Page 122 - The Drucker Lectures

Knowledge Lecture I [ 103

Your mission has to be crystal clear. Believe me, very few of your
employees are motivated by the idea of making a great deal of
money for a leveraged buyout. What is their mission? The de-
mands have to be both clear and very great. There also has to be
continual learning and training and standards.
People have no hesitation to change jobs. Every day I get a
call from one of my former students who says, “Can I have a
recommendation?” And I say, “Why do you want to shift?” And
they say, “I have reached about as far as I’ll go in this company,
and I’m looking.” We all know that. We all know that the two
growth industries in this country in the last 20 or 30 years are
temporary employment agencies and headhunters. People are
mobile. Accept the fact that these people are volunteers, and see
themselves as volunteers. They see themselves as working there
because they want to, not because they have to.

From a lecture delivered at Claremont Graduate School (currently known
as Claremont Graduate University).