the introduction of new technology, new jobs appear and the demand for highly qualified and well-trained specialists increases (however, the problem of retraining and advanced training arises).

Until recently, people believed that mass production was yesterday industrial Revolution- will deprive many of their jobs. Today we understand that, on the contrary, it has led to a rapid increase in the number of jobs in manufacturing. But there is still an opinion that in mass production, skilled labor is supplanted by unskilled labor. It is not difficult to prove the fallacy of this belief today. For example, in the United States, where mass production methods are used extremely widely, the number of educated and well-trained personnel is growing rapidly. And yesterday's unskilled worker, who previously used only physical force, today improved his qualifications, becoming a machine operator, that is, a more prepared and educated person, producing more material goods and living by higher living standards.

Today's technological changes contribute to the development of progress, but do not supplant human labor. On the contrary, their implementation requires a huge number of highly qualified and well-trained specialists: managers thinking and planning work, highly qualified technicians and workers who will design and create new equipment, maintain and operate it. Indeed, the main obstacle to the rapid spread of change is likely to be a shortage - in almost every country - of skilled human resources.

It is unlikely that the use of new technology will require the creation of giant enterprises, not to mention the fact that the resulting monopolies will supplant small and independent companies. In some industries, new technology may indeed increase the size of individual economic units. However, in many others (for example, the production of raw steel), it will make it economically possible (and even necessary) for the emergence of smaller enterprises.

Finally, the statement that the use of new technology will lead to a noticeable increase in the need for capital cannot be considered justified. Investment per worker employed in manufacturing will, of course, increase. However, the investment per employee may not increase at all as more technicians and managers are needed. In addition, our experience does not confirm the possibility of an increase in investment per unit of output.

Management requirements

Most importantly, the new technology will not make managers redundant and will not replace them simply by technical specialists. On the contrary, it will require many more people who know how to manage. The sphere of management will expand significantly: many ordinary workers will be forced to learn how to perform managerial functions; technicians will need to understand the essence of management and develop a managerial mindset. At all levels of management, the requirements for the responsibility and competence of the manager, his intellect and foresight will increase; it will require the ability to make intelligent choices between alternative risks, economic knowledge and skill, as well as the ability to manage managers, workers and work, and competence in decision-making.

Thus, there can be no question of the inevitability or even desirability of central planning and monopoly in the form of a nationalized or private cartel. On the contrary, the new technology will require maximum decentralization, flexibility and management autonomy. V new era any society that tries to get rid of the free management of an autonomous company and wants to centrally manage the economy through planning is doomed to vegetation. Any company that wishes to strengthen the centralization of power and responsibility and make decisions at the highest level will fail. She will die, as the giant reptiles died out in the prehistoric era, since it is impossible to control a huge body with the help of a tiny centralized nervous system, which was unable to adapt to rapid changes in the environment.

For all that has been said, no description of the nature of management can be considered complete if you do not take into account

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factor of automation. I tend to believe that automation will not take us by surprise, like an unexpected flood, but will spread gradually, albeit relentlessly. The future is undoubtedly with automation, and the country that is the first to understand the importance of this phenomenon and begin to systematically introduce and apply it will secure itself a position of the leader in labor productivity and welfare in the second half of the 20th century. One such example is the United States of America, which, realizing the benefits of mass production and widely applying it, secured world leadership in the first half of the 20th century. And I have no doubt that the leading position will belong to the country whose managers will be the first to master the art of management and implement it as fully as possible.

Business management

Sears history

A topic as important as business management should be the subject of many books. However, there are almost no books on this topic.

There are hundreds if not thousands of books on managing various business functions such as manufacturing and marketing, finance and engineering, logistics, human resource development, public relations, and others. However, we still have nowhere to read about what business management is and what is required for this, what are the goals, objectives and functions of management.

And this is no coincidence. The lack of work on this topic reflects the lack of any logical economic theory enterprises. Instead of setting out our own theory, let's first study what happens in a real company. In my opinion, it is difficult to find a more suitable illustration of what a business is and what it means to run it than one of the most successful American companies- Sears, Roebuck and Company.

Sears was founded at the turn of the 19th and 20th centuries, when it became clear that American farmers were a separate and distinct market. Separate - due to the fact that the isolation of farmers makes the existing distribution channels practically inaccessible to them; special - due to specific needs, which differ in many respects from the needs of the urban buyer. In general, the huge purchasing power of the farmers was hardly used, although each of them had a low purchasing power.

So the farmer needed to create a new distribution channel and produce the products he needed. It was necessary to establish a regular supply of a large number of necessary products at a low price. Farmers needed a guarantee of reliability and honesty on the part of the supplier, since the physical isolation of the farmer did not allow checking the quality of the product before receiving it or recovering compensation in the event of delivery of a substandard product.

Thus, creating Sears, Roebuck & Co required a thorough customer and market analysis; it was especially important to find out what exactly constitutes “value” for the farmer. In addition, innovation was required in five areas.

First, it was necessary to introduce a merchandising system, that is, to find and develop sources of supply for specific products that farmers needed, in the required quantity and required quality, as well as at an acceptable price for them.

Second, a mail order catalog was needed to replace shopping trips to the big city that farmers could not always afford. Such a catalog was to be published regularly, and not occasionally, like promotional brochures offering promotions and sales. It was also necessary to abandon the practice of direct selling and stop persuading the farmer to buy, praising what he may not really need, and instead objectively describe the products offered. The company's goal was to get regular client, for this he had to be convinced of the reliability of the catalog and the company trading in it. The catalog was supposed to become for the farmer something like a "book of desires".

Third, the habitual “let the buyer be discreet” attitude had to be replaced by a new one: “let the supplier be discreet”. The introduction of the new concept led to the famous Sears "No Questions Asked Money Back" policy.

Fourth, it was necessary to come up with a way to place a large number of orders cheaply and quickly. All this would have been impossible without a mail-order business.

Finally, it was necessary to organize and train the staff. Keep in mind that when Sears, Roebuck & Co first started out, it didn’t have skilled staff, such as purchasing professionals, accountants understanding new inventory management requirements, artists to illustrate catalogs, employees who could would process orders.

The company was named after Richard Sears. However, he did not turn it into a modern business enterprise. Generally speaking, what Sears created can hardly be called a business in the true sense of the word. A successful businessman, he bought goods at the sale and resold them using highly ingenious advertising. Each of his transactions was in itself an "enterprise", upon completion of which it was liquidated. Sears amassed a solid fortune out of his speculation. But he could never have built a company, let alone sustained it for a long time. Moreover, he probably would have had to go out of business, like many others before him who acted in approximately the same way.

Roebuck & Co owes its development to a thriving commercial enterprise Sears to Julius Rosenwald, who took over the company in 1895. In 1905, a mail order company was opened in Chicago. Rosenwald analyzed the market and set about systematically expanding sales channels. He invented and developed a direct mail catalog, which began to be published regularly. Rosenwald introduced a customer satisfaction guarantee or money back policy. He built a high-performing organizational structure and gave managers maximum authority, giving them full responsibility for the result. Later, he offered each employee a certain share in the company, which was paid out of the profits. Thus, Rosenwald can be considered the father of not only Sears, Roebuck & Co, but also the “revolution

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in Distribution ”, which, in a profound change, has become a vital factor in the economic growth of America in the 20th century.

Only one important contribution in the early days of Sears, Roebuck & Co did not come from Rosenwald. The Chicago mail-order business was conceived by Otto Doring in 1903. Five years before the appearance of the Henry Ford factories, the first modern mass production facility was opened with a breakdown of work into the simplest repetitive operations, an assembly line, standardized interchangeable elements and, most importantly, a clear work schedule for the entire company.

On such a foundation, by the end of World War I, Sears, Roebuck & Co had grown into a veritable nationwide institution: in many farmers' homes the Sears catalog (“the book of wishes”) was the only book (except, of course, the Bible).

The second stage in the development of the company began in the mid-1920s. During this period, General Robert Wood ruled everything, just as Julius Rosenwald was the main character in the first stage of its history.

In the mid-1920s, when Wood joined the company, the original Sears market was undergoing rapid change. Farmers were no longer isolated: many of them had cars that allowed them to get to the city to buy the necessary products in stores. Thus, the formerly distinct, distinct market (thanks in large part to Sears) was rapidly approaching the image and standards of living of the urban middle class.

At the same time, a vast city market appeared, also to a certain extent isolated and poorly supplied, like the farmers' market twenty-five years earlier. By that time, the urban low-income population had already outgrown old living standards and acquired new consumer habits. People started making more money, so they wanted to buy the same products that people with middle and high incomes buy. In other words, the country was rapidly developing into a large homogeneous market, while the distribution system was still designed for separate, separate markets.

Wood recognized this trend before joining Sears. The analysis convinced him of the need to reorient Sears towards retail stores that cater not only to car farmers but also to city dwellers.

To bring this vision to life, he, like Rosenwald, needed to implement a number of important innovations. Guaranteed supply required the introduction of two important new functions: product development and the search for manufacturers capable of producing them in large quantities. Products for the wealthy class, such as refrigerators in the 1920s, needed to be made available to a “mass market” with limited purchasing power. This required the creation of suppliers, often at company expense and with the help of Sears-trained managers. This led to another important innovation — the development of a policy for the relationship between Sears and its suppliers, especially those from whom the company purchased large quantities of products. In addition, it was necessary to regularly analyze and plan the product range, as well as systematically support small suppliers capable of producing a product for the mass market. Basically, all these tasks were solved by T.V. Hauser, who for many years served as vice president of the company for sales. It must be said that establishing a mass distribution of products at the second stage of the company's development was no less important than creating a company selling by mail and catalogs at the first stage. And solving these problems has made an important contribution to the development of the American economy.

The transition to a retail system required a large number of store managers. Since mail-order trading did not involve training personnel to manage retail stores, for the first ten to fifteen years, almost before the outbreak of World War II, Sears was sorely lacking managers. Thus, systemic innovation was most needed in the area of ​​personnel training, and all further work in this direction, which we see in the American economy today, began with the company's policy of training managers in the 30s.

Expanding into retail sales required a radical change in the company's organizational structure. Mail order is a highly centralized activity, at least at Sears it was. But retail stores, scattered two thousand miles away, need to be managed locally. Whereas for the mail order trade, only a few enterprises were enough to cover the entire market of the country. Today, however, Sears has seven hundred stores, each serving a separate market in the immediate vicinity. A decentralized organizational structure, how a decentralized company is run, how store managers are measured, and how corporate cohesion can be maintained with maximum local autonomy — all of this needed to be put into practice for Sears in order to organize retail. In addition, a new remuneration policy should have been developed to reward managers for the results achieved.

Finally, Sears had to get creative with the location, architecture and interior design of its stores. A traditional retail store was not suitable for the purpose of the company. It was necessary not only to place outlets on the outskirts of cities and provide convenient parking places near them, but also change the whole concept retail store... Few, even at Sears, realize how profoundly this innovation has impacted the American shopping habits, as well as the look and feel of our cities. Suburban shopping center, seen today as a radical innovation in retail, is in fact simply reproducing ideas and techniques developed by Sears in the 1930s.

The major decisions that enabled Sears to organize retail were made in the mid-1920s and innovated in the early 1930s, so the company's business and profits grew steadily during the economic depression, World War II, and the post-war boom. But even after several decades have passed since the adoption of these decisions, they have not been fully implemented in practice.

Assortment planning is the systematic development of quality products for mass distribution and support for manufacturers of such products. These tasks still remain unresolved in the production of fashionable women's clothing. For example, Garment District, a New York-based women's fashion company, was unable or unwilling to change the system of tailoring fashionable women's clothing to accommodate the distribution of mass-produced products. Sears was able to make the necessary transformations to establish mass production and sale in other equally traditional industries (and with a huge

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the company continues to do so in Latin America with success).

Public relations is another area in which the necessary transformations have not yet been fully implemented. Under the leadership of Julius Rosenwald, Sears was a pioneer in this area. All employees of the company consider establishing public relations as a very important part of their work. However, while Sears shifted its focus from farmers to townspeople, its PR policy was “Sears is a Farmer's Friend”. In the current environment, this can be seen as a kind of nostalgia for farmers, not meeting the current needs of Sears' business.

General Wood stepped down as chairman of the company's board of directors in the spring of 1954, and was succeeded by T.V. Hauser. His arrival symbolized the end of an era in Sears history. The company had to face new challenges and take advantage of the new opportunities that were opening up before it.

The car has already changed the Sears market at one point, and it looks like it could change it one more time. In most American cities, it has become very difficult to drive a car, let alone find a suitable parking spot. Today, the car is rapidly transforming from a buyer's assistant to its enemy. These days, more and more housewives, typical Sears customers, are working and are no longer able to shop during office hours; or a woman, even if she does not work, has no one to leave her small children with to go shopping.

If all of this is true, then Sears needs to perform the same market and customer analysis as it did before two tipping points in its history. The company must set itself new challenges. To do this, it will need to reorganize its distribution so that the local store becomes a headquarters for order-taking employees who travel (possibly in a Sears-sold car) from house to house. Perhaps a model for such an organization would be peddling trade, the volumes of which in last years growing steadily. These changes will likely require new organizational concepts, new pay policies and new methods. The problem of finding qualified personnel will reappear, no less difficult than the training of retail store managers in the 1930s. Home delivery of Sears products can be of paramount importance, though it is likely that over time the issue will become as important as the guarantee of a refund to unsatisfied customers early in the business. The bulk of purchases could again be cataloged by Sears customers — no longer by mail, but either through a salesman or by telephone. And this, in turn, would require technological innovations in the work of the mail-order company, which to this day operates according to the scheme invented by Otto Doring. To place orders by mail, or by phone, or via sales representatives you will most likely need to create a fully automated enterprise operating on the principles of automation and feedback.

Even in the field of merchandising, new challenges will have to be posed, since the company's main client today - a young married (often working) woman with a child - is in many ways as special a market as it was. american farmer isolated from the city.

In other words, Sears will have to once again scrutinize its business and markets and understand what innovation it needs.

What is business

The first takeaway from the Sears story is that businesses are built and run by people. It is not driven by "factors." Economic factors limit or create certain opportunities for management. But they do not define the business and its activities. It would be wrong to say that "management only adjusts the business to market conditions." Management not only finds these factors, but also creates them by its actions. Julius Rosenwald turned Sears into a profitable venture, General Wood changed the company to keep it growing during the Depression and World War II, and in the future, someone (or perhaps a few) will make the decisions that will determine whether Sears will continue to grow and prosper. or decline, whether the company survives or ceases to exist. The same goes for any business.

The second takeaway is that business cannot be defined or explained in terms of profit.

If the average entrepreneur is asked what a business is, he will most likely answer that this is an organization created for the purpose of making a profit. The average economist will answer this question in the same way. However, this is an incorrect answer, moreover, it has nothing to do with the essence of the question posed.

Likewise, the conventional wisdom about the business enterprise and its behavior, or the theory of profit maximization, has proved to be untenable. In fact, she reformulated the old adage "Buy cheap, sell high" in a more complex way. Indeed, this theory adequately describes the actions of Richard Sears, but fails to explain how Sears or any other company works and how they should work.

The failure of the profit maximization theory is also evident in how desperate economists are trying to save it. Even Joel Dean, one of the world's most talented and prolific economists, still supports profit maximization as such. But here's how he defines it:

Economic theory proceeds from the fundamental position that profit maximization is the main goal of any company. But in recent years, profit maximization has been interpreted quite broadly. Theorists consider it from a long-term perspective, they interpret profit not so much as the income of the owners of the company, but as the income of managers. At the same time, income is also understood as non-financial income, for example, an increase in the amount of free time for managers experiencing significant stress at work and the establishment of favorable relationships between people representing different levels of management. Special considerations are also taken into account, such as containing competition, maintaining managerial control, avoiding demands for increased wages and lawsuits in connection with antitrust laws. This theory has become so general and vague that it seems to include most of a person's life goals.

This trend reflects the growing understanding of theorists that in their activities many companies, including large ones, are not at all guided by the principle of maximizing profits, expressed by marginal production costs and income.

Thus, a theory that can be used only if it is interpreted broadly, arbitrarily filling it with uncharacteristic content, inevitably loses its meaning and becomes useless.

However, this does not mean that profit and profitability are irrelevant to the business. Just profitability is not the goal

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the existence of the company, but a limiting factor in its activities. Not making a profit explains the behavior or decisions of the company, but using this criterion, you can check the validity of the business's claims to exist. If archangels were appointed to run the company, rather than ordinary people, they would also care about the profitability of the enterprise entrusted to them, despite the complete lack of personal interest in obtaining benefits. The same can be said about such far from angelic beings as the directors of Soviet enterprises, since the task of any business is not to maximize profits, but to obtain profits sufficient to cover economic risks and avoid losses. The root of the error in this case lies in the wrong assumption that a person's motivation, more precisely, the selfish intentions of an entrepreneur, guides his actions and explains his behavior. It is doubtful that there is such a thing as the pursuit of profit at all. It was invented by classical economists to explain economic behavior that would not otherwise make sense. However, there is no convincing evidence of the existence of a selfish motive for the pursuit of profit (except for those who deny it). The true cause of economic change and growth, which was previously attributed to the profit motive, has long been established.

To understand the behavior of an entrepreneur, as well as the nature of profit and profitability, it does not matter whether he has selfish motives or not. The fact that someone Jim Smith is doing business solely for the purpose of making a profit is important only for him and his guardian angel, who notes all the deeds and actions of his ward. We do not know what exactly Jim Smith is doing or how he is doing. We don't learn about the work of a prospecting uranium explorer in the Nevada desert when we are told he is trying to make a fortune out of it, or about the work of a cardiologist who makes his living by helping people regain health. The selfish motive and its product - profit maximization - also have nothing to do with the functions, tasks and business management.

In fact, the theory of profit maximization not only does not explain the essence of business, but also harms it, since it serves as the main reason for a misunderstanding of the nature of profit in our society and a deeply rooted sharply negative attitude towards making a profit, one of the most dangerous ailments of industrial society. To a large extent, this theory is responsible for the most dangerous mistakes of public policy (in the United States and Western Europe), made due to a lack of understanding of the nature, functions and goals of a commercial enterprise.

Business purpose

To understand what a business is, you first need to define its goal, which, by the way, should be outside the business itself. In principle, it is in society, since the enterprise is one of the public institutions. There is only one correct definition of the goal of a business - creating a client.

The market is not created by God, nature or economic factors, it is created by entrepreneurs. Entrepreneurs meet the needs that the buyer experienced even before he was offered a way to satisfy them. Generally speaking, the need for something, such as the desire to eat, can absorb all the thoughts and feelings of a person and prevent him from living normally. But it remains a theory until the entrepreneur turns it into real demand, and that's when the client and the market appear. Perhaps this need is unaccountable or does not arise at all until the entrepreneur creates it through advertising, the efforts of sales representatives, or new inventions. In any case, the client is created by certain actions of the entrepreneur.

It is the client who determines what the business will be like, since only his willingness to pay for a product transforms economic resources into material goods, and things into a product. What the company produces is not paramount to its future success. The essence of the business determines what, in the opinion of the client, is valuable to him and what he buys; it is this value that determines what product the company will produce and whether it will prosper.

The basis of business is the client, and the existence of the company depends on him. The client provides the company with work. Only for the sake of supplying the buyer with the necessary products, society entrusts the company with resources for the production of material goods.

Two entrepreneurial functions

Insofar as main goal a company sets itself the creation of a client, any commercial enterprise performs two (and only two) main functions: marketing and innovation. These are entrepreneurial functions.

Marketing is a distinctive, unique function of a business. A business differs from other public organizations in that it sells a product. Neither the church, nor the army, nor the educational system, nor the state apparatus are engaged in this. Thus, any organization that uses marketing in its activities to develop and sell a product can be called a business. Organizations that do not engage in marketing or do it occasionally cannot be considered a business.

Cyrus McCormick was the first to view marketing as a unique core function of a business enterprise and customer creation as a specific management goal. History textbooks only mention that he invented a mechanical thresher for harvesting grain. However, he also invented the main tools of modern marketing: market research and analysis, the concept of market positioning, modern politics pricing, sales agent services, spare parts and customer support, and consumer loans. McCormick can rightfully be called the father of business management. It should be noted that he made all his discoveries before 1850. However, it was only fifty years later that Cyrus McCormick's ideas spread widely in his homeland.

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defining function of the business is wrong.

An illustrative example of this traditional attitude to marketing is provided by large Italian companies, which do not consider it necessary to introduce a sales manager position, despite the fact that domestic market accounts for approximately 70 percent of their business.

Indeed, the importance of marketing is so great that it is not enough for a company to create a well-staffed sales force and assign it to perform its function. Marketing is not only much broader than selling, it cannot be considered a highly specialized activity at all. Marketing covers the entire business, as it considers everything from the point of view of the final result, that is, the client. Thus, marketing must permeate all the activities of the company.

This marketing concept can be illustrated by the policy of General Electric, which seeks to create a customer by offering him a product during the development stage. The company considers the direct act of sale as the last stage marketing activities starting even before the designer draws the first line on the piece of paper. This approach, according to one of the company's annual reports, “involves hiring a marketing specialist at the very beginning, not at the end of the production cycle, and includes marketing at every stage. Thus, marketing, after conducting research and market analysis, informs the designer, engineer and technologist what the client expects from the product, what price he is willing to pay, and also where and when he will need this product. Marketing is involved in product development, production planning and inventory management, as well as distribution and product warranty services.

Enterprise as a component of economic growth

Marketing, however, does not create an enterprise. In a static economy, there are no enterprises. There is not even an entrepreneur in it, since the “intermediary” in a static society is simply a “broker” who receives payment in the form of commissions.

A commercial enterprise can exist only in a growing economy, or at least in such conditions in which change is seen as something natural and desirable, and business is an organ of economic growth, development and change.

The second function of a business is innovation, or providing better, cheaper products. However, it is not enough to simply produce cheap products; at a low price, they should become of better quality. It is not enough for a business to simply grow; in the process of growth, it must constantly improve.

Innovation can be expressed in the form of a lower price - it is this form that is most interested in the economist, since only it can be quantified. But sometimes the result of innovation is a new, better product (even if it sells for a high price) or a product with new features; or it creates a new customer demand. It can also be new way using old products. A salesperson who sells a refrigerator to the Eskimos to keep food from freezing can be considered an innovator, as well as someone who developed a new process or product. Selling a refrigerator for storing food to the Eskimos means finding a new market; but selling it to keep food from freezing means creating a new product. Although we are talking about the same product, from an economic point of view, we are dealing with innovation.

Innovation encompasses all types of entrepreneurial activity. Design, product and marketing innovations are possible. Innovation may concern price or customer service, management organization, or management practices. Or it could be a new insurance policy that allows the entrepreneur to take additional risk. In American industry, the most effective innovations in the past few years have probably been not so much new products or processes in electronics or chemistry, which have been covered in the press, but rather innovations in material handling and improved management methods.

Innovation also extends to all types of businesses. They are as important to a bank, insurance company, or retail store as they are to manufacturing or engineering businesses.

Thus, in the organization of an enterprise, innovation cannot be considered a function separate from marketing. Innovation is not limited to R&D, but encompasses the entire business, all of its functions and activities. I repeat, they are not limited manufacturing enterprises... In the field of distribution, innovations are no less important than in production, both in the insurance company and in the bank.

Product innovation could well be entrusted to one dedicated unit focused solely on this task. This is always done in technical or chemical production enterprises. In an insurance company, this approach is also possible - for example, creating a special department that develops new types of insurance coverage, or a department responsible for innovations in the organization of sales, management of work procedures and settlement of claims, because all these areas are included in the activities of the insurance company.

A large railway company has set up two innovation centers under the leadership of one of its vice presidents. The first systematically deals with the physical aspects of transportation: locomotives and wagons, railways, signaling systems, communications, and the second - innovations in servicing goods and passengers, identifying new traffic sources, new tariff policies, opening new markets, developing new types of services and other activities.

Nevertheless, every management unit in a company must have clear responsibilities and clear goals for innovation in order to be accountable for its contribution to the common cause. In addition, it is necessary to consciously and purposefully use the advanced achievements in the area for which this unit is responsible, be it sales or accounting, quality control or personnel management.

Effective use of resources to create wealth

To achieve its goal of creating a customer, a company must control the use of wealth creation resources. This is a business administrative function called productivity economists.

You hear a lot about performance over the years. It is well known that its increase, that is, more efficient use of resources, as a result of business activities, allows you to set higher living standards. However, in reality, we do not know much about performance and do not know how to measure it.

Productivity is understood as the balance between all factors of production that provides the greatest result with the least effort. This definition differs significantly from calculating productivity per worker or per unit of time. Best case scenario

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performance is only remotely and imprecisely reflected in these traditional metrics.

The fact is that traditional indicators are based on the postulate put forward in the 18th century that physical labor is the only resource of production, and physical work is the only real cost of labor. This opinion expresses the mechanistic approach characteristic of Marxist economics, the essence of which is that all the fruits of human labor can ultimately be measured in terms of muscle effort. However, in modern economy(which we know for certain) productivity growth is not achieved through physical work, it is no longer provided by the employee. On the contrary, it happens as a result of the gradual abandonment of physical labor. And one of these replacements is capital equipment, that is, mechanical energy.

The increase in productivity achieved by replacing the physical labor of a qualified or unskilled performer with the labor of educated personnel capable of analytical and theoretical thinking, that is, replacing workers with managers and technical specialists, as well as replacing "work" with "planning", is of great importance, although it is still little researched. Obviously, such a replacement should take place even before the installation of capital equipment intended to replace physical labor, because someone has to plan and develop equipment, and this is a conceptual, theoretical, analytical task. Indeed, on reflection, one might come to the conclusion that the rate of capital accumulation, to which economists pay so much attention, is of secondary importance. The main factor in the development of the economy should be the level of accumulation of intelligence, that is, the formation of people with a creative imagination, able to foresee the future, educated, with theoretical and analytical talent.

Read this entire book by purchasing the full legal version (http://www.litres.ru/piter-druker/praktika-menedzhmenta-2/?lfrom=279785000) in liters.

Barnard Ch. Leadership functions. Power, incentives and values ​​in the organization. M .: Socium, IRISEN, 2012.

Taylor F. Principles of Scientific Management. Moscow: Controlling, 1991.

At the moment, already sixty years ago. Approx. ed.

Drucker P. Effective enterprise management. M .: Williams, 2008; Effective leader (http://www.mann-ivanov-ferber.ru/books/paperbook/theeffectiveexecutive/). M .: Mann, Ivanov and Ferber, 2012; Management: tasks, responsibilities, practice. M .: Williams, 2008.

From the English. cartelization - union. Approx. per.

"New Deal" - a system of measures of the new economic policy of the government of President Franklin Roosevelt in 1933-1939. to overcome the consequences The great depression and solving social problems; combined measures to strengthen state regulation of the economy with reforms in the social sphere. Approx. ed.

The only exception I know of is Oswald Knuth's essay, Managerial Enterprise (New York: Norton, 1948). See also Joel Dean's book, Managerial Economics (New York: Prentice-Hall, 1951). Despite the fact that Dean deals mainly with the issues of adapting the theoretical concepts and tools of an economist to business management, his book, especially its initial parts of a general nature, deserves the attention of every manager.

Most of my information on Sears comes from Emmet & Jeuck, Catalogs and Counters; a History of Sears, Roebuck and Co. ("Catalogs and Registers; The History of Sears, Roebuck and Co.") (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1950). This is one of the best company stories currently written. However, I am solely responsible for the interpretation of this information; the analysis of Sears' current state of affairs is mine too.

It is still rumored at Sears that Henry Ford visited the newly opened Sears mail-order business and studied the organization thoroughly before setting up his first automobile plant.

Managerial Economics (New York: Prentice-Hall, 1951), p. 28.

We have research by Simon Kuznets of the University of Pennsylvania that shows a direct link between investment in capital equipment and productivity growth in American manufacturing.

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Description:This now classic book on management has been written and tested for over thirty years. This is the result of teaching by the author of the science of management at universities and within the framework of specialized programs and seminars for managers, as well as the result of his close and fruitful cooperation with practicing managers: over the years of his activity, he has been a consultant to a number of business companies, government organizations, hospitals and schools. ... Drucker describes in his book the tools and methods of effective management that have proven their effectiveness, and makes it clear and accessible language.

In this book, the author tried to describe everything that we have managed to learn about management at the moment, but its purpose is much broader. It also presents those areas that we did not have time to cognize, but which are vital for us. The purpose of the book is also to develop approaches to solving problems, the answers to which we have not yet found; it explores the policies, principles and practices that will help managers meet specific management challenges. This book is an attempt to arm modern manager the understanding, the way of thinking, the knowledge and skills needed to work in an organization today and tomorrow.

This book focuses on the manager as a person; on how people act and what they achieve. But it constantly tries to connect tasks with the people who carry them out.

Assignments are objective and impersonal in nature. The tasks are performed by managers, i.e. they are the ones who set goals and work to achieve them. Management as a job involves the availability and use of specific skills, tools and methods. Many of them are discussed in this book, and some are discussed in some detail.

The revised edition of Management is a quintessence and synthesis of Peter F. Drucker's work on management and society, with an emphasis on his published and unpublished works since 1973, when the first edition of the book Management: Objectives, Responsibilities, Practice (MZOP) ”, until his death on November 11, 2005 During this time he published more publications than in 1954-1973, ie from the publication of the book "The Practice of Management" (1954) and "MZOP".

The legacy of Peter Drucker

Introduction to the revised edition of the book Management

Chapter 1. Introduction: the concept of management and managers

Chapter 2. Management as social function and liberal art

Chapter 3. Management criteria

Part I. New realities of management

Chapter 4. Knowledge is everything

Chapter 5. Demographic change

Chapter 6. The future of the corporation

Chapter 7. New paradigm of management

Part II. Business efficiency

Chapter 8. Business theory

Chapter 9. Purpose and objectives of business

Chapter 10. The future begins today

Chapter 11. Strategic planning: entrepreneurial skill

Part III. Service institution efficiency

Chapter 12. Management of service institutions in a society of organizations

Chapter 13. What Business Can Learn from Successful Nonprofit Organizations

Chapter 14. Responsibility of the school

Chapter 15. A New Understanding of Government Redesign

Chapter 16. Entrepreneurship in public service institutions

Part IV. Productive work and achievement-oriented worker

Chapter 17. How to make work productive and orient the employee towards achievement

Chapter 18. Management of work and manual worker

Chapter 19. Management of work and knowledge worker

Part V. Social performance and social responsibility

Chapter 20. Social Impact and Social Issues

Chapter 21. New Pluralism: How to Balance the Special Purpose of an Institution with the Common Good

Part VI. Labor and work assignments of the manager

Chapter 22. Why managers?

Chapter 23. The structure and content of management work assignments

Chapter 24. Development of management and managers

Chapter 25. Target management and self-control

Chapter 26. From middle management to information-driven organizations

Chapter 27. Spirit of Accomplishments

Part VII. Management skills

Chapter 28. Elements of effective decision-making

Chapter 29. How to make personnel decisions

Chapter 30. Management communications

Chapter 31. Control mechanisms, control and management

Chapter 32: manager and budget

Chapter 33. Information tools and concepts

Part VIII. Innovation and Entrepreneurship

Chapter 34. Entrepreneurial business

Chapter 35. New Enterprise

Chapter 36. Entrepreneurial Strategies

Chapter 37. Systematic Innovation Using Windows of Opportunity

Part IX. Management organization

Chapter 38. Strategies and Structures

Chapter 39. Scheme Based on Work and Task

Chapter 40. Three kinds of commands

Chapter 41. Outcome and Relationship Framework

Chapter 42. Alliances

Chapter 43. Executive Director of the New Millennium

Chapter 44. Influence pension funds for corporate governance

Part X. New requirements for a person

Chapter 45. Self-control

Chapter 46. Boss Management

Chapter 47. Rebuilding Oneself: Seven Cases from Personal Experience

Chapter 48. Educated Man

Major works of Peter Drucker

Major works of Peter Drucker in Russian

Conclusion. Manager of tomorrow

Bibliography

Subject index

Archive size 39.1 MB