Peter Drucker in his book The Effective Executive wrote on page 2 concerning the difference between a knowledge worker and a manual laborer.
It is interesting to note that how he describes the differences is extraordinary in how it applies to our current situation. For example let's take the GM company problems as they exist today and Drucker's interpretation.
Drucker mentions that for manual work, the only thing that really matters is the efficiency within which it is performed. The worker is alway judged in this case by the quality and quantity of a definable output, such as a pair of shoes.
He goes on to say how we have advanced tremendously so that the output by workers has increased exponentially. But that is not the solution to success, believe it or not.
His explanation of a knowledge worker gives insight into why not. To him a knowledge worker was one that works on the right thing, not just in the right way.
So back to GM. They can have the greatest workers in the world, but be working on the wrong product in the right way and still suffer in its overall business, as it is today. But you could say this about every industry out there.
By the way, this doesn't mean that because you think of yourself as a knowledge worker, that it guarantees you're working on the right thing. I believe what Drucker is saying is that to know what the right thing is, is to be a knowledge worker, no matter what the task is that you're performing.
Now, we as managers or business owners need to know that we are working on the right things, not just working hard and efficient. How many managers and workers have done that and found themselves out of a job in a bankrupt company?
While nobody can get it right 100% of course, but at least you can get yourself in the position of higher possibility of success. To me what provides that is to understand how things are trending, and then within the scope of your business or department, adapting yourselves to offer the right products and services that serve that trend.
Understanding where things are trending within your industry, is the primary step toward making sure that your workers are not just good at providing something that the consumer no longer has a vested interest in, even if they make it high quality.
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Yea, I do believe it. Being a manual laborer won’t extend the innovation curve so productions will slowdown and so will consumption. What makes the difference is the thinker or knowledge worker or the innovator.
Innovation has always been the one thing that extends production capability and the output. Actually there is a bit more to it. It is the customer or market that decides whether or not innovation has value. Innovation is only sustainable if the customer (market) has a need for it. Working on the wrong thing no matter how good it is won't create need. The customer can be the company you work for or the open market outside.
The user or customer along with innovation becomes the driving force in market economics.
Posted by: Tim Whelan | March 26, 2006 10:34 AM | Permalink to Comment