Management and Theology

I’m reading The Daily Drucker: 366 Days of Insight and Motivation for Getting the Right Things Done by Peter Drucker right now. I don’t plan on reading it as a daily but more for insights and perhaps read five or six entries a day.

I found January 11th entry highly relevant to my experience in my work as a business consultant in the last few years.

From Drucker’s writing.

Management always lives, works, and practices in and for the institution, which is a community held together by a bond: the work bond. And precisely because the object of management is a human community held together by the work bond for a common purpose, management always deals with the nature of Man and (as all of us with any practical experience have learned) with Good and Evil, as well. I have learned more about theology as practicing management consultant than when I thought religion.

Even though I have never taught religion I agree with Drucker. I have learned far more about human nature and theology in the business world than from my Biblical education.

About a year and half ago I read People of the Lie by Scott Peck and during that time I was having a text book experience as describe in a few of the stories in the book.

The Strategy & Tactics of Pricing

I finish reading The Strategy & Tactics of Pricing: A Guide to Profitable Decision Making by Thomas T. Nagle

Great book! It is more applicable to the manufacturing and distribution of products than the service industry but I enjoyed reading and learning something new.

Chapter two is very insightful were the author points out how to price products (and services) from a cost perspective. He explains the difference and how to cover non-incremental fixed and sunk cost.

The book teaches how to deliver superior value to customers by pricing the right way. If you want to learn how to create value and how to capture it read this book

The book is both theoretical and practical.

Quote on value

I like this quote because it speaks to what I'm working on for my future career.

"Humans cannot create matter. We can, however, create value. Creating value is, in fact, our very humanity. When we praise people for their strength of character, we are actually acknowledging their ability to create value."-Tsunesaburo Makiguchi

I’ve been working on a mission statement and values for my future venture. Here is part of it

“
How we create value

We create value by being resourceful and attentive to our customers' needs and wants in services and product we deliver

How we capture value

We capture value by pricing our services and products base on outcome our customers will achieve.
”
I read about creating and capturing value and how to implement a value model.

A great source I’ve read and plan on reading again is by Ron Baker called Pricing on Purpose: Creating and Capturing Value

Right now I’m reading Let’s Get Real or Let’s not Play: The Demise of Dysfunctional Selling and the Advent of Helping Clients Succeed by Mahan Khalsa

Revenue Management

I recently finish reading a book called Revenue Management by Robert G. Cross. I enjoyed reading this book! It has some great insight in to pricing products and services for different market segments. It is more applicable to the service industry (Airlines, car rental companies, hotels, etc...) than consumable products.

I rented this book from the local library and ended up buying it to have it in my library for reference when needed.

Robert G. Cross has founded a consulting business base on the model presented in this book.

It is well written...I highly recommend it. I give it 5 out of 5 stars

Blog coming out of retirement

I'm back! The last 6 months or so have been interesting for me. Much of my time has been spent figuring out what I want to do and looking for jobs. I've been exploring my strengths and my abilities.

What has been both rewarding and frustrating is to figure out what I really want to do. I've made a decision to move forward but I'm not quite ready to make the announcement. The reason I'm starting to blog again is part of the future for me.

About 8 months ago I read a book called Get Smarter : Life and Business Lessons written by a Toronto millionaire/entrepreneur Seymour Schulich. One of the things he said is that the two most important decisions one will make in life is a marriage partner and the right career.

I believe I have chosen very well in a marriage partner. After being married for over a year I find being married highly fulfilling. We even have a new addition to the family already. Elliot Peters was born on Sept the 3rd and came in at 9lb. I'm a proud dad!!

As far as career, I'm working on it and I'm very optimistic but at times also fearful. I have a vision in my mind of what I want my future career to be and have set goals to get there. Now it is just a matter of working very hard to accomplish the goals and not forget of what is really important in life.

If you are still following this blog or subscribe to it...welcome back!!

More post to come soon!