The Ten Commandments of Management

Value and Key Points

What is the value of this book?

——This book does not tell us how to manage successfully, but shares with us how to fail. Because the author believes that the reasons for success may be diverse, but the reasons for failure are very similar. Therefore, success cannot be learned, but failure can be prevented.

——This book is the only management classic recommended by Bill Gates, Warren Buffett and Jack Welch.

What is the main point of this book?

1. The first commandment: do not want to take any risks

The ancestors of Americans are people who love adventure, so they can explore the new world. Whenever I think about my great-grandfather breaking rocks for a living, I feel like it’s good enough to be sitting in an office, so I’m not afraid of losing.

When everything at Coca-Cola was running normally, I felt uncomfortable all over. I would walk around the company and ask the executives: Tell me, why is everything going smoothly? Is there nothing to worry about?

Drucker said that an important task shouldered by management is to use the company's existing resources to take prudent risks to ensure the company's future sustainability.

If you are in a comfortable situation, then you will have a strong urge to give up taking risks. This urge is sometimes so powerful that it is difficult to resist. Once this happens, failure is not far away.

2 The second commandment: Rigid thinking and going your own way

Truly stubborn people are not risk-averse. They are not only unwilling to take risks to make changes or innovations, but also insist on their own methods. , firmly believe that they have the key to success, and feel that they no longer need to explore other ways to success.

When Pepsi-Cola attacked Coca-Cola with larger packages, Coca-Cola's reaction was rigid thinking, going its own way, and unwilling to change. As a result, Pepsi seized the opportunity to catch up.

IBM ignored the popularity of personal computers; Ford once only offered black cars; Montgomery Ward did not see the rapid economic development after World War II and did not make any new investments, and was quickly surpassed by Sears Department Store ; *** and steel companies refuse to accept the production of aluminum cans, believing that aluminum cans are not strong...

If you want to ask for failure, then be stubborn!

Flexibility and adaptability are important components of leadership, a talent that goes beyond simple management, operational and technical abilities. I believe that flexible people have the ability to habitually assess situations and think. Once the environment changes, they will quickly adapt to the new environment.

3. The third commandment: Completely isolate yourself

Self-narcissism is so exciting. There was once a CEO who built himself a "Taj Mahal" at his company's headquarters. Can you imagine that a middle-level manager was going to report to the Taj Mahal, and he was too scared to speak just by looking at the furnishings? Once a person falls into a self-created mirage, he is no longer willing to "go downstairs". He will only sit in other people's mirages.

Unfortunately, a common characteristic of the most successful business elites in history is their ability to relate to employees at all levels. When Cessna Aircraft Company founder Dwayne Wallace walked into a production floor, he could not only name more than 3,000 employees, but also know some of their family affairs.

If you only spend time with a few confidants or executives every day, their job becomes to please you and give you an illusory sense of success.

During World War II, Churchill set up a special office whose only job was to report bad news to him. Hitler, on the contrary, only listened to good news and always believed that the German army had the upper hand.

Being arrogant or intimidating is a major reason for isolating yourself.

If employees don't want to come to you, you have to find a way to get to them, or you're going to make a stupid mistake.

4. The fourth commandment: If you make a mistake, refuse to admit it, and be arrogant

The annual reports of many companies can be summarized as:

Don’t admit that you have made a mistake. If the situation is not good, cover it up if you can, wait until the crisis breaks out, and then look for the cause from the external environment and shift the responsibility to a certain scapegoat.

Every CEO makes mistakes, the key is to admit them quickly and make amends. I once easily rejected a proposal to invest US$500 million in East Germany based on my intuition. Unexpectedly, the head of the German business had to resign. It turned out that he thought I didn't understand the size of the resurgent market in East Germany. We went to East Germany, and when we came back I decided to increase the investment to $1 billion.

If you want to increase your probability of failure, then you can deny the fact that your judgment is not 100% accurate, and you can be arrogant and think that others don't understand anything.

Therefore, if you want to fail, be an arrogant leader who loves to show off.

5. The fifth commandment: only pursue development and ignore business ethics

In the final analysis, the last lifeline of all companies is the issue of trust.

Customers must believe that the company's products are as good as promised, investors must believe that the company's management is capable, and employees must believe that the management can fulfill its promises.

The reason why many companies disguise themselves is to please Wall Street. The capital market inspires people's greed and they like to make quick money through the capital market too much, leading to more corruption and deception.

Another source of problems is the desire of corporate executives to become famous. This is also a common problem in modern society.

Please remember Drucker’s point of view:

In fact, there is no business ethics, there is only morality, and there is no gap in all aspects of your life and work. If you have different standards of morality on different occasions, then you are not a businessman.

6 The Sixth Commandment: Don’t think hard and have little idea of ??what you are doing

We are tired of communicating with people, like robots, constantly emitting stream of consciousness waves, making data There are more and more flows, but we no longer analyze it. Few people will close the door, turn off all noisy equipment, sit upright, reflect quietly, and analyze the problem seriously.

If you consume a large amount of information without thinking, there will be three main problems:

Information shock syndrome, your brain will reach the limit of fatigue;

Undigested data obscures the truth;

Not taking the time to think is foolish and sometimes dangerous.

“What really gets us into trouble is not the things we don’t understand at all, but the things we have only a passing understanding of.”

——Mark Twain

7 The Seventh Commandment: Don’t be sure, trust the experts completely

When I was learning to buy cattle when I was a child, Uncle Harmon told me, “The key is to look at the cattle, not the people.” This sentence is imprinted on me. In my mind, I do the same thing now when dealing with investment banks and buying and selling companies.

This was the case when we decided to launch New Coke. A large number of experts demonstrated the extraordinary charm of New Coke, but no one seemed to dare to pour cold water on New Coke. We decided to promote New Coke in a big way, which resulted in complaints and even marches across the country, and I became the target of ridicule.

Experts are very dangerous animals. You have to be extremely careful when encountering experts who want to quantify human behavior, because management is always a people thing.

8 The eighth commandment: Administrative style prevails and the team is bloated

When I first went to work at Coca-Cola headquarters, the secretary cried because she couldn’t get a few pencils. It turns out that if you want to get these pencils, you need to fill out a form and go through the process. The person who filled out the form was on vacation again, and the same thing happened to the stapler, bookshelf, and copy machine. She collapsed. I realized the bureaucracy was already huge.

If you want to hinder progress, let administrative processes dominate and worship bureaucracy. Because bureaucrats not only do nothing themselves, but they also prevent others from doing their jobs. They will go to great lengths to protect their own territory, prevent the effective communication of information, and mess up things that could have been accomplished, so that their position is consolidated.

Most of the departures of good employees are related to bureaucracy. The cost of recruiting and training a mid-level cadre is at least twice his annual salary.

In 2007, Berkshire Hathaway owned 76 companies, employed more than 232,000 people, and had annual revenue of more than 18 billion U.S. dollars, but the company headquarters only had 19 employees. Even so, Warren Buffett complains that corporate bureaucracy is too prevalent.

9 The ninth commandment: misplaced information and poor communication

In Las Vegas, if the casino owner sees cash appearing on the gaming table and does not disappear quickly, Then the casino manager would be fired because the casino owner doesn't want gamblers thinking about real money when gambling. They don't think it's $50, but a small chip.

Many people in the enterprise have no concept of money, it is just a series of zero numbers. Vague numbers and vague information will make employees think they can make money no matter what they do. Every company should have a decent annual meeting.

If the pass is not received, the responsibility should be on the person who passed the ball, because there is a communication problem between him and his teammates. Therefore, there must be clear and accurate information transmission within the team.

10 The Tenth Commandment: Psychological fear of the future, strong in pessimism

Many people think that Malthus is the originator of demography, but I think he is the originator of modern pessimism.

The author of "The Population Explosion" predicted that hundreds of millions of people would die from famine in the 1970s. The Club of Rome wrote "The Limits to Growth" to describe the depletion of human resources. But none of these happened, and we lived through one "doomsday" after another.

The problem with pessimism is that it focuses on failure. The media plays a big role in this. Countless good things don't make the news; a little bad thing does. People pursue safety, but they like to find excitement in the news.

In my opinion, any time is a good time to start a company. If you want to reach a leadership position in your company, you just need to be an optimist. If you want to fail, then be afraid of the future!

11. The Eleventh Commandment: Lose Passion for Work and Life

My neighbor Warren Buffett said:

I step on my feet every day when I go to work. Go tap dancing. I have the same mindset about work. Bringing everyone together is not about telling everyone to have fun, but about telling everyone to work harder. If they perform better, employees themselves will experience greater satisfaction.

If you want to fail, then you don't have to do anything with passion, just say to yourself: "It's good enough", "That's none of my business", "I don't care" ” or “I’m almost retired. ”

A person without passion is just a loser even if he lives a good life.

A rational person can adapt to the world, while an irrational person strives to make the world adapt to him. Therefore, all progress depends on these irrational people.

——Bernard Shaw

Memory and Output

This is a book that does not teach you how to manage a company, because the author believes that he is free and can do it Not very good, so this book doesn't tell you what you should do to become a good manager, but he shares with you the things he did wrong, and that's the core of the book, what things managers can't do What they do is administer the Ten Commandments.

The first commandment is to be unwilling to take any risks. Drucker said: An important mission of managers is to use the company's existing resources to take prudent risks, thereby ensuring that the company sustainable operations in the future.

The second commandment is rigid thinking and going their own way. Not only are they unwilling to take risks, but they also insist on their own inherent opinions. They think this must be the best way. For example: Pepsi-Cola used a large bottle of Coca-Cola to defeat Coca-Cola, which was packaged in a small bottle. Also, at that time, someone suggested that Ford paint the car in other colors. He deeply doubted who would like cars in other colors. Furthermore, Kodak people invented the digital camera themselves but were questioned and missed opportunities for development. In the book "The Innovator's Dilemma", he said: Almost all innovations are not launched by the top three in the industry, such as: Subversion It was Apple that made mobile phones, it was 360 that subverted anti-virus software, and it was Tesla that subverted the automobile industry. They were not the industry leaders at the beginning.

The third commandment is to completely close yourself off. Surprisingly, in history, all elites in the workplace have a common characteristic, which is to get along with the grassroots employees. The book also lists examples from the Second World War. In the examples of Churchill and Hitler, one set up a special office to collect bad news, the other could only listen to good news, and everyone knew the result.

The fourth commandment is to refuse to admit that you have made a mistake and be arrogant. One kind of person makes a mistake and immediately admits it and then corrects it. The other kind of person refuses to admit it and just covers up his mistakes.

The fifth commandment is to only pursue development and ignore business ethics, such as tax evasion, tax evasion, tax evasion, and the desire to become a celebrity.

The sixth commandment is not to think hard and have only a partial understanding of what you are doing. Mark Twain once said: What really gets us into trouble is not the things we don’t understand at all, but the things we have only a partial understanding of. Therefore, managers must have time to think independently. For example, Steve Jobs liked to meditate and think.

The seventh commandment is not to grasp it yourself and to rely entirely on experts. Uncle Keogh once took him to buy cattle. His uncle said: The key is to look at the cattle, not the people, that is, listen to the cattle dealers. Introduction, it is better to judge for yourself. Also, you must be extra careful when encountering so-called experts who need to quantify human behavior, because management is always a human matter.

The eighth commandment is that the administrative style prevails and the team is bloated. For example, when Keogh first arrived at Coca-Cola, he asked his secretary to get some pencils, but he couldn't get them. There was also the merger of Nokia and Siemens. When the new Nokia Siemens Corporation was formed, the people at Siemens were very strict, while the people at Nokia were very loose. So when the people at Nokia needed some paper, they had to follow Siemens' complicated approval process. Later, the people at Nokia got the paper from their colleagues at the post office. . In fact, the people who have the most say in a company should be the people who create value for the company, not the administrative staff. This is also the reason why most outstanding employees leave.

The ninth commandment is misplaced information and poor communication. For example: in a casino, it is stipulated that cash cannot be present on the gaming table. Why? Because the appearance of cash will make gamblers think that it is real money, and without any cash, they will recognize that it is some plastic pieces and will continue to gamble. In the enterprise, an information flow mechanism must be established, and every employee must be very clear about the enterprise's goals.

The tenth commandment is psychological fear of the future, with a strong color of pessimism. There are always some people who are always worried about the development prospects of the company, resulting in some negative thoughts. In the author’s opinion, it is always a sign of creation It's a good time for a company. If you want to achieve a leadership position in the company, then you just need to be an optimist. As long as you stay optimistic and positive anytime and anywhere, any difficulties can be solved.

The eleventh commandment is to lose the passion for work and life. One person I want to mention here is Warren Buffett, who is Keough’s neighbor. Buffett said: When I go to work every day, He went there with tap dancing steps, and he took pleasure in his work, so as long as you are always passionate about your work, you can always make your employees feel that fighting with you is a very meaningful thing, not just for With these numbers, you will be more capable of leadership, and your management will be more effective.