Avoiding Competition

A good strategy, therefore, should include finding ways to avoid competition.

Competition, by its very nature, means that there will be winners and losers--and in the competition for customers, those that fail to gain a competitive advantage in the market will ultimately fail altogether. A good strategy, therefore, should include finding ways to avoid competition.

Competition can be a destructive force for your organization. Consider two coffee shops that are situated next to one another, and that offer a similar standard of coffee and service. Both of the shops are suffering poor sales. To try to boost its performance one of the shops decides to offer a 10-percent discount on all orders. This is successful, and attracts more customs to the shop. In response, the second coffee shop introduces a 15-percent discount, in turn winning more of the local business, and putting pressure on the first shop to offer an even larger discount. This pattern of behavior is likely to ultimately lead to the destruction of both shops.

All markets go through this destructive competitive process, which leads--in time--to the failure of many competitors and the dominance of a very small number of the most competitive players.

ACTION POINT: Understand the destructive competitive process of price discounting.

Possible Characteristics of Good Customers

They provide valuable insight into areas that you are not familiar with

A good strategy aims to identify and target customers with characteristics that are beneficial for your organization. Here are four possible characteristics to consider.

• Financially beneficial. They provide you with regular profitable income: they are willing to pay a higher-than-average price' they give you a large volume of work so it improves your turnover figures; they pay promptly and it improves your cash flow.
• Reputation enhancing. Their custom enhances your reputation in the market. For example, if you write software for the financial services industry and a major Wall Street firm buys your software, other customers will assume that you must be good.
• Structure enhancing. They enable you to invest in new resources: for example, if a potential but not well-paying customer would provide work to fill 60 percent of an expensive new machines capacity, that customer's work would allow you to invest in a key new resource.
• Knowledge enhancing. They provide valuable insight into areas that you are not familiar with, such as a new market sector or a new country that would be strategically important for your organization.

ACTION POINT: Consider the benefits of a customer and how they may enhance your reputation, structure or market knowledge.

Attracting the Right Customers

Take time to think about the characteristics that would most benefit your organization.

In the early stages of a business, it is natural to say "yes" to all potential customers. You may be under financial pressures to earn income, and want to seek reassurances that you are doing a good job and that people want to work with you. However, some customers have characteristics that give them the potential to be much more beneficial to your organization that others.

Take time to think about the characteristics that would most benefit your organization. If you can identify customers with those characteristics and find ways to attract them, you will gain the double benefit of having the customers that you want and sending the least beneficial customers to your competitors, so that they waste their time, not yours.

Once you have determined the types of customers you want and don't want, target your marketing to your preferred groups. For example, if you have decided that large customers are more beneficial to your organization than small ones, don't place your advertisements in local community magazines--advertise in national media. Strategic marketing of your products to attract the right customers also extends to pricing: if you price your products very low, you may attract only the most cost-conscious customers, who are likely to argue over price.

ACTION POINT: Determine the types of customers that bring the most benefit to your organization.

Choosing Your Customers

A good strategy aims to identify and target customers with characteristics that are most beneficial to your organization.

If you take the time to review and analyze your customers, you will find that they are not equally valuable: some will produce strong, continuous, reliable forms of income, while others give you small pieces of complex work, argue over what you have done, and then are slow to pay you.

A good strategy aims to identify and target customers with characteristics that are most beneficial to your organization.

ACTION POINT: Regularly look through your customer list and ask yourself: what is the compelling reason for having this customer?

Gift of Wisdom: The Divine Perspective

Christ... the... wonderful wisdom of God.

1 Corinthians 1:24

The Gift of Wisdom provides us God's view of things, a kind of divine perspective on reality that penetrates through evens and perceives the divine presence and action at work, even in very tragic and painful situations. To see God in suffering is indeed a high level of the Gift of Wisdom. Some things are to be learned in this perspective that cannot be learned in any other way. The Gift of Wisdom is the source of the Beatitude of the Peacemakers, those who have established peace within themselves and who have ordered their own great variety of faculties into a unity that submits to God's direction and inspiration. They are also able to establish peace around them -- whether it be in their families, communities, or the workplace.

Blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be called children of God. Matthew 5:9

Light of Christmas

Glory to God in the highest... Luke 2:14

Readiness for any eventuality is the attitude of one who has entered into the freedom of the Gospel. Commitment to the new world that Christ is creating... requires flexibility and detachment: the readiness to go anywhere or nowhere, to live or to die, to rest or to work, to be sick or to be well, to take up one service and to put down another. Everything is important when one is opening to Christ-consciousness. This awareness transforms our worldly concepts of security into the security of accepting, for love of God, an unknown future... The light of Christmas is an explosion of insight changing our whole idea of God. Our childish ways of thinking of God are left behind. As we turn our enchanted gaze toward the Babe in the crib, our inmost being opens to the new consciousness that the Babe has brought into the world.

Today in the town of David a Savior has been born to you: he is Christ the Lord. Luke 2:11

Joy of Christmas

Shout with joy to God, all the earth! Psalm 66:1

The joy of Christmas is the intuition that all limitations to growth into higher states of consciousness have been overcome. The divine light cuts across all darkness, prejudice, preconceived ideas, prepackaged values, false expectations, phoniness and hypocrisy. It presents us with the truth. To act out of the truth is to make Christ grown not only in ourselves, but in others. Thus, the humdrum duties and events of daily life become sacramental, shot through with eternal implications. This is what we celebrate in the liturgy. The kairos, "the appointed time," is now. According to Paul, "Now is the time of salvation," that is, now is the time when the whole of divine mercy is available. Now is the time to risk further growth.

I tell you, now is the time of God's favor, now is the day of salvation.

2 Corinthians 6:2

Planning for Growth

A "stretch" approach, if successful, puts you in a stronger position,

In many circumstances yo may want to go further than simply "fitting" within your market, and attempt to make yourself more dominant. A "stretch" strategy is an extension of "fit," and involves making decisions and taking actions that enable you to grow, and in doing so push your competitors back or even crush them.

A "stretch" approach, if successful, puts you in a stronger position, and may perhaps mean that your organization lives longer. However, you must also weigh up that employing a "stretch" strategy means that the scale of decisions and actions you have to take will be greater, so it is likely to consume more time and resources and involve a higher level of risk than a "fit" strategy.

ACTION POINT: Identify the "stretch" decisions and actions that enable your business to grow.

The Ansoff Matrix

The matrix lists four possible options, ordered by how much risk is involved, from least to most risky.

The Ansoff Matrix is a tool that can help define the options open to a business when deciding on a strategy for selling their products. The matrix lists four possible options, ordered by how much risk is involved, from least to most risky.

• To sell existing products or services into existing markets.
• To sell new products or services to existing markets (i.e., to sell new products to the same customers)
• To sell existing products or services to new markets.
• To sell new products or services to new markets.

When choosing which of these strategies to use to sell your products, consider your existing resources and competencies, taking into account how easy it would be for you to develop or acquire any that you currently lack, and the level of risk involved in undertaking each option.

ACTION POINT: Identify the products, services and markets to focus your strategy on.

Fitting or Stretching

whatever your business, you can never afford to stand still

Your strategy is defined by the macroeconomic and market forces that continually act upon your organization. Doing nothing to respond to these forces is not an option, because without action their impact will ultimately destroy you. You have a choice: to "fit" within these forces, or to employ a "stretch" strategy that could lead to growth in the future.

Picture your organization surrounded by its competitors and forces in the market, and by the macroeconomic forces that impact on all organizations. These forces push at your organization form all sides and can, in time, crush it. If your organizations responds by making decisions and taking actions--such as selling new products or moving into new markets--it will push back against these crushing forces. It will become stronger and if its forces are equal to the forces pushing it, then it will maintain itself and we can say that it has achieved "fit." This means that effectively standing still requires active management; and achieving "fit" cannot happen by doing nothing. The concept of "fit" reflects the fact that all organizations operate in a dynamic, environment. If you decide to begin work at 9 am, for example, there is not reason why your competitors cannot decide to start at 8 am.

Even if you decide that you want your team or organization to remain roughly the same, at the very least your costs will grow every year, which means you need to earn more to cover them; and in addition your competitors and your markets are likely to change. So, whatever your business, you can never afford to stand still: a strategy for achieving "fit" is the minimum requirement.

ACTION POINT: Don't stand still.

Gift of Understanding: View Our Own Weakness

Let your mercy shine upon evil...

Saint Teresa of Avila

The Gift of Understanding...gives us a penetrating insight into the truth s of faith and at the same time a realistic view of our own weakness.. It communicates the experience of our nothingness and our incapacity to do anything good by ourselves... The Gift of Understanding, whether it comes through terrible suffering or develops gradually through a life of prayer, makes us aware that we are capable of any evil and that only God is our strength. Only God can protect us from the evil we might do if we were placed in circumstances of enormous tragedy and suffering. In this sharp light there can be no elation or pride in one's own gifts. There is no appropriation one's own talents... All of this is burned away... as we realize ever more profoundly that we owe infinitely more to God and to others than we can ever give back. Humility is the right relationship to God. It is the same total dependence on God and invincible hope in God's infinite mercy.

Blessed are the pure in heart: for they will see God. Matthew 5:8

Striking a Balance

In reality, a strategy that seeks to achieve a balance of the inside-out and outside-in approaches may be the most successful.

The reverse approach is known as "outside-in," or a "market-based view" of strategy. This involves identifying what the customers and the market are going to need or want in the future, and then developing your resources and competencies to satisfy those market needs.

This approach has the advantage of ensuring that your products or services are desired in this market and will be bought. However, it may be hard to succeed with this strategy if what the market wants is not what you are good at, and if it is not easy or is prohibitively expensive to acquire the relevant resources and competencies.

In reality, a strategy that seeks to achieve a balance of the inside-out and outside-in approaches may be the most successful. There is no set formula for creating this balance--what matters is that it is right for your business. consider, for example, an organization that owns a medium-sized hotel in its own grounds with a group of experienced staff. Its strategy might be to look at these resources and select the most lucrative market using them (hotels specializing in romantic breaks, for example). Once the hotel has identified this market, it might then modify its resources and competencies to optimize its success in serving it.

ACTION POINT: Balance the strength of your resources and the needs of the market to develop and implement your strategy.

Choosing your Approach

The "inside-out" approach to strategy involves looking at what you have that is of value to your organizations and to the market...

When developing a strategy for the future of your business, you will be presented with a dilemma: should you focus on what you are good at, or on what other people want form you? When making your decision, remember that these two approaches are not mutually exclusive, and good strategies often involve a combination of the two.

The "inside-out" approach to strategy involves looking at what you have that is of value to your organizations and to the market--a shop in a busy location, for example. Known as "resources," these are the assets of your organization. However, resources alone are useless. It is how you use them--your competencies (the ways n which you turn your resources into activities that are valuable to your organization)--that will ultimately lead to your success or failure. For example, consider a fast-food business that has a busy city-center location. Such a business will not make money unless it combines its shop resource with staff who know how to deliver great food very quickly.

The inside-out approach is also known as the "resource-based view" of strategy, and is based on looking at your resources and competencies--what you are good at--and identifying markets that need them. clearly playing to your strengths in this way makes a great deal of sense, but this strategy suffers one critical flaw; if no-one wants to buy what you are good at, then you have no viable business. This lack of market input into your activities means that an inside-out approach alone may not always be successful.

ACTION POINT: Ask yourself what resources do we have? location? Skilled staff? Price? Technology? Processes? Do they give us competitive advantage

Questions to Consider for Porter's 5 Forces

Is there room for all companies?

The following questions can help you think through and understand Porter's 5 Forces.

Potential Entrants:

• Does the market require you to have particular knowledge to be successful? If yes it hinders others from entering.
• How easy is it to set up in business in the market? Does it take a few hundred dollars or a few million dollars?
• Is branding important in the market? If yes, then brand building may be a problem for new entrants.

Potential Substitutes:

• How easy is it for customers to switch to another type of product or service (to change from using a private car to a public train service, for example)?

Power of Suppliers:

• Where is the balance of power between suppliers and the firms in the market? To much supplier power makes the market unattractive.
• How easy is it to switch suppliers that offer an equivalent or superior product or service? (The easier, the better.)

Power of Buyers:

• Where is the balance of power between buyers and the firms in the market? Too much buyer power makes the market unattractive.
• How many rivals do you have to supply your product or service? How easy would it be for your customer to drop you and use another?

Competitive rivalry:

• Is there room for all companies? If there is, particularly if the market is growing, then this increases the attractiveness.
• Is the market contracting? If so, rivalry may be intense.

ACTION POINT: Asses your market opportunity by considering the questions above and the 5 forces.

Using Porter's 5 Forces

Consider each of the five forces in turn.

The model looks at five forces that define the market: how easy it is for new businesses to enter; how easy it is for customers to substitute your product or service for another; how much power suppliers and buyers in the market have; and the overall degree of competitive rivalry within the market.

Consider each of the five forces in turn. Start by assessing how difficult it is for you to enter the market. One aspect of competition is that if you are seen to be successful in a market, then others will quickly follow. It is more attractive, therefore, for a market to be easy for you to enter, but to have high barriers to entry for others. Next consider the second force: how easy it is for your customers to substitute your product or service with another.

The power of buyers and suppliers are two sides of the same coin If all the companies within the market need to buy a certain raw material, and there is only one supplier, this supplier has power over supply and pricing. Similarly, if one retailer controls the distribution and sale of a product, then that retailer (the buyer) has control. A market in which you have less control and power is not as attractive to enter as one in which you are not constrained in this way.

The first four factors combine to make an overall competitive rivalry, so the final step of the analysis is to consider how strong this is for your particular market. The output of the p5F analysis can be used in SWOT analysis, to link this information about the strengths and weaknesses of your organization.

ACTION POINT: Assess the competitive rivalry of your market by considering the potential entrants, substitutes and the power of buyers and suppliers.

Assessing the Market

At its heart is the concept of industry rivalry, or the degree of intensity of competition.

Analyzing the specific market in which your organization is key to making good strategic decisions. The Porter's 5 Forces (P5F) analysis tool can help you understand how competitive forces work within your chosen market, to analyze the behavior of your competitors and their impact on one another, an ultimately to achieve competitive advantage.

The Porter's % Forces model was developed by American researcher and writer on strategy, Professor Michael Porter. At its heart is the concept of industry rivalry, or the degree of intensity of competition.

Understanding this helps to define how attractive a market is to your organization: intense rivalry suggests too much competition and less opportunity for you to survive and be profitable.

ACTION POINT: A P5F analysis describes a competitive situation, which can change frequently, so ensure that your analysis is regularly updated to take into account the latest market conditions.

Gift of Understanding: Truths of Faith

Jesus, thank You for Your light.

The Gift of Understanding reveals what is hidden in the major truths of Christian doctrine. The Gift of Understanding perfects, deepens, and illumines faith as to the meaning of revealed truth, adding new depths to the mystery to which we consent. For instance, it could be some aspect of the Holy Trinity or the greatness of God. It could be the presence of Jesus Christ in the Eucharist. It could be the infinite mercy of God in the Sacrament of Reconciliation. In other words, it is not merely the affirmation of something we believe and assent to. A characteristic of the Gift of Understanding is that it provides a kind of living experience of the mystery. One or two of those experiences can last a lifetime and make such a deep impression as to reorient one's whole spiritual life once and for all.

1 Corinthians 2:10, 12

These things God has revealed to us through the Spirit; for the Spirit searches everything, even the depths of God...We have received...the Spirit that is from God, so that we may understand the gifts bestowed on us by God.

Fun with Words

A friend sent me an email this week that recapped the winners of the annual Mensa Invitational.

It is a contest that asked readers to take any word from the dictionary, alter it by adding, subtracting, or changing one letter and supply a new definition. Here are the winners:

1. Cashstration (n): The act of buying a house, which renders the subject financially impotent for an indefinite period of time.

2. Ignoranus: A person who's both stupid and an asshole.

3. Intaxication: Euphoria at getting a tax refund, which lasts until you realize it was your money to start with.

4. Reintarnation: Coming back to life as a hillbilly.

5. Bozone (n): The substance surrounding stupid people that stops bright ideas from penetrating. The bozone layer, unfortunately, shows little sign of breaking down in the near future.

6. Foreploy: Any misrepresentation about yourself for the purpose of getting laid.

7. Giraffiti: Vandalism spray-painted very, very high.

8. Sarchasm: The gulf between the author of sarcastic wit and the person who doesn't get it.

9. Inoculatte: To take coffee intravenously when you are running late.

10. Osteopornosis: A degenerate disease. (This one got extra credit)

11. Karmageddon: It's like, when everybody is sending off all these really bad vibes, right? and then, like, the Earth explodes and it's like, a serious bummer.

12. Decafalon (n): The gruelling event of getting through the day consuming only things that are good for you.

13. Glibido: All talk and no action.

14. Dopeler Effect: The tendency of stupid ideas to seem smarter when they come at you rapidly.

15. Arachnoleptic Fit (n): The frantic dance performed just after you've accidentally walked through a spider web.

16. Beelzebug (n): Satan in the form of a mosquito, that gets into your bedroom at three in the morning and cannot be cast out.

17. Caterpallor (n): The color you turn after finding half a worm in the fruit you're eating.


So try to have some fun with words. Leave a comment with any good ones you come up with. Happy Saturday!

Using PESTLE Analysis

There is a process and six factors that are part of the PESTLE analysis. The factors are:

• Political: The impact of decisions made by government(s), from new laws and policies to political goals and ideologies, such as increasing gender equality.
• Economic: Issues related to the distribution, supply, and availability of money, such as the performance f national economies and changes in currency exchange rates.
• Social: The impact of social factors, such as collective social belief of what is right or wrong, and changes in taste, fashion, attitudes and work ethics.
• Technological: The emergence of availability of new and enabling technologies--automation, for example--meaning new things are possible and old processes are obsolete.
• Legal: The impact of existing lass, proposed changes to laws, or the introduction or removal of laws These can be general laws or those specific to business.
• Environmental: The impact of consumer attitudes toward and legislation relating to environmental issues, such as pollution and climate change.

The process begins by gathering the team and brainstorming each factor in turn. Then anything that could affect your organization in the future is listed. From there the team narrows the list to the main factors that need to be considered when developing new strategy.

ACTION POINT: Consider a PESTLE analysis when developing a new strategy.

Looking at Major Forces

Given the scale of these forces, it is vital to identify and understand them so that you can use that knowledge to create good strategy.

The macroeconomic forces that affect your organization, and your competitors, your markets, and even whole countries and the global economy can have significant implications and are beyond your control. Given the scale of these forces, it is vital to identify and understand them so that you can use that knowledge to create good strategy.

PESTLE analysis was developed to help identify and understand macroeconomic forces that may impact on an organization, such as global and national economic factors (for example, growth or recession), changes in technology, and emerging social trends, such as attitudes to climate change.

PESTLE analysis divides these forces into six factors: political, economic, social, technological, legal and environmental. It is also used in the abbreviated form PEST (or STEP).

A PESTLE analysis should be an early step in creating new strategy, because it sets out the background in with an organization has to operate and make decisions. It can be performed by an individual, but is often best undertaken by a team so that ideas can be shared and discussed.

PESTLE can be set out on flip charts or a whiteboard, especially when being done by a team, but there is also software available to do the analysis. You should be able to identify most PESTLE factors quickly, but you may need to spend time researching specific issues in more detail. This research is important, because strategic decisions must be based on the best data available at the time.

The output of your PESTLE analysis can be used in conjunction with SWOT analysis to explore further how the macroeconomic factors you have identified may impact on your organization.

ACTION POINT: Understand the political, economic, social, technological, legal and environmental factors that impact your business.

Performing a SWOT Analysis

SWOT analysis is a tool that can be used to generate an overview of an organization's position within a particular market, or a team's position within an organization. Use the SWOT matrix to determine and compare the internal strengths and weaknesses of your organization or team, and to analyze the opportunities for it and threats to it within the market.

The information you collect will enable you to make decisions that could help to put your organization into a stronger position by making the most of your strengths, minimizing your weaknesses, exploiting the opportunities open to you in the market, and mitigating any threats.

ACTION POINT: If you've taken the time to analyze your situation using analysis tools, don't let the data you've collected just sit in a a file--be sure to use the information to inform your strategy.

Tracking Your Market

To to this, you must spend time "in the market"

To understand the environment in which you do business, you must dedicate time to consciously seeking out the information you require. For example, to be a successful car dealer, you must buy the right cars at the right prices.

To to this, you must spend time "in the market" --watching and listening for information abut which cars are selling well or proving difficult to sell, and which cars are increasing in price or are decreasing in value. This requires casual observations, but also real data, such as week-to-week recording and analysis of car-price data, customer numbers, and stock levels. This combined approach allows you to create the right strategy for your business.

ACTION POINT: Observe your market by being "in it" and using real data about products and customers.

Analyzing Your Environment

Analyzing the environment in which you operate is the first step to creating a strategy.

To be effective, an organization needs to achieve some degree of match between what it can offer and what the world needs. Making sense of the complex environment in which you do business, and using this information to create good strategy, is essential if your business is to survive.

Analyzing the environment in which you operate is the first step to creating a strategy. There are a number of analysis tools that can help you assess your chosen market and also the world in which you do business:

• SWOT analysis: This can help you understand your organization and its market or environment, by contrasting its "Strengths" and "Weaknesses" with the "Opportunities" and "Threats" in the market.
• PESTLE analysis: This assesses macroeconomic forces that affect all markets, including political and economic factors, social trends, and legislation.
• Porter's 5 Forces (P5F) This looks at factors that are operating within a given market, and that are of significance to all organizations within that market, but not necessarily other markets.

There may be some overlap in the information these tools generate, but it is still best to use all three, as each can generate unique information and insight.

ACTION POINT: Consider the tools above for analyzing your environment.

The Gift of Knowledge and Mourning

Blessed are they who mourn... Matthew 5:4

The Gift of Knowledge corresponds to the beatitude of those who mourn. The reason we mourn is that something inside us realizes that our programs for happiness, put together in early childhood, are not going to work anymore. This is one of the intuitive fruits of the Gift of Knowledge. It is the realization of the damage that our emotional programs have done to us throughout our lives up until now. Part of the mourning caused by the Gift of Knowledge is the beautiful grace called "tears of contrition."

Such contrition is also known as compunction. Compunction is the humble acknowledgement of our failures without any guilt feelings attached to them. If there are guild feelings attached to them, then they are coming from our own neuroses. When there is a feeling of loving sorrow for having damaged ourselves and others, these tears are cleansing. Hence the promise contained in the beatitude: "Blessed are those who mourn, for they shall be comforted."

Matthew 5:4 Blessed are they who mourn, for they will be comforted.

Knowing who is Responsible

So whose job is it to watch out for hazards and opportunities and assess the potential effects of new competition and changes in the wider economy? Usually, strategy is seen as the preserve of a business's leaders, and while it's true that good strategists often achieve senior management positions, monitoring organizational strategy can, and should, involve people throughout the organization. Your salespeople, for example, may be best placed to gain information about the market (the best source of competitor knowledge is often your own customers). Similarly, your purchasing staff may have advance warning of price increases in key raw materials. Find ways to collect such knowledge and use it to inform your strategy.

Ask the following questions to help focus on the future:

• Do i know what our customers (internal or external) are doing and what their future plans are?
• Do I know what our competitors are doing?
• Have I assessed whether there are any constraints that could affect our business in the next few years?
• Have I analyzed whether there are opportunities for my team?
• Do I know who is responsible for gathering information?

ACTION POINT: Encourage and incentivize everyone in your team to be aware of what is going on in your organizational environment and find ways to collate any information they discover.

Linking Strategy to the Market

A good manager always finds time to reflect upon where the business is going

Strategy has two dimensions: what is happening inside your organization and what is happening outside, in the market. You must understand and analyze both if you are to devise a successful strategy.

Most people in an organization are constantly busy working to the next deadline. However, being driven by short-term goals should not preclude thinking about the future. A good manager always finds time to reflect upon where the business is going and whether its strategy remains valid.

Business is time precious. If you don't dispatch the order by Thursday, you'll lose the contract; if you don't complete your invoicing by the end of the quarter, you'll answer to your boss. A series of deadlines can stretch out far into the future, and it's all to easy to get mired in day-to-day delivery.

But looking beyond the "now" will help you avoid future troubles that may affect your business and will enable you to spot opportunities to achieve more sales, develop new services, and pre-empt your competitors' activities to gain first-mover advantage. The attentive organization or team will soon gain advantage over the competition. For example, say you are a car manufacturer and you know that it takes five years to develop a new car design. if you receive early signals that taxation on large-engined cars will increase in five years, you can begin to develop smaller engines for your cars well before your competitors. your product will emerge earlier than theirs and gain a strong foothold in a new market.

ACTION POINT: Understand and analyze what is happening inside and outside of your organization.

Shaping your Strategy

the concept of sustainable competitive advantage is usually at the heart of company strategy.

Strategic management is necessary to achieve success in all types of organizations. However, the way strategy is understood and applied differs depending on the sector in which your organization operates, whether it is private, public, or voluntary.

The private sector is defined by competition. Companies continue to exist only if they provide products or services that are better than those of their competitors, so the concept of sustainable competitive advantage is usually at the heart of company strategy. Another key dimension or private sector strategy is time Lead times (the time it takes for a process to be completed, from the start of that process to its completion.) for developing new products and getting them to market are often short, and tension can exist between delivering short-term profits and planning and resourcing long-term strategy.

The public sector delivers public policy and undertakes functions such as collecting taxes. It is largely immune to the forces of competition, although competition does exist internally, such as between departments seeking funding form a limited government pot. If public sector organizations spend less than they receive, the difference is known as "surplus", not "profit". Strategy in the public sector is usually centered on delivering goals to satisfy the political process and producing conspicuous efficiency and value for money to reassure taxpayers. Political pressures commonly lead to changes in priorities to gain voter support, and to a short-term view that impacts upon longer-term strategic planning.

Voluntary organizations can be considered to fall between the public and private sectors. While their objectives may be social or political, they are subject to the same competitive forces as the private sector. The must compete for funding from public or private organizations, and from individuals. Unlike the private sector, however, it is not always clear who the customers of a voluntary organization are--is it the recipients of funding, the donors, the trustees, or the volunteers who help make it run? Consequently, strategic management of voluntary sector organizations is heavily based upon satisfying all of these different groups, through careful stakeholder (anyone who has an interest in your organization and how it is run) management. Voluntary sector organizations must be careful not to spend more than they receive in donations. Like public sector organizations, if a voluntary organization spends less than it receives, the difference is is know as "surplus" rather than "profit", for social, political, and presentational reasons.

ACTION POINT: Provide products and services that are better than those of your competitors.

Sources of Control

It places you ahead of your competitors--internal or external.

There are a number of sources of control you need to achieve to give you greater power within the environment in which you operate. Developing one or more of these will give you a greater ability to direct your particular market.

• Control of Knowledge. Access to information and knowledge provides you with understanding and an enhanced ability to prepare. It places you ahead of your competitors--internal or external.
• Expert Power. At times we all need someone who can find solutions to our problems. Expertise is a source of power, especially when it is in short supply.
• Control of Resources. If you control who can use resource, such as staff, money, and offices, then you have power over other managers.
• Control of Distribution. If you are a good retailer and make your outlets popular with customers, suppliers want to talk to you. By controlling access to customers, you can control the manufacturers.
• Personal Power. This derives from your personal influence--your ability to make people voluntarily do what you want. Influential people spend their time talking with others.

ACTION POINT: Understand and strengthen your sources of control.

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Looking to the Future

When you control enough factors in your environment, you become the market leader and set the standards for the whole industry

One of the most important aspects of strategic management is predicting the things that will impact you and your organization in the future. Some of these are bigger than you, and you cannot change them. Others are within your power to change. Knowing what you can change and what you need to work around will help you to use your resources efficiently.

Macroeconomic (related to the big aspects of an economy, such as inflation, economic growth, recession, and levels of employment) factors are major forces that impact not just your organization, but also your competitors and your marketplace. They may impact other markets, the country, and sometimes the world economy. While you as a team or organization cannot change or control these things, you can seek to understand them and create strategies that fit in with them.

Many other factors are within your sphere of influence, and when you control them, you can set the agenda. When you control enough factors in your environment, you become the market leader and set the standards for the whole industry; if, for example, you decide to reduce your prices, your competitors are forced to reduce theirs.

Large organizations can exert huge control--even dictating government policy--but even if you cannot aspire to this level of power, you should attempt to implement strategies that give you as much control as possible. The more control you have, the fewer surprises you'll encounter and the more likely you are to survive in the longer term.

ACTION POINT: Set the agenda by understanding the factors that are within your sphere of influence.

The Gift of Knowledge and Reality

Your face, Lord, do I seek. Psalm 27:8

There is a certain humbling character that the Gift of Knowledge imparts -- namely that we are basically prone to illusion and that our way of looking at life is not the only way and certainly not the most accurate. Such knowledge opens us, like the
opening of mind and heart that we pursue in centering prayer, to the reality of God just as God is...The Gift of Knowledge is an intuition into the fact that only God can satisfy our deepest longing for happiness...The Spirit of God in response to our centering prayer practice provides perspective for the energy that is channeled into...the daily frustration of our immoderate desires. The Spirit says to us: "You will never find happiness in any of your instinctual needs. They are only created things, and created things are designed to be stepping-stones to God, and not substitutes for God." The Spirit presents us with the true source of happiness, which is the experience of God as intimate and always present.

Psalm 27:8 "Come," my heart says, "seek his face!"

Gaining Advantage

To be sustainable, competitive advantage needs to be difficult or impossible to copy.

Without sustainable competitive advantage, your organization will always be vulnerable. Imagine your organization will always be vulnerable. Imagine you run a pizza restaurant in a small town, where you share the market with two competing pizzerias. You decide to win more business, so you differentiate yourself by offering a home-delivery service. Within a month your turnover has doubled: you have achieved competitive advantage. But seeing your success, your competitors also start to offer delivery and within another month, your sales have returned to their previous levels.

The problem is that this competitive advantage was just temporary. To be sustainable, competitive advantage needs to be difficult or impossible to copy. In this example, this could mean investing more expensive premises--located between the shopping center and the cinema, say--that a large number of people will pass by. Your rivals cannot occupy the same site, so you have a sustainable competitive advantage over them.

What are the potential sources of sustainable competitive advantage that your organization should seek to develop? Location is clearly key in the retail sector, but sources of sustainable competitive advantage can be identified in every industry:

• Size: being bigger gives you control of the market and achieves economies of scale.
• Knowledge: a big-city law firm, for example, may have more knowledge than a smaller firm.
• Resources: control of limited resources of any kind.
• Relationships: key relationships with decision-makers cannot be easily coped by your competitors.
• Brand: while it is easy to copy a product, it is difficult to copy the emotions customers feel about a particular brand --that's why organizations invest so heavily in brand identity.

ACTION POINT: Identify the knowledge, resources and relationships that can help you gain competitive advantage.

Leading Your Competitors

Competition is not limited to organizations providing the same service or selling the same products.

Your business, and every team within it, must have a source of competitive advantage--an overriding reason why customers will want to do business with you rather than a competitor. Understanding, identifying, creating, and sustaining competitive advantage is at the heart of good strategy.

Competition is not limited to organizations providing the same service or selling the same products. Much of your competition may be indirect. For example, for the strategic manager of a bowling alley, another bowling alley in town is a direct competitor. However, bowling is a form of family entertainment, so that manager also needs to consider competition from the movies and the local pizzeria. The leader of a team within an organization will be in direct competition with other teams within the organization that can provide the same service, but will face indirect competition from external companies that could also provide the is service.

ACTION POINT: Identify who your direct and indirect competitors are and develop a competitive advantage against them.

Unifying the Organization

A well communicated strategy sends the message: "We're all in this together."

A clear strategy acts as a unifying force within an organization. You may have worked in organizations where the staff focus only on their job and don't understand how it fits into wider processes and objectives (and perhaps don't even care). This results in confusion, frustration for staff and customers alike, and ultimately a short-term future for the organization.

By creating a clear strategy and sharing it with your team or organization, everyone knows where they are going: people are then far more likely to adjust their behavior to make the whole enterprise work better. A well communicated strategy sends the message: "We're all in this together." Having a destination is very powerful in terms of human motivation because we are motivated in one of two ways: "away from pain" or "toward pleasure." The former leads to behavior that achieves a short-term result, but having moved away from pain we may end up in a place we are not so keen to be. If we move toward pleasure we will be more likely to achieve a goal that we want to sustain.

ACTION POINT: Move away from pain toward pleasure.

A Peaceful Inclination

The Spirit...will guide you to all truth. John 16:13

The Gift of Counsel is a peaceful inclination to continue to do what we are doing or to change what we are doing. We can ignore it. It is a suggestion. Take it or leave it. To develop that sensitivity requires work on our part to maintain interior silence, but once it is established the only time we have to take action is when we notice a loss of peace. That means that we are off course. As long as that peace is in place, we are in deep prayer all the time, whether we are praying formally or not. whether we are counseling or doing heavy manual work, as long a that sense of inner quiet and peace is there, God is not asking us to think about or to judge the situation. He merely wants us to stay on course, to do his will in the present moment.

Be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and pleasing and perfect. Romans 12:2

Rules of Thumb II

Blasting a Stump - You can blow most tree stumps out of the ground if you use one stick of dynamite for every four inches of stump diameter - Joe Kaiser

Monster Enters Left - Horror film makers know that the human eye has a tendency to drift slightly to the right side of the screen when viewing a movie, so they have the shocks and surprises come from the left side - Will Musham, writer

Re-Orient Express - Culture shock occurs only in the first three countries you visit; after that you'll subconsciously focus on similarities rather than differences. Gary Gaile, photographer

A Silent Charging Dog - If a dog is charging you and barking, it is merely defending territory and will not bite. But a dog that's charging and not barking is going to attack. Rulesofthumb.org Review Board

Reducing your personal backlog - Make a new "to do" list every day from your larger list of projects, goals, and things to do. If something gets transferred to the next day's list ten times, drop it. There's a reason you're avoiding the task. Rulesofthumb.org Review Board

Swapping Cat Food - When introducing a new food, allow three days for the cat to pout before you decide to try a different food. Rulesofthumb.org Review Board

Storytelling Precision - If you can't fit the idea of your story into one simple sentence, you don't understand your story. Craig Moorehead, writer

A Poorly Fitting Suit - If your lawyer tells you that the prospective lawsuit is a "slam dunk," retain a new lawyer as soon as possible. Stephen Verbit, attorney

Mickey's Mob - At Disney World, the crow is most likely to turn to the right. Therefore, the rides to the left are less crowded. Carolyn Lloyd

Stirring up a cocktail party - Make sure to have at least 12 guests at a cocktail party. With fewer guests, the party becomes one conversation in which only one person speaks at a time. But with 12 people, the conversation splits into two or more groups with more chance for interplay and movement. - Tom Nelson, photographer

Counting the Benefits

...a good strategy will attract many benefits besides ensuring you're more likely to reach your goals.

Whether you are managing a team, a start-up business, a local government department, a large commercial organization, or a charity, having a good strategy will attract many benefits besides ensuring you're more likely to reach your goals. It also helps you to map out your future, attract funding, and establish a team of treat people to work with.

First, a good strategy acts as a road map. it should clearly identify where you want to be at a given point in time, say, three years. For example, one of your goals may be to increase sales by a factor of ten. Your strategy should set out how you will achieve this target. Boosting sales by this amount will clearly require actions bolder than printing a new sales leaflet.

A strategy has more than the destination in mind. It enables you to map the roads and junctions along the way, so that you can plot your way and, critically, measure your progress. Three years is too long to wait to see if you made the right decisions, and you need frequent reassurance that you are on the right road.

Second, a clear strategy attracts interest and funding from third parties. This might be start-up finance for a new business, internal funding (where you have to compete with other teams for resources), or a bid for sponsorship. In every scenario, funders want to know that you are in control of the situation. They can't predict the future, so they seek reassurance from your confidence in your plan for the future. A considered strategy demonstrates that their funds will be well used and that they will receive a healthy and secure return.

ACTION POINT: Devise a strategy that has a destination and attracts interest.

Setting Off

It means identifying signposts that confirm you are heading in the right direction, and making good progress on the journey.

Devising your strategy means setting the direction and scope of your organization and planning how to meet the needs of your customers over a period of years. It means identifying signposts that confirm you are heading in the right direction, and making good progress on the journey.

The following indicators can be used to see if you are on or off track:

On Track:

• Having clear destination in mind.
• Being willing to deal with the big picture.
• Knowing why you are better than your competitors.
• Feeling "on top" of leading the business to a brighter future.

Off Track:

• Being too busy with today to think about tomorrow.
• Being to quick to say why something shouldn't happen.
• Not being able to quickly give the reasons why your business exists.
• Making decisions without referring to your overall strategic direction.

ACTION POINT: Know the signposts that indicate your are on track with your strategy

Defining Triggers

Internal reasons to change are similarly diverse


The need to change strategy is initiated by changes in your organization (internal triggers) or in the business environment (external triggers). External triggers include "big" events over which you organization has no control, but that can be anticipated and managed around, such as growth or decline in the economy, taxation changes, or new technology.

More specific external triggers include a new competitor in your market, your main customer no longer needing your services, or even changes in road layouts that mean that customers no longer drive past your shop.


Internal reasons to change are similarly diverse--a change of location for the business meaning old activities are more difficult or new activities are possible, for example, or the loss of an experienced member of staff.


ACTION POINT: Understand the external and internal triggers that indicate the need for change.

Understanding Strategy

It's not just the plan itself that has value, but all the thinking that goes into it. the questions you ask yourself, and the answers that come forward.


Strategy is about making sure that your business arrives where you want it to at a given time. As a manager, you need to know what good strategy looks like and understand how it can be used to create the future for your team or organization.

When you map out your business strategy you are creating a future that may be two, three, five, or more years ahead. It's not just the plan itself that has value, but all the thinking that goes into it. the questions you ask yourself, and the answers that come forward.


No organization can stand still. At the very least, the costs of running a business will increase year on year; prices of raw materials will rise, staff will expect higher wages, and rent will go up. This means that you must increase your output every year. And in time, you will inevitably reach a point where you cannot increase sales further in your current situation. At this point you will need to make a bigger change; this is the time to change your strategy. Strategies exist at many levels, from those that move the whole business forward to those that develop the individuals working within it.


ACTION POINT: Plan for change and keep moving to prepare your business for the future.

Strategic Management

insight into how to gain competitive advantage, which is at the heart of good strategy.

Strategy is about creating and delivering the future. It is about leading your team or your organization to a future in which you are able to compete more effectively and to achieve prosperity and sustainability. The skills of strategic management are applicable to those leading a team or planning the direction of any size of organization in all sectors-private, public, and voluntary.

Strategic management is for those taking, or wanting to take, their first steps to developing and implementing strategic changes. It gives you the tools you need to make effective strategic decisions, by helping you analyze your organization and the would it operates in, plan your strategic approach, and implement the changes. It provides insight into how to gain competitive advantage, which is at the heart of good strategy.

Strategic management is easier than many suggest, yet not all managers take the time to master it. If you do develop the ability to think strategically and learn the skills needed for strategic management, you will make yourself a valuable asset to your organization.

ACTION POINT: Develop your powers of strategic thinking so that they become second nature.

The Gift of Counsel

The Counselor...will teach you all things...

John 14:26

The Gift of Counsel...not only suggests what to do in the long range, but also what to do in the details our daily lives. The more open we are to the Spirit, the more the Spirit takes over our lives...Three stages frequently occur in action that is prompted by the Spirit.

The first is that you feel called by God to do something that requires great effort, and sometimes the project is initially a huge success. The next stage is that your initial success fails. You feel that you made a mistake and are humiliated. You resolve never to take a similar risk. Finally, there is the triumph of grace, often totally unexpected. Those three elements almost always got together...All you have to do do is to take the first step.

Psalm 73:23-24

You hold my right hand.

You guide me with your counsel...

Developing the Skills III

Some of the best results have always been achieved through the "coaching" of subordinates by superiors.

Conceptual skill, like human skill, has not been very widely understood. A number of methods have been tried to aid in developing this ability, with varying success. Some of the best results have always been achieved through the "coaching" of subordinates by superiors. This is no new idea. It implies that one of the key responsibilities of the executive is to help his subordinates to develop their administrative potentials. One way a superior can help "coach" his subordinate is by assigning a particular responsibility, and then responding with searching questions or opinions, rather than giving answers, whenever the subordinate seeks help. When Benjamin F. Fairless was president of US Steel he described his coaching activities:

When one of my vice presidents or the head of one of our operating companies comes to me for instructions, I generally counter by asking him questions. First thing I know, he has told me how to solve the problem himself.

Obviously, this is an ideal and wholly natural procedure for administrative training, and applies to the development of technical and human skill, as well as to that of conceptual skill. However, its success must necessarily rest on the abilities and willingness of the superior to help the subordinate.

Another excellent way to develop conceptual skill is through trading jobs, that is, by moving promising young men through different functions of the business but at the same level of responsibility. This gives the man the chance literally to "be in the other fellow's shoes."

ACTION POINT: Use searching questions and opportunities to "wear others shoes" to develop conceptual skills.

Developing the Skills II

As a practical matter, however, the executive must develop his own human skill

Human skill, however, has been much less understood, and only recently has systematic progress been made in developing it. Many different approaches to the development of human skill are being pursued by various universities and professional men today. These are rooted in such disciplines as psychology, sociology, and anthropology.

Some of these approaches find their application in "applied psychology," "human engineering," and a host of other manifestations requiring technical specialists to help the businessman with his human problems. As a practical matter, however, the executive must develop his own human skill, rather than lean on the advice of others. To be effective, he must develop his own personal point of view toward human activity, so that he will (a) recognize the feelings and sentiments which he brings to a situation; (b) have an attitude about his own experiences which will enable him to re-evaluate and learn from them; (c) develop ability in understanding what others by their actions and words (explicit or implicit) are trying to communicate to him; and (d) develop ability in successfully communicating his ideas and attitudes to others.

ACTION POINT: Use recognition, re-evaluation, understanding and communication to develop your human skills.

Developing the Skills

The skill conception of administration suggests that we may hope to improve our administrative effectiveness and to develop better administrators for the future.

For many years people have contended that leadership ability is inherent in certain chosen individuals. We talk of "born leaders," "born executives", "born salesmen." it is undoubtedly true that certain people, naturally or innately, possess greater aptitude or ability in certain skills. But research in psychology and physiology would also indicate, first , that those having strong aptitudes and abilities can improve their skill through practice and training, and, secondly, that even those lacking the natural ability can improve their performance and over-all effectiveness.

The skill conception of administration suggests that we may hope to improve our administrative effectiveness and to develop better administrators for the future. This skill conception implies learning by doing. Different people learn in different ways, but skills are developed through practice and through relating learning to one's own personal experience and background. If well done, training these basic administrative skills should develop executive abilities more surely and more rapidly than through unorganized experience.

Technical skill requires sound grounding the principles, structures, and processes of the individual specialty, coupled with actual practice and experience during which the individual is watched and helped by a superior, appear to be the most effective.

ACTION POINT: Develop your skills through practice and personal experience.

The Gift of Piety

Forgive as the Lord forgave you. Colossians 3:13

The Gift of Piety mellows the sense of reverence for God and over-strictness with ourselves. It inspires a great spirit of kindness and understanding toward others, meekness in bearing their faults, willingness to forgive, and genuine affection for them. The Gift of Piety awakens in us a child-like attitude toward God and also a sense that everyone is our brother an sister. It sees people as companions on the journey rather than competitors. An attitude of total forgiveness of everyone and everything is the most mature fruit of the gift of Piety. As the sense of belonging to the human family as a whole continues to grow through contemplative prayer and practice, the oneness extends to the earth, the environment and, indeed to all creation. One begins to perceive all things in God and God in all things.

Ephesians 4:32

Be kind and compassionate to one another, forgiving each other, just as in Christ God forgave you.

At The Top Level

One of the most important lessons which I learned on this job [the presidency] is the importance of coordinating the various departments into an effective team, and, secondly, to recognize the shifting emphasis from time to time of the relative importance of various departments to the business.

Conceptual skill, as indicated in the preceding sections, becomes increasingly critical in more responsible executive positions where its effects are maximized and most easily observed. In fact, recent research findings lead to the conclusion that at the top level of administration this conceptual skill becomes the most important ability of all. As Herman W. Steinkraus, president of Bridgeport Brass Company, said:

One of the most important lessons which I learned on this job [the presidency] is the importance of coordinating the various departments into an effective team, and, secondly, to recognize the shifting emphasis from time to time of the relative importance of various departments to the business.

It would appear, then, that at lower levels of administrative responsibility, the principal need is for technical and human skills. At higher levels, technical skill becomes relatively less important while the need for conceptual skill increases rapidly. At the top level of an organization, conceptual skill becomes the most important skill of all for successful administration. A chief executive may lack technical or human skills and still be effective if he has subordinates who have strong abilities in these directions. But if his conceptual skill is weak, the success of the whole organization may be jeopardized.

ACTION POINT: Understand the hierarchy of technical, human and conceptual skills and where they are applied most effectively.

At Every Level II

This would seem to be an excellent example of a situation in which strong conceptual skill more than compensated for a lack of human skill.

A recent research study provides an example of an extremely effective plant manager who, although possessing little human skill as defined here, was nonetheless very successful:

This manager, the head of a largely autonomous division, made his supervisors, through the effects of his strong personality and the "pressure" he applied, highly dependent on him for most of their "rewards, penalties, authority, perpetuation, communication, and identification.

As a result, the supervisors spent much of their time competing with one another for the manager's favor. They told him only the things they thought he wanted to hear, and spent much time trying to find out his desires. They depended on him to set their objectives and to show them how to reach them. because the manager was inconsistent and unpredictable in his behavior, the supervisors were insecure and continually engaged in interdepartmental squabbles which they tried to keep hidden from the manager.

Clearly, human skill as defined here was lacking. Yet, by evaluation of his superiors and by his results in increasing efficiency and raising profits and morale, this manager was exceedingly effective. This suggests that employees in modern industrial organizations tend to have a "built-in" sense of dependence on superiors which capable and alert men can turn to advantage.

In the context of the three-skill approach, it seems that this manager was able to capitalize on this dependence because he recognized the interrelationships of all the activities under his control, identified himself with the organization, and sublimated the individual interests of his subordinates to his (organization's) interest, set his goals realistically, and showed his subordinates how to reach these goals. This would seem to be an excellent example of a situation in which strong conceptual skill more than compensated for a lack of human skill.

ACTION POINT: Understand when to use the various skills to motivate your team for performance.

At Every Level

These findings would tend to indicate that human skill is of great importance at every level, but notice the difference in emphasis.

Human skill, the ability to work with others, is essential to effective administration at every level. One recent research study has shown that human skill is of paramount importance at the Foreman level, pointing out that the chief function of the foreman as an administrator is to attain collaboration of people in the work group. Another study reinforces this finding and extends it to the middle-management group, adding that the administrator should be primarily concerned with facilitating communication in the organization. And still another study, concerned primarily with top management underscores the need for self-awareness and sensitivity to human relationships by executives at that level. These findings would tend to indicate that human skill is of great importance at every level, but notice the difference in emphasis.

Human skill seems to be most important at lower levels, where the number of direct contacts between administrators and subordinates is greatest. As we go higher and higher in the administrative echelons the number and frequency of these personal contacts decrease, and the need for human skill becomes proportionately, although probably not absolutely, less. At the same time, conceptual skill becomes increasingly more important with the need for policy decisions and broad-scale action. The human skill of dealing with individuals then becomes subordinate to the conceptual skill of integrating group interests and activities into a whole.

ACTION POINT: Understand the importance of human skill at the various levels of your organization.

At Lower Levels

As the administrator moves further and further from the actual physical operation, this need for technical skill becomes less important, provided he has skilled subordinates and can help them solve their own problems.

Technical skill is responsible for many of the great advances of modern industry. it is indispensable to efficient operation. yet it has greatest importance at the lower levels of administration. As the administrator moves further and further from the actual physical operation, this need for technical skill becomes less important, provided he has skilled subordinates and can help them solve their own problems. At the top, technical skill may be almost nonexistent, and the executive may still be able to perform effectively if his human and conceptual skills are highly developed.

For example, in one large capital-goods producing company, the controller was called on to replace the manufacturing vice president, who had been stricken suddenly with a severe illness. The controller had no previous production experience, but he had been with the company for more than 20 years and knew many of the key production personnel intimately. By setting up an advisory staff, and by delegating an unusual amount of authority to his department heads, he was able to devote himself to coordination of the various functions.

By so doing, he produced a highly efficient team. The results were lower costs, greater productivity, and higher morale than the production division had ever before experienced. Management had gambled that this man's ability to work with people was more important than his lack of a technical production background, and the gamble paid off.

ACTION POINT: Use your human and conceptual skills to direct those on your team with strong technical skills.

Relative Importance

...the technical, human, and conceptual skills of the administrator vary in relative importance at different levels of responsibility.

We may notice that, in a very real sense, conceptual skill embodies consideration of both the technical and human aspects of the organization. Yet the concept of skill, as an ability to translate knowledge into action, should enable one to distinguish between the three skills of performing the technical activities (technical skill, understanding and motivating individuals and groups (human skill), and coordinating and integrating all the activities and interests of the organization toward a common objective (conceptual skill).

This separation of effective administration into three basic skills is useful primarily for purposes of analysis. In practice, these skills are so closely interrelated that is is difficult to determine where one ends and another begins. However, just because the skills are interrelated does not imply that we cannot get some value from looking at them separately, or by varying their emphasis. In playing golf the actions of the hands, wrists, hips, shoulders, arms, and head are all interrelated; yet improving one's swing it is often valuable to work on one of these elements separately. Also, under different playing conditions the relative importance of these elements varies. Similarly, although all three are of importance at every level of administration, the technical, human, and conceptual skills of the administrator vary in relative importance at different levels of responsibility.

ACTION POINT: Develop all three skills, technical, human and conceptual, to administrate effectively.

Gift of Fortitude

I am with you always... Matthew 28:20

The Gift of Fortitude...gives energy to overcome major obstacles in the way of spiritual growth...The spirit shows us how to sanctify our role in life so that we remain in the divine presence. This is why methods of remaining in God's presence are so valuable and necessary if we are seriously pursuing the spiritual journey...Little by little, the Gift of Fortitude, in conjunction with the other Gifts, transmutes the energy of anger designed by nature for defensive purposes into zeal for the service of God and the needs of others.

It sustains difficult ministries and welcomes the vicissitudes of daily life instead of fighting or resisting them or giving way to feelings of frustration. It establishes a certain firmness of mind and heart in doing good and enduring evil, especially when these are difficult. It manifests its inspiration in the Beatitude: "Blessed are those who hunger and thirst after justice, for they shall be satisfied" Matt. 5:6

Romans 12:11

In the service of the Lord, work not half heartedly but with conscientiousness and an eager spirit.

Art. Work, Value and Freedom

Artists might also be regarded as purveyors of real values -- Wolf Kahn

Last year I was walking through arguably the world's most beautiful airport when my eye was drawn to a box of cards containing the work of artist Wolf Kahn. What he did with color and trees was arresting, so I bought the box. This week I picked up his book titled 'Pastels." Pages of great impressionist images that are like lightning and snow, exciting and peaceful. Wolf's words are as captivating as his art. What follows are some of his thoughts on the the value of one's work.

"The “Real Value” of One's Work

Every inhabitant of a developed country lives in a world of too many things and, unless he is very poor, or ascetic to the point of saintliness, he is encumbered by this surplus of objects. We know that these things, rather than simplifying our existence, often tend to complicate our lives. They need space, repair, storage, and eventual transfer to others. Anyone engaged in the manufacture, sale, and maintenance of things shares the guilt. Nearly all of us are part of the problem; only the purveyors of ideas are exempt. As artists, we inhabit both the world of ideas and the world of things. A picture can be regarded as just another object, another piece of junk (and, regrettably, often an expensive piece of junk, requiring special care). The artist, seen under this light, is a manufacturer of luxury items on which people spend their disposable income. It is as though he were running a jewelry store, or at best, an upscale winery.

Artists might also be regarded as purveyors of real values, which is, of course, how I prefer to view them. However, real values are not satisfied if an artist merely makes something that someone else likes, or even if the art object stretches the public’s awareness, or, as so much of present avant-garde art wishes to do, if it stretches the function of art to enlarge the sphere of permissible expression, whether of general issues, or sex, or politics. The practice of art should have an effect not only on the public, but even more importantly, on the artist himself, by enlarging his sphere of freedom. Once this is understood and becomes a profound part of artistic practice, the problem of being a mere manufacturer of expensive objects disappears; pictures are justifiable because they are steps in their maker’s artistic development. Each picture is valuable only insofar as it contributes to this development, because it enables the artist to go on in a freer, larger way to his next picture."

I love the blending of art, work, freedom and the growth of an individual. Art and work are both inseparable and interchangeable. Inseparable because an artist's work has real value when it comes from within and touches or "affects" others. Kahn says it expands the artist's "freedom in a larger way" to go on. Interchangeable because work whether artistic or simply labor that comes from within also affects the worker as well as others, often producing "things" of real value.

The workers efforts become his art. Work and art, art and work, inseparable and interchangeable, both capable of enlarging a person's freedom.

So thank you, Wolf Kahn, for making me ponder art and work and work and art. And since today is the last day of October - what better way to end the month than with your pastel titled "October Splendor?"

Conceptual Skill

"The essential aspect of the executive process is the sensing of the organization as a whole and of the total situation relevant to it." Chester I. Barnard

Conceptual skill involves the ability to see the enterprise as a whole; it includes recognizing how the various functions of the organization depend on one another, and how changes in any one part affect all the others; and it extends to visualizing the relationship of the individual business to the industry, the community, and the political, social, and economic forces of the nation as a whole.

Recognizing these relationships and perceiving the significant elements in any situation, the administrator should then be able to act in a way which advances the over-all welfare of the total organization.

Hence, the success of any decision depends on the conceptual skill of the people who make the decision and those who put it into action. When, for example, an important change in marketing policy is made, it is critical that the effects on production, control, finance, research, and the people involved be considered. And it remains critical right down to the last executive who must implement the new policy. If each executive recognizes the over-a;; relationships and significance of the change, he is almost certain to be more effective in administering it. Consequently the chances for succeeding are greatly increased.

Not only does the effective coordination of the various parts of the business depend on the conceptual skill of the administrators involved, but so also does the whole future direction and tone of the organization. The attitudes of a top executive color the whole character of the organization's response and determine the "corporate personality" which distinguishes one company's ways of doing business from another's. These attitudes are a reflection of the administrator's conceptual skill (referred to by some as his "creative ability")-the way he perceives and responds to the direction in which the business should grow, company objectives and policies, and stockholders' and employees' interests.

ACTION POINT: Examine and understand the relationship of all of the parts of your organization.

Human Skill III

Here is a situation in which the production manager was so preoccupied with getting the physical output that he did not pay attention to the people through whom that output had to be achieved.

Because human skill is so vital a part of everything the administrator does, examples of inadequate human skill are easier to describe than are highly skillful performances. Perhaps consideration of an actual situation would serve to clarify what is involved:

When a new conveyor unit was installed in a shoe factory where workers had previously been free to determine their own work rate, the production manager asked the industrial engineer who had designed the conveyor to serve as foreman, even though a qualified foreman was available. The engineer, who reported directly to the production manager, objected, but under pressure he agreed to take the job "until a suitable foreman could be found," even though this was a job of lower status than his present one. Then this conversation took place.

Production manager: "I've had a lot of experience with conveyors. i want you to keep this conveyor going at all times except for rest periods, and I want it going at top speed. Get these people thinking in terms of 2 pairs of shoes a minute, 70 dozen pairs a day, 350 dozen pairs a week. They are all experienced operators on their individual jobs, and it's just a matter of getting them to do their jobs in a little different way. I want you to make that base rate of 250 dozen pair a week work!" [Base rate was established at slightly under the 75% of the maximum capacity. This base rate was 50% higher than under the old system.]

Engineer: "If I'm going to be foreman of the conveyor unit, i want to do things my way. I've worked on conveyors, and I don't agree with you on first getting people used to a conveyor going at top speed. These people have never seen a conveyor. You'll scare them. I'd like to run the conveyor at one-third speed for a couple of weeks and then gradually increase the speed.

I think we should discuss setting the base rate [production quota before incentive bonus] on a daily basis instead of a weekly basis. [Workers had previously been paid on a daily straight piecework basis.] I'd also suggest setting a daily baste rate at 45 or even 40 dozen pair. You have to set a base rate low enough for them to make. Once they know they can make the base rate, they will go after the bonus."

Production manager: "You do it your way on the speed; but remember it's the results that count. On the base rate, I'm not discussing it with you; I'm telling you to make 250 dozen pair a week work. I don't want a daily base rate."

Here is a situation in which the production manager was so preoccupied with getting the physical output that he did not pay attention to the people through whom that output had to be achieved. Notice, first, that he made the engineer who designed the unit serve as foreman, apparently hoping to force the engineer to justify his design by producing the maximum output. However, the production manger was oblivious to (a) the way the engineer perceived this appointment, as a demotion, and (b) the need for then engineer to be able to control the variables if he was to be held responsible for maximum output. Instead the production manager imposed a production standard and refused to make any changes in the work situation.

Moreover, although this was a radically new situation for the operators, the production manager expected them to produce immediately at well above their previous output-even though the operators had an unfamiliar production system to cope with, the operators had never worked together as a team before, the operators and their new foreman had never worked together before, and the foreman was not in agreement with the production goals or standards. By ignoring all these human factors, the production manager not only placed the engineer in an extremely difficult operating situation but also by refusing to allow the engineer to "run his own show," discouraged the very assumption of responsibility he had hoped for in making the appointment.

Under these circumstances, it is easy to understand how the relationship between these two men rapidly deteriorated, and how production, after two months' operation was at only 125 dozen pairs per week (just 75% of what the output had been under the old system).

ACTION POINT: Identify and balance the human needs in each work situation.

Human Skill II

Human skill cannot be a "sometime thing."

Real skill in working with others must become a natural, continuous activity, since it involves sensitivity not only at times of decision making but also in the day-by-day behavior of the individual.

Human skill cannot be a "sometime thing." Techniques cannot be randomly applied, nor can personality traits be put on or removed like an overcoat. Because everything which an executive says and does (or leaves unsaid or undone) has an effect on his associates, his true self will, in time, show through. Thus, to be effective, this skill must be naturally developed and unconsciously, as well as consistently, demonstrated in the individuals every action. It must be an integral part of his whole being.

ACTION POINT: Be yourself, consistently.

Human Skill

...human skill is primarily concerned with working with people.

Human skill is the executive's ability to work effectively as a group member and to build cooperative effort within the team he leads. As technical skill is primarily concerned with working with "things" (processes or physical objects), so human skill is primarily concerned with working with people. This skill is demonstrated in the way the individual perceives (and recognizes the perceptions of) his superiors, equals, and subordinates, and in the way he behaves subsequently.

The person with highly developed human skill is aware of his own attitudes, assumptions, and beliefs about other individuals and groups; he is able to see the usefulness and limitations of these feelings. By accepting the existence of viewpoints, perceptions, and beliefs which are different from his own, he is skilled in understanding what others really mean by their words and behavior. He is equally skillful in communicating to others, in their own contexts, what he means by his behavior.

Such a person works to create an atmosphere of approval and security in which subordinates feel free to express themselves without fear of censure or ridicule, by encouraging them to participate in the planning and carrying out of those things which directly affect them. He is sufficiently sensitive to the needs and motivations of others in his organization so that he can judge the possible reactions to, and outcomes of, various courses of action he may undertake. Having this sensitivity, he is able and willing to act in a way which takes these perceptions by others into account.

ACTION POINT: Create an atmosphere of approval and security and encourage your team to participate in the planning and carrying out of things that directly affect them.

Technical Skill

Technical skill involves specialized knowledge, analytical ability within that specialty, and facility in the use of the tools and techniques of the specific discipline.

As used here, technical skill implies an understanding of, and proficiency in, a specific kind of activity, particularly one involving methods, processes, procedures, or techniques. It is relatively east for us to visualize the technical skill of the surgeon, the musician, the accountant, or the engineer when each is performing his own special function. Technical skill involves specialized knowledge, analytical ability within that specialty, and facility in the use of the tools and techniques of the specific discipline.

Of the three skills required for effective administration, technical skill is perhaps the most familiar because it is the most concrete, and because, in our age of specialization, it is the skill required of the greatest number of people. Mot of our vocational and on-the-job training programs are largely concerned with developing this specialized technical skill.

ACTION POINT: Identify the technical skills required for your profession.

Gift of Reverence

God's truth...lives in us... 2 John 1:1

The Gift of Reverence keeps us true to ourselves and to God. It tells the truth in love and will not back down for motives of self-defense or security. reverence is not only the fear of offending God prompted by love, but it is loyalty to one's own personal integrity: to do what one believes is right no matter what the stakes are...As the Gift of Reverence grows stronger, our trust in God expands. Humility is a profound sense of our weakness and nothingness, but at the same time an even greater trust in God's infinite mercy and compassion. The Gift of Reverence puts together these apparent opposites.

1 Timothy 1:15 - 16

Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners -- and I was the worst of them all. But that is why God had mercy on me, so that Christ Jesus could use me as a prime example of his great patience with even the worst sinners.

Skills of an Effective Administrator III

...successful administration appears to rest on three basic skills which we will call technical, human, and conceptual.

Effective administration rests on three basic developable skills which obviate the need for identifying specific traits and which may provide a useful way of looking at and understanding the administrative process.

This approach is the outgrowth of firsthand observation of executives at work coupled with study of current field research in administration. An attempt will be made to define and demonstrate what these three skills are; to suggest that the relative importance of the three skills varies with the level of administrative responsibility; to present some of the implications of this variation for selection, training, and promotion of executives; and to propose ways of developing these skills.

It is assumed here that an administrator is one who (a) directs the activities of other persons and (b) undertakes the responsibility for achieving certain objectives through these efforts. Within this definition, successful administration appears to rest on three basic skills which we will call technical, human, and conceptual. It would be unrealistic to assert that these skills are not interrelated, yet there may be real merit in examining each one separately, and in developing them independently.

ACTION POINT: Know and understand the role of an administrator.