The Discipline of Business Acceleration

In 1954, Peter Drucker wrote the book, The Practice Of Management. In this book he laid out in detail for the first time ever an in-depth explanation of a new discipline, a new field of study, called "management." This began a revolution that has impacted businesses and not-for-profit organizations for the past fifty years.

However, to accelerate the sustainable, profitable growth of an organization, it seems to mean that it requires more than just effective management. It requires a broader field of study, what I'm calling "the discipline of business acceleration." This field of study examines how organizations can generate sustainable, profitable growth.

The History of the Discipline of Business Acceleration

This really is not a new idea. In the early 1900s, Napoleon Hill was commissioned by Andrew Carnegie to interview the most successful businessmen of the era and find out what made them and their organizations so successful. Hill went on to write several books, including the classics, Law Of Success and Think And Grow Rich.

The modern day versions of Napoleon Hill are personified by Marcus Buckingham and Jim Collins. Buckingham worked for The Gallup Company for many years and personally interviewed thousands of managers and wrote several best-selling books including, First, Break All The Rules and The One Thing You Need To Know. Jim Collins took his research a good bit further. In addition to interviewing many successful executives, Collins worked as a member of research teams that compared iconic organizations to successful organizations in order to determine the reason behind the gaps relative to the long-term performance of the organizations. He put his research into two tremendous books, Built To Last and Good To Great.

Ironically, the greatest writer and teacher in history on the discipline of business acceleration is none other than Peter Drucker. In addition to his many books on management, he also wrote the first book on the discipline of business strategy (Managing For Results), the first book on the disciplines of entrepreneurship and innovation (Innovation and Entrepreneurship), and a great deal of work on the topic of leadership.

The Areas Of Focus

As in any field of study, it's important to narrow the focus to specific areas in order to do meaningful in-depth research that can generate practical value.

Before discussing the areas of focus within the discipline of business acceleration, let me make this point: it is a given that in any industry people must have a certain level of technical expertise in order to be effective. The discipline of business acceleration does not delve into studying the technical expertise required to be successful in a given industry. It also does not examine specific roles within an organization, i.e. human resources, finance, sales, marketing, operations, business research, development, etc. Rather, the discipline of business acceleration is a field of study that concentrates on general areas that have application for organizations in all industries and in all functions within those organizations.

Based on twenty years of studying what makes individuals, groups, and organizations successful, I believe these are the nine topics that are critically important to study and to make practical in order to generate sustainable, profitable growth:

• Role of The Individual: personal effectiveness, leadership, management

• Role of The Group: communication, teamwork, execution

• Role of The Organization: strategy, branding, innovation

I encourage you to take each of these areas of focus and answer the following questions:

1. How can I become more effective in these areas?
2. How can my group become more effective in these areas?
3. How can my organization become more effective in these areas?
4. Where can I learn more about this topic?

By maintaining your focus on these areas and these questions, I believe you can generate tremendous value, regardless of your title or income or authority, in generating significant, sustainable, and profitable growth for your organization, and accelerate your career in the process.

Republishing Articles

Each month my e-newsletter gets republished in approximately 20 blogs, on-line publications, and internal publications for businesses, universities, and not-for-profit organizations. If you would like to republish all or part of my monthly articles, please send me an e-mail at dan@thecoughlincompany.com with "Republishing Article" in the subject heading. I will send you the article in a word document. All I ask is that you include my name as the author of the article and a short paragraph at the end of the article about me with a link to my website.

Take care and have a great month!

Dan Coughlin

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