Abstract
The work of Drucker is reviewed with particular regard to comments about the role of management and the approach Drucker suggests concerning determining the focus of the business. These statements are evaluated for their relationship to the business model and its importance in business analysis. The work of Porter is reviewed concerning competitive advantage and the suggestions regarding business analysis and the detailed information sources. The concept of analysing the linkages between resources across the organization and the supply chain is reviewed. The relationship between the resource-based view of competitive advantage and the connection to the VRIO framework is considered. The suggestions Porter makes concerning the industry analysis and within industry analysis are reviewed. The possibility of using the same approach and developing similar related questions to analyse the organization is considered.
TopDrucker On The Role Of Management
Drucker (2011) nominates three areas of management activity which are: managing the business, managing managers and managing the work and workers; a fourth area of concern in his book “The Practice of Management” is about the necessary structures needed to support the management task. His book covers these areas very thoroughly and his introduction discusses the role, the job and the responsibilities of the manager before broadening out to managing the business.
Meredith Belbin of Belbin Associates writes the foreword for the 2011 edition and praises the book as being as relevant today as it was when it was first written, but does criticise Drucker’s lack of focus on the team requirements of management. The team activity is mentioned but although Drucker explains the role of the manager and the requirements of the management job clearly and in detail, there are a couple of points that could be expanded upon.
An example of something crucial being omitted is in part V “what it means to be a manager” and the chapter on “the manager and his work”, Drucker writes the comment that “a manager has two specific tasks. Nobody else in the business enterprise discharges these tasks. And everyone charged with them works as a manager” (Drucker, 2011, p.295).
The first task is that “the manager has the task of creating a true whole that is larger than the sum of the parts” (Drucker, 2011, p295) and the other task being “to harmonize in every decision and action the requirements of immediate and long-range future. He cannot sacrifice either without endangering the enterprise” (Drucker, 2011, p296).
Both these statements are very useful descriptions of the responsibilities of the management team. The problem with the first statement is that Drucker is saying that all managers have these two tasks, but there is no reference as to how this is managed without avoiding conflict. The conflict occurs if each manager is trying to create a true whole larger than the sum of the parts and in doing so interferes with the responsibilities of other managers.
Both the tasks express very valid requirements for the development of the business. There is however a need to manage the implementation of these statements with appropriate managerial protocols; whereby each manager takes responsibility for enacting decisions within the domain of that manager but is open to discussion on achieving the greater holistic view when the overall business is being reviewed and all areas of responsibility are discussed.
Key Terms in this Chapter
Competitive advantage: Whereby the company has a resource advantage over the competition to enable it to be sustainably profitable.
Business Focus: The purpose of a business is to create a customer and it is the customer who determines the nature of the business ( Drucker, 2011 ).
Information Management: A policy and project to set the company direction for dealing with the requirement to search out, gather, store, and present the complex information required for an information system or to determine competitive advantage.
Value Chain Analysis: A process where a firm identifies its primary and support activities that add value to its final product and then analyze these activities to reduce costs or increase differentiation.
Role of Management: The manager has the task of creating a whole that is larger than the sum of the parts and to harmonize in every decision and action the requirements of immediate and long-range future ( Drucker, 2011 ).
Business model: It answers the questions; who is the customer? And what does the customer value? Magretta (2002) .