Considering the money he is responsible for and the people he is responsible to, one can be sympathetic, but one cannot condone his bumbling. His ability in this regard has been-or should have been-one of the major reasons he reached his high position. If he and his company endure, it is probably because he has delegated all decision-making-an action that is, in a way, a big decision in itself.
No matter what company level you have reached, you must constantly demonstrate your ability to decide. If you make, or do not make, only one decision a week, that one action or inaction will bring you more attention than all the other various things you do or fail to do in the same period.
Here we discuss the need for planning and for acquiring broad, as well as specific, knowledge. If you heed the advice in these areas, you will find that the making of sensible decisions will gradually become easier and easier.
You, and your department or company, must have a program, and that program must be based on knowledge. With a strong - not rigid - program, decisions will often follow naturally. Assuming that a good, farsighted program has been established, you can arrive at any necessary conclusion by:
- Analyzing the various aspects.
- Balancing the details against the overall program.
- Using imagination and daring-and decisions.
Dividing industry into "big" and "little" is artificial. Industry is both-that makes it Industry. Ninety-eight percent of American industries employ less than five hundred men each. Today's big industries were small within our lifetime, many of today's small industries will become big before our lifetime ends. Large industries make small industries necessary, and small industries make large ones possible. Wipe out large industries and you wipe out three-fourths of the small ones; wipe out the small ones and the large ones cannot go on. They work together. Each has a part in the nation's job. - W. J. Cameron
Opportunity has hair in front; behind she is bald; if you seize her by the forelock, you may hold her, but if suffered to escape, not Jupiter himself can catch her again. - Latin Proverb
Most people fail not because they are bad, they fail because they do not wake up to see that sometime at a fork in a road they have to decide. They are not aware when life asks them a question and they still have an alternative answer. With each step along the wrong road it becomes increasingly difficult to admit that they are on the wrong road. - Eric Fromm
Many men prepare for one career but shift with little or no handicap to another. Executives move from one kind of job to another, often with greater success than if they stick to one specialty. I have seen a number of persons who were successful in teaching and research move easily to success in business. Consultants tackle problems with which they have little prior acquaintance and solve them readily. In my own experience, I have been amazed at the transferability of abilities and skills as I have shifted from one career to another and from one job to another. What impresses me is how the various jobs have so many requirements in common, and how easy it is in most instances to pick up the special knowledge in a particular field. - Theodore O. Yntema
The lot of the owner of a small manufacturing business is not an easy one. He has plenty of problems ... he should look carefully and long into the question of becoming the owner of a small business. But if he feels he measures up to the requirements of such an assignment and is prepared to work harder than he has ever worked before, the rewards can be satisfying. - Dr. Wilford L. White
Small business also fills an important and basic human need. People differ greatly in their "need to achieve," their risk tolerance, self-confidence, desire for independence, their frustration tolerance, and their impatience to break away from routine and do something challenging and exciting. . , . Small business has its own attraction and provides an outlet for the energy of the man with entrepreneurial drive, who craves to be on his own, and wants to make his own decisions and take the consequences. - Frank L. Tucker
