The Profit Prophet

Peter Drucker once noted that companies that seem to have the most success “invent the future that has already happened.” Nice quote, but what does that mean exactly? How can you invent an unknown future that has already happened? I think what he is trying to say is to look for successes in other industries or processes and copy them in yours. Some call this ' translation ' of an idea or concept. Case in point, Dell took made-to-order and catalog sales (what Sears used to do with their Craftsman houses in the early 1900s), and applied it their computer manufacturing. Or how Keller Williams combined the success of ERA with Mary Kay’s multi-level-marketing (MLM) approach to become one of the largest realtors in the nation. Essentially, how you invent the future is to take something that worked well in one industry, and see if it can be translated (moved) into what you are trying to do in another. Great companies are able to “steal” ideas, methodologies, and processes th...

Sometimes in business we like to think that certain tactics we developed in one industry can translate over into another, but as is often the case they do not.  Yes, you always have to look out for strategies that might move from one industry to another, but sometimes these "conversions" can end up with unintended consequences as this short story illustrates. An African ambassador visited Russia and was entertained by his opposite number, the Russian ambassador. For three days, the African ambassador was wined, dined, and generally treated to the best hospitality that Russia had to offer. On the last day of his visit, the Russian ambassador said, "As your stay is coming to an end, it's time for you to play our traditional game, Russian roulette. One of the six chambers of this gun is loaded - you spin the cylinder, point the gun at your head, and pull the trigger." This phased the African slightly, but he was a proud man of a warrior people, and to show fe...

If you have any started up a company or had to run a tightly knit group of go-getters there is really nothing more important that an excellent channel of communications, where each and every party understands what is being communicated. That is why to this day in the Navy a sailor still repeats the orders given by officers..so that both parties understand that it was received, correctly understood and will be executed.  To show how when someone is taken out of their element and put into a seemingly odd place communication becomes critically important, sometimes, important things get lost in translation.  Bubba, a handsome furniture dealer from High Point, North Carolina, decided to expand the line of furniture in his large store, so he decided to go to Paris to see what he could find. After arriving in Paris he met with some manufacturers and selected a line that he thought would sell well back home in North Carolina, and additionally become a US distributo...

There have been tomes written about management styles, and what works best to motivate employees to produce the best product or service for the end customer.  While this is all well and good, what has to be remember is from where you are speaking: West Coast versus East Coast..because, East is East and West is West and never the twain shall meet!  To help you understand, I put a translation guide for your reference.