Peter F. Drucker (1909 – 2005) has often been called “the founder of modern management.” If you do not have a copy of his seminal textbook, Management, on your shelf (mine is the revised edition (HarperCollins 2008), then you need to do the two things I have done: buy and memorize it cover to cover. My adulation for the man nothwithstanding, however, he is wrong about his core value on the purpose of a business, dead wrong.
I’ll tell you why.
On page 98, Drucker states emphatically, “There is only one valid definition of business purpose: to create a customer.” He explains markets are created by executives, because a customer’s “want” remains a potential until the action of a businessperson converts it into effective demand, because “it is only business action creates the customer.”
This is almost the only point upon which Drucker and I differ. To create a customer is not the purpose of business, however. The only valid purpose of any business is to serve, and not only the customer, but the rest of the business’ pyramid of relationships as well.
A customer exists long before any executive creates her. Her wants, needs, and desires pre-exist whether she yet realizes them and acts on them. A business fulfills its destiny by helping her realize and understand her want and then serving her by satisfying her needs effectively and efficiently, for both her and the business.
Like a Great! person, a Great! business lives its life in the service of others, many levels of others, and not merely for the creation of a customer.
[reminder]What do you do to serve your customer?[/reminder]