Friedman, Darwin and The Crunch Point
Kevin Cryan wrote a short explanation of Simon Caulkin’s column in today’s Observer.
It seems that the failures of modern management are no better or worse than we’d have seen 30 or 40 years ago.
Despite the growth like topsy of MBAs, we’re seeing little improvement in the quality of decisions that managers take. Indeed, although ’scientific management’ is now more than a century old, the modern approach is still all science and quantitative analysis, rooted in the ideal of preventing bad people from doing bad things.
And therein lies the greatest risk to any independant professional, newly escaped from The Corporation. In even the best companies, management is about control - preventing people from taking risks.
When you’re on your own for the first time, the biggest risk is that you’ll be afraid of failure, and afraid of mistakes. Don’t get me wrong - mistakes with clients are very costly, but no-where near as expensive as avoiding the risk of making a mistake in marketing by not taking action.
So in the this week, do these things:
- Write a short description of your ideal client - include details like where they’re based, what they spend on your kind of service, and who they associate with.
- Draw up a prioritised list of prospects who meet this description.
- Call every single one of these, and get the name of the person you’ll need to speak to if they’re to buy your services.
