I just finished reading a recent edition of Leader to Leader put out by the Leader to Leader Institute and publisher Jossey-Bass (my blog-mate Peter is an Associate Editor for the journal). This time they included a special edition celebrating the life of management sage Peter Drucker on what would have been his 100th birthday (he passed away in 2005).  Often referred to as the greatest management thinker of the last century, he understood as far back as the 1950s that there is no business without a customer.

Drucker regularly challenged entrepreneurs and corporate CEOs alike to answer five important questions:

• What is our mission?
• Who is our customer?
• What does our customer value?
• What are our results?
• What is our plan?

Simple questions, yes, yet so powerful.  In the field of entrepreneurship, no matter how many fancy names are given to what entrepreneurs do, no matter how any elaborate frameworks researchers use to explain who entrepreneurs are and why entrepreneurs succeed, it all comes down to these fundamental questions.  If the entrepreneur doesn't have a firm grip on the answers to these questions, all the rest is a waste of time. But, strangely enough, many academics found Drucker to be way  too practical, which is quite funny because I hate to remind them that business is very much about the practical!  Many of the great companies you know such as Hewlett-Packard, Johnson & Johnson, and Procter & Gamble, to name a few, carry the imprint of his management philosophy.  The lessons never get stale.

If you want to learn more about the five questions, check out The Five Most Important Questions You'll Ever Ask About Your Organization.  It might change the way you look at your business.