- Jay Maharjan (06.25.09)
The other day, Bill Maher made a comment that earned him critics among his own fans. He commented on his show that it was time for President Obama to act little bit like George W Bush. It is very clear what he meant. Maher was referring to the way President Bush was adamant in achieving his goals. Maher was referring to Bush’s core strategy ‘management by objective’. Carl Rove, the architect behind W’s two successful elections, once told the Atlantic Monthly, “I had read Peter Drucker, but I’d never seen Drucker until I saw Bush in action”. One might argue that it didn’t help or Bush chose the wrong objectives. I will leave that to political pundits with deeper understanding and experience to argue over the rationale.
President Obama is also known to have used Drucker principles preceding to his historic win. Rick Wartzman articulated the Obama campaign strategy in his BusinessWeek piece “Obama’s Drucker-Style win”.
Regardless of one’s political affiliation, ‘Management By Objective’ is relevant today just as much as it was back in 1954 when Drucker introduced the concept in his book “The Practice of Management”. ‘Management By objective’ has evolved to become a very powerful strategic tool in politics. All successful politicians have one thing in common. They understand their voters in the same way as a successful business understands its customers. They create value from the perspective of the voter and create ideal messages that address all groups. Unlike focusing and relying on traditionally segmented loyal base, this inclusive strategy with a clear message to all people open up enormous pool of untapped voters and win elections.
Tags: Drucker wisdom, management by objective, Peter Druucker
If you aren’t moving towards objectives, then why are you working? This article makes perfect sense to me, Jay. Yet, plenty of people and businesses go through life digging holes just to fill them back up.
amAW KAH!..