Managers: Learn to Do One Thing Right

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  1

  eriksalesby5

  05/12/09 | Report as spam

  RE: Managers: Learn to Do One Thing Right

  Good advice, I sum it up with Grow where you are planted. Doug Hall from Eureka Ranch says "Fail fast and fail cheap". The point. some products and services will fail (many) how fast and how cheap matters.
  
  A future focus on what consumers will want is 10x more predictive of success versus what we wanted or what is hot right now.
  ERIK
  WWW.salesby5.com

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  2

  Juffowup

  05/12/09 | Report as spam

  Good main point, but the rest of the article was flaky

  Okay, I agree - managers & company captains should learn how to execute their main competency well, but the quality of this article, and honestly, most BENT articles, could practice some of what it preaches.
  
  What was wrong with this article: Instead of delving into the psychology of why people do things wrong or right or giving highly detailed examples that tell a good story that illustrates the point, it resorts bunch of poorly elaborated examples.
  
  This is the problem I have with BNET lately, many of it's articles give obvious one-liner business heuristics that we've heard over & over again and illustrates on them shallow musings or poor examples.
  
  Yes, I agree with this article, so someone please tell BNET, a place that claims to be a top source for modern business information to put more thought & higher quality writing into the content they post.

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  3

  bhandoko

  05/12/09 | Report as spam

  RE: Managers: Learn to Do One Thing Right

  Gosh, surely it remind me once more what I need to do in my position.
  Thank you

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  4

  ramesh78

  05/12/09 | Report as spam

  RE: Managers: Learn to Do One Thing Right

  Article was great as a reminder but the real question is how do managers differentiate right from wrong when three quarter of the time they are told to just do it and not question a decision that was made in the board room.
  
  Looking forward to some insights

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  5

  FedManager

  05/12/09 | Report as spam

  RE: Managers: Learn to Do One Thing Right

  The article is absolutely on point. The article's main point is to cultivate a personal trait but I believe it has parallels for agencies. As a Federal manager, the first thing which we (managers) should do is identify the service which our agency provides. Once the managers have a clear understanding what the agency does, their focus should be on providing the best service possible. Federal agencies have a tendency to lose sight of their purpose or mission. If federal managers were to do one thing right, it should be good leadership. Managers should use their influence to get the agency to do one thing right, their mission.

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  6

  albertlee

  05/12/09 | Report as spam

  RE: Managers: Learn to Do One Thing Right

  I know it varies but what is that " To Do One Thing Right?"
  Can you please share with me?
  
  Thanks,
  Albert

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  7

  ebm2008

  05/12/09 | Report as spam

  RE: Managers: Learn to Do One Thing Right

  Well beside doing Thing Right as required by the business process so that we could supply our product and services cheaper, faster and better than the competitors, we have to ensure that it is the Right Thing to do. We might doing it right by following the procedures and rules to our best capability, but we might be doing the wrong things. The engineers might produce the best product that there is no future demand or produce badly products that are wanted in the markets.
  
  Thanks
  Elias
  
  

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  8

  ddesopo

  05/12/09 | Report as spam

  RE: Managers: Learn to Do One Thing Right

  Isn?t a company?s primary function to provide a product or service that customers want?
  
  Simple yet profound observation, Steve, and spot on no doubt. Maybe you can tell this concept to "the commander in theif" who will force GM and the like to build electric tin cans with wheels ...stuff that people don't want...hence, the company will likely fail and billions wasted. This simple notion pertains to small and big business...but now we have the wanna be new corporate czars on capitol hill who need lessons in business 101.

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  9

  psd1941@...

  05/12/09 | Report as spam

  Fit for students and not for Managers and Professionals

  I wonder, if a marketing and strategy consultant, like Steve, writes such a non-professional article that too for managers, marketers, entrepreneurs. He gave instance of a mid-sized company engineers developing a product that they wanted to sell thinking the customers as all idiots. But, here through his article, I find Steve is perhaps thinking as if managers, marketers, entrepreneurs all are fools. He probably considers marketing profession as a very simple function meant just for the goods what customers want to buy. As a marketing professional he should have known that whatever product is manufactured by a company, a marketing man has to show his marketing skill to push that through in the market by creating awareness and need for that product in the market.
  
  The author forgets that most of the MNCs created the products that they wanted to sell and not what customers wanted to buy. They were quite successful to promote their goods just by creating the demand through their well organized marketing efforts. The customers, who did not know what actually they want were made aware of what actually their need should be. Coca Cola when introduced by an individual chemist for his local customers in a small town of USA was not the need of any person and now is capturing the world market of beverages. Tea when introduced was not the demand of a person, but now has unending demand in the world. Pizza was not the need of a man when introduced, but though it is considered as a junk food, its demand is increasing day-by-day and McDonald is expanding its wings in almost every city the world over.
  
  I do not see any strategic point in his advice for managers, marketers, entrepreneurs through this article. Of course it can be of some use to the students, but they still would get lost in thinking to which particular ?ONE THING? Steve points out to learn to do right.
  
  I think instead of rendering such a useless advice, better should continue to play with gadgets and animals and drive his wife crazy, as he is fond of.
  
  P S Dhingra
  Vigilance & Change Management Consultant
  

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  Manabozho

  05/12/09 | Report as spam

  anecdotes are not principles

  Decryption of obvious failures--dissimilar ones at that--isn't
  terribly instructive. If the goal was to illustrate doing one
  thing right, a litany of all the training, training, training that
  Captain Sullenberger cited would have made the point
  affirmatively. Over the weekend, I heard a story of Chic-
  Fil-A developing a new program where they put 2-3
  employees out taking orders from cars while they sit line.
  Takes an investment by the stores up-front, but they are
  getting over 100 orders / hour through the line. The big
  surprise--the people who'd pick up their orders in the the
  restaurant, to avoid the line, have stopped doing that--
  because the line's now moving! So, they gained back a full
  position inside the restaurant. Nobody made 'em do it.
  They just took a big liability--their long window-service line,
  and reconfigured the problem. How's that?

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  11

  dougsmithtraining

  05/12/09 | Report as spam

  RE: Managers: Learn to Do One Thing Right

  I once wandered into an A&W Rootbeer place for, guess-what (rootbeer) and guess what they were out of?
  
  Unbelievable. Your points are well taken.
  
  Doug Smith
  http://frontrangeleadership.com
  

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  trajoj

  05/12/09 | Report as spam

  Short but sweet

  I think your article was rather short for being a business article, but it is to the point. I think people over analyze what the "right" thing is. If you don't know what this refers to, read Seth Godin's "Purple Cow".
  
  Peace,
  Travis
  http://www.travisjohansen.com
  

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  breevree73

  05/12/09 | Report as spam

  RE: Managers: Learn to Do One Thing Right

  Hmmmm..... One of the basic precepts of marketing is to create the desire for a product or service that a consumer didn't already know they needed......
  If business owners stop being entrepreneurs and creators, and just stick to the 'one thing they do well', they are not engaging in change, and will ultimately fail.
  Should really be "Learn to do one thing right at a time" - that is, once you are doing something right, why not try something else!!!

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  14

  SEFoster

  05/12/09 | Report as spam

  RE: Managers: Learn to Do One Thing Right

  Sound advice, simply put and short enough to read without feeling like you have to wade through treacle to get to the point.
  
  I note the negative comments from some posters but would suggest that the very fact that you have taken the trouble to respond points to the fact that the message got through.
  

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  rickkennedy

  05/13/09 | Report as spam

  RE: Managers: Learn to Do One Thing Right

  Like some who have commented, I had problems with this particular article. While I will not rehash the valid points and criticisms, I will say that "Learn to do one thing right" goes against all the "Diversify," "Expand," and basically "Do more than one thing right..." some of us were taught in business school in the 80s and 90s. I especially remember "diversify offerings," "expand client bases," and "increase market share" often by being more than one dimensional. Ideally, a burger joint, for example, should be able to fix a burger correctly, but prompt orders, friendly service (or cashier), and fresh food -- not to mention competent preparation -- are all different things that must be "done right" -- plus half the time I am in one of these places, I am not ordering a burger at all -- a salad, a chicken sandwich, or something else. In the airplane example, scheduling (i.e. overbooking) or canceled flights, fiascoes with lost luggage, too many connecting flights are all more prevalent examples of airlines "not getting it right..." on a regular basis. In my opinion, this was a half-baked article that could have been done better.

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  ofer.weintraub@...

  05/13/09 | Report as spam

  RE: Managers: Learn to Do One Thing Right

  Listen to customers ahhh?
  
  - which one of them wanted the iPhone?
  - Who asked for SMS capabilities in cell-phones?
  - Was there a request out there for service like Twitter?
  - Who played the Sony PSP, didn't like it and asked for Wii?
  - What was the name of the customer asking for Sony Walkman?
  - Why did Ford say ?If I had asked people what they wanted, they would have said faster horses?
  
  So yes, for evolutionary products you have to satisfy customer needs, but for new ones....?

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  17

  Anuj singhal

  05/13/09 | Report as spam

  Great Article!

  Simple, brief, to the point, easy to understand and successful to deliver its msg, these all qualities are there in the article.
  Really good one!
  Anuj
  New Delhi
  singhalanujkumar@yahoo.co.in

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  18

  Akinlosotu

  05/13/09 | Report as spam

  RE: Managers: Learn to Do One Thing Right

  In all it is the customer you need to satisfy.
  Every plan of market share is all about numbers. And the numbers can only come from meeting customer's needs.

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  19

  DeonBasson

  05/13/09 | Report as spam

  RE: Managers: Learn to Do One Thing Right

  Good communication skills are most probably the best asset a manager can have. The most critical part of a great team is their ability to communicate well.
  
  The most important contributor to success in communication is the ability to understand people and in the process of doing that change our approach appropriately. We all differ in our approaches to communication due to the fact that we all have certain preferences in the way we think. Understanding this, we can now change our own ?natural style? and make it more appropriate to the person/s we are dealing with and in that greatly enhance our success.
  
  Our thinking preferences differ from each other even more than our fingerprints. We all have 1 or 2 preferences in thinking style and that is what drives our natural communication style. The thinking styles are the following :
  * Visionary ? Opportunistic, Risk Taker, New Ideas
  * Connected / Social ? Relationships, Empathetic, Sympathetic
  * Analytical ? Factual, Analysing everything
  * Methodical ? Process Driven
  
  Armed with knowledge of different thinking styles, understanding your own preference in thinking and utilising the tools to understand the thinking preference of the people you are communicating with, people can now dramatically improve the way they communicate.
  
  Do your own free thinking preference profile by going to www.2interact.com and following the big blue arrow.

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  20

  Good Shape

  05/13/09 | Report as spam

  RE: Managers: Learn to Do One Thing Right

  Do agree with a share of criticism regarding the article. Shouldn't its title be "Getting the Right Thing Done Right"? I think it would flag the message the author is trying to convey more accurately.

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  21

  ramsdenpeter

  05/13/09 | Report as spam

  RE: Managers: Learn to Do One Thing Right

  Hi Keith,
  
  Thanks for the article. The article goes some way to making a valid point that organisations or managers need to be able to deliver at least one product/service extremely well to increase their chances of success.
  
  However I feel a little uncomfortable about "figure out what the most important thing you should be doing is and never forget that doing that one thing, and doing it right on an ongoing basis, is priority one. Your success depends on it."
  
  What happens if your market place changes?
  How do you prepare for the future?
  What happens if key personnel leave taking the skills with them?
  
  Truly successful organisations/managers are able to do many things to a world class standard. This way they can not only manage the present but also have an eye to the future.
  
  Focussing on doing one thing well, is in my humble opinion, a little risky and one dimensional.
  
  Peter Ramsden
  Paramount Learning Ltd

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  22

  JoJohns

  05/13/09 | Report as spam

  RE: Managers: Learn to Do One Thing Right

  A very good reminder, as far as I am concerned, of what we need to bear in mind at all times. I work in IT Service Management ,and in my opinion Steve's observations could not be more accurate for this environment - particularly where the IT function is internal to the organisation. IT all too often do NOT deliver what the customers require........ which creates, purely and simply, a very bad impression - that IT lacks business acumen, business awareness and business professionalism. And they don't deliver what they have promised. Thanks for the timely reminder Steve!

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  23

  mmortenson

  05/13/09 | Report as spam

  RE: Managers: Learn to Do One Thing Right

  I couldn't agree more with Steve. I work in Business Development and new product/service creation. Creativity is key but you must stay grounded in what got you where you are. The number one purpose of business is not to produce but to make a profit. If you can't do things that will make a profit you will not stay in business long enough to generate the next "cool" thing. That is not to say that you shouldn't get creative, but do it with some direction and don't get distracted by what is cool.
  
  In reply to "psd1941", I would agree that "marketing man" creates awareness, but you cannot create need and I would challenge his examples with regard to the food and beverage industry to illustrate his point. Coca cola and McDonalds both address a basic need which is thirst and hunger. We gotta drink and eat. Marketing creates awareness and drives us to make the selection for the brand or product, but I don't believe they create the thirst or hunger. The need. This new economy will weed out those that think they can "create the need". No one will be spending money for anything they don't truly need to sustain. They have only so much to spend and it will be those that do it "really well" that will capture the spend!
  
  Excellent Reminder

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  24

  valdivij

  05/13/09 | Report as spam

  RE: Managers: Learn to Do One Thing Right

  Doing what you love will probably take you to do it right. Keep in mind this "particulary one thing" doesn't need to be the most important thing within your team, because winner teams realize that every team member is important.
  One man can have an idea, but a succesful project requieres a team effort. Marketing can not sell a product without a development, and a developers can not create/design without a customer need to be fulfilled.
  Selfish and egocentric make us believe that we are the most important piece in our well tuned corporate machine, but sucessful people I deeply believe found that the opposite (helping people to flourish in what they were born to be -or do-) is "the one thing" that we all can do it right.

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  25

  business31

  05/13/09 | Report as spam

  BNET - Please screen

  BNET - as Juffowup says, please screen your content posters as this was a rather bland/uninformative piece of rhetoric that should not be in a business-targeted arena.

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  26

  pws999@...

  05/13/09 | Report as spam

  RE: Managers: Learn to Do One Thing Right

  Juffowup,
  
  Enough said. Your critique was more insightful than the article. Please, who needs shallow platitudes without conceptual development.

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  27

  afamiii

  05/13/09 | Report as spam

  RE: Managers: Learn to Do One Thing Right

  If managers could get away with learning to do only one thing right (at a time) then the job of management would be much simpler and getting good managers much easier.
  
  In reality managers need to be able to at least 3 things (and normally more) right (all at the same time) before I would classify them as a manager.
  
  Though the principal of going for breakthrough improvements in one area at a time is valid.
  

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  Steve Tobak

  05/13/09 | Report as spam

  Good comments, feedback

  Thanks for all the insightful comments so far, especially the feedback. Just as an FYI, I will continue to develop the concepts in this post on an ongoing basis as I have in prior posts. Those who read The Corner Office on a regular basis or subscribe know this isn't a "one shot deal."
  
  ramsdenpeter: when things change, you have to adapt and that one thing adaps along with it. Check out 10 Rules For Effective Strategic Planning: http://blogs.bnet.com/ceo/?p=2127&tag=content;col1
  
  rickkennedy: after you get that one thing right, then you diversify. That's all part of business evolution. They also teach you that in biz school.
  
  Thanks again and keep 'em coming!
  
  Steve Tobak
  
  

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  29

  ngami1fg

  05/13/09 | Report as spam

  RE: Managers: Learn to Do One Thing Right

  The idea of focusing company efforts on what is done well is valid but the article doesn't identify the need to do more than one thing well as the market is shifting continually. also companies need to be looking at how they need to change and adapt to the changing market trends and future shifts in the market that they serve.

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  30

  IanP2

  05/13/09 | Report as spam

  RE: Managers: Learn to Do One Thing Right

  Juffowup et al.
  BNET, like many a university MBA course focus on short articles, priiarily as discussion points and mostly to get people, like us researching, thinking and debating.
  If Steve were to spout at great length, developing complicated arguments, few of us would get to the end and at best all most of us would do is go somewhere else for our information.
  Short, snappy and to the point and let us acolytes do our own thinking as we reply.
  Great job Steve.

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  31

  Steve Tobak

  05/13/09 | Report as spam

  RE: Managers: Learn to Do One Thing Right

  Quite right, IanP2. And I invite all of you who are new to The Corner Office to investigate the wealth of insights, content, and debates therein and, if you like what you read, please consider subscribing.
  
  Thanks!
  ST

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  32

  tomdunb@...

  05/14/09 | Report as spam

  RE: Managers: Learn to Do One Thing Right

  Steve you are very correct, this can never be more timely other than now, the economic challenges has subjected almost everybody to check and to recheck to be sure that the services he or she is getting is commensurable with every single dime he/she is paying to get such a service, it is the onus of every Manager providing a service to as well ascertain that the quality of service/product he is providing equally meets the "NEEDS" of the generality of his clientele. Thank God for technology, BI is a must have powerful analysis tool to every Manager, with which you can ascertain who are my major clients, what is there average age bracket, where are they located, how stable is there need over a time etc., answers to such questions should serve as a pointer to how any manager should be creative with the kind of services or products he provides, so as to RETAIN his existing clients as well as to ATTRACT new clients. I am in the Insurance Industry in Nigeria, the challenge is more prominent here, and for any insurance industry to have a major chunk of the market share, you must continously research on your existing products, fine tune them to meet the needs of the contemprorary client, other wise the business becomes very unattractive, boring and uninteresting. But if the need of the client is identified and relevant products are developed to meet such needs specifically, the Return will certainly be visible in a very short while. The rule is DO NOT FORCE YOUR PRODUCTS TO THE THROATS OF YOUR CLIENTs BUT ALWAYS IDENTIFY ANY CHANGE IN THEIR NEED AND BE WILLING TO MEET THEM.
  
  Audu Dunni Oladokun (CHI)

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  33

  spettis

  05/17/09 | Report as spam

  RE: Managers: Learn to Do One Thing Right

  I can't agree more - we all know that managers have to know how to do a lot of things well, we all have to know how to do one thing RIGHT. I too am ex-military and I can't agree more with the philosophy that we need to save lives. The thing we all have to learn how to do right differs from job to job, remember that, figure it out (or ask a coach) then get to it and have fun while doing it!

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  34

  Juffowup

  05/18/09 | Report as spam

  RE: Managers: Learn to Do One Thing Right

  "BNET, like many a university MBA course focus on short articles, priiarily as discussion points and mostly to get people, like us researching, thinking and debating. "
  
  Yeah, but much higher quality could still have been achieved than this. This looks like no more than 15-30 minutes of writing.

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  35

  shabbarsuterwala

  05/26/09 | Report as spam

  RE: Managers: Learn to Do One Thing Right

  Jack of all and master of none..!!!
  
  You need to be atleast the master of ONE to be effective
  
  

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  36

  courtr

  06/15/09 | Report as spam

  RE: Managers: Learn to Do One Thing Right

  This is Drucker 101. (DO THE RIGHT THINGS) The management Oracle Peter Drucker believed that successful managers "did the right things" as opposed "to doing things right". I think that often managers mix up form and substance. They often engulf themselves in form and spend little time on the substance issue. "If it looks good or sounds good it must be good.
  
  Ideally you want to do the right things and you want them to be done properly. Drucker believed that this was the most important component of a successful manager. The great ones can figure out what the right things are and can get them done.
  
  

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  37

  thrashjt

  07/09/09 | Report as spam

  RE: Managers: Learn to Do One Thing Right

  Great dialogue!
  
  IanP2 stated, this article was written to evoke thought and reason. Unfortunately, based on a few comments listed; this topic is above the heads of many. Getting things right is not a new concept, in fact, this way of thinking/doing business has been around forever. Think of businesses that have been around for 50, 75, 100 years. These entities have mastered the art of doing things well. Moreover, it is the bright, innovative, and creative people they hire and KEEP as the main reason they are successful!
  
  Words of advice for those who do not understand the concept: lose the grandiose attitudes and speak with the owner of Nathans Hot Dog?s in New York and ask him why he been in business for a thousand years!
  
  Good luck.
  
  JCT
  

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  38

  dmrdano

  07/24/09 | Report as spam

  RE: Managers: Learn to Do One Thing Right

  As a relative newcomer to marketing, I find BNET's articles, including this one, to be rather helpful and encouraging. I read them more for motivation than instruction. I find it interesting that some of the critics of this author's writing do not write well themselves. Further, their superior attitude does not endear them to potential customers. It would be interesting to compare their relative success rates.
  
  To the subject, your competitors are probably also "doing things right," so you need to do the right things better!