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.

Take care and have a great month!

Dan Coughlin

Accelerate Update This section is always current to the current month

I suppose every book changes an author's life to a certain degree. My first book, which was self-published in 1995, was called Inside Out: A Catalyst for Conscious Living. It's out of print now for a number of good reasons. The layout, which yours truly did, looks like something a first grader could do today. And the ideas are very theoretical, which doesn't fit my approach anymore. However, I read the book a few months ago, and I was pleased by how clearly I had explained my early thoughts on improving performance.

My second book, Corporate Catalysts: How to Make Your Company More Successful, Whatever Your Title, Income, or Authority was published in 2005 by Career Press. That book was a step forward in clarifying my ideas on improving performance and understanding how to write a whole book. It's one thing to dream about getting a book contract and another thing to write a 70,000 word manuscript.

My third book, ACCELERATE: 20 Practical Lessons to Boost Momentum, which was published in May 2007 by Kaplan Publishing, has changed my business dramatically. Up until that book was published, I mostly did projects for four companies: McDonald's, Marriott, GSD&M, and Toyota. In the past 12 months, I've worked with business owners, executives, and managers within dozens of small, medium, and massive organizations in more than 20 industries ranging from boats to banks to software to financial services to trucking to lighting to home healthcare to hospitals to optometrists. It's been an exciting adventure.

If you want to see my speaking calendar for 2008, which we'll try to update every two weeks, please click here.

Currently, I have 66 speeches scheduled for 2008. If you would like for me to speak at one of your events in 2008 or 2009, feel free to contact me at dan@thecoughlincompany.com and I will be glad to see if we can make it work.

If you want to see my speaking topics and a video of footage from some of my keynote speeches, please click here.

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