Last week, it appears that all major business and news publications in the developed world carried articles celebrating the life of Peter F. Drucker who passed on at age 95 on November 11. He was often called ‘the world's most influential business guru’. His thinking transformed corporate management in the latter half of the 20th century. His work influenced my approach to understanding the world of work.  The reports indicate that many people were equally influenced. The list includes Winston Churchill, Bill Gates, Jack Welch and the Japanese business establishment.

As we come to the end of another year, we will inevitably review the events which affected our lives over the past year and begin to plan for the New Year.  It is a time to celebrate our achievements and set new goals while coming to terms with the reasons for falling short of any targets we had set ourselves.

In their evaluation of the concept of the Virtual Office, Thomas H. Davenport and Keri Pearlson, writing in MIT-Sloan Management Review, have identified five common arrangements to be considered:

When I ask groups of people this question, the answers I receive consistently follow a pattern. Most responses are very specific and had obviously been shaped by personal experience. I often hear job titles, like “teacher, nurse, pilot, engineer, doctor”. I also get some that are even more concrete – “job in which I wear white shirt and pretty tie” or something like “policeman riding a fast bike”. When the discussion is fast forwarded to what persons are actually doing in their adult lives, often there is very little overlap.

Ahead of The times

Ahead of The times
It is now generally accepted wisdom that the main role of education is to make us trainable. Training then makes us employable. But it is our attitude that will make us successful, or not.

A vacancy became available for the post of President of the People’s National Party. Among the many fringe benefits of this post at this time was that the successful candidate would also get to be Prime Minister of Jamaica. Four candidates were short listed and spent many months and hundreds of millions of dollars presenting their credentials and qualifications to the nation. However, the final selection would be made by the vote of a group called the Delegates.

Over the past weeks, there have been a growing number of advertisements seeking Sales Persons. The list of prerequisites is getting longer and more impressive:

“At least two years experience; be creative, flexible and outgoing; professional and business like; possess strong oral and written skills; own a reliable motor car; be able to travel island wide; have a minimum of six CXC subjects; previous sales experience an asset; be able to work on their own initiative”

One major weakness in our culture is the manner in which we share data. This is evidenced by our limited knowledge of the winning strategies created by many of our Jamaican and Caribbean business leaders. I can only hope that what has been initiated with the selection of The Observer Business Leader project and the exciting interviews conducted by Desmond Allen will evolve into such a scholarly venture.