Al4 - Sunday News, September 13, 1981 By AL DOHERTY ~ ment Services Officer, Federal Business Development Bank One of the keys to operating a _ successful business is the ability to get things done. Among a manager's many activities are those activities which are more profitable than others and those which do not seem io produce any results at all. Those activities which produce results are referred to as “high return” activities. They vary from person to person and business to business, and even job to job. The essential thing to realize is that high return activities always contribute most to the success of a business. The following anecdote took place ap- proximately fifty years ago and illustrates very clearly the importance of con- centrating on high return activities: Ivy Lee, a management consultant, was asked by- Charies M. Schwab, the president of Bethlehem Steel €orporation, what could be done to increase produc- tivity. Lee mentioned something to the effect that he had information which would show how the business could be operated more effectively. Schwab replied that he knew how to run his business and what he needed was not more in-. formation but rather results. Lee replied, that his system would produce just that, and if Schwab felt it was wor- thwhile, he could pay him whatever he felt it was worth. If it was not worth anything at all, then he would not have to pay anything for it. With that he handed Schwab a blank piece of paper and asked him to write down the six most important things that had to be done the next day. He then had him number them in order of importance with the most important being first, the next most important second, and so on. He advised Schwab to take the most important task first thing in b) Landscape and Grounds Program commences Monday, September 28, 1981 at Inglewood Secondary in West Vancouver. and ends March 26, 1982: Qan. , to 4pm daily Positions are still available in this program! Progran. registration fee is $164 00 Call 986-1911, local 391 tor registration information. THE APPLIED LANOSCAPE: _ HORTICULTURE PROGRAM — The program provides the basic skills and: knowledge pre-requisite to a career in four primary areas of the Landscape Industry: a) Landscape and Grounds -. C) Interior Landscaping d) Retail Garden Centres the morning and work on it until it was finished. Then he was to start work on the next most important task. He was not to worry if he had only finished one or two of the tasks because he would at least be working on the most important and it was unlikely he would finish these using any other method., The entire interview didn’t last more than thirty minutes and several weeks later Schwab sent a cheque to Lee for $25,000 and a letter thanking him for the most profitable lesson he had learned. Over the next five years that advice was considered largely responsible for the success of Bethlehem Steel rporation and catapulted “it into one of the world’s largest independent steel producers. When Schwab was later questioned on payment of such a large sum for such a simple idea he replied by asking “what good idea is not basically simple?” In addition, he reminded everyone that for the first PROMOTING new FBDB display at North Van CHamber of Commerce are (} to r) FBDB North Shore manager Ed Popill, Chamber president Henry Becker and FBDB management services officer Al Doherty. (Terry Peters photo) ‘Presents Installation Maintenance Operation a . Be time he and his staff. were finally concentrating on the most important activities which were producing the results. All things con- sidered, he felt the sum of $25,000 was probably the most valuable investment that Bethlehem Steel Corporation had made that year. As can be seen from this example, establishing priorities is a must for any business manager. It is a systematic process and this process should be used on a daily, weekly, monthly, quarterly and yearly basis. specific and avoid generalities. Then put these activities in writing. Determine the “high low” return activities. Ask yourself what results you want or what would happen if you didn’t do a certain task. This will help separate your high and low return ac- tivities. Always consider your objectives. Your high return activities should parallel your objectives. Next, determine how urgent a particular activity . Urgent is. Many managers spend a great deal of time putting out brush fires instead of seeing that these brush fires never occur. There must not be any confusion between urgent and important. matters always present themselves as emergencies requiring immediate attention. This prevents the manager from dealing with the important matters. Remember, everything that is urgent is not necessarily important. Then decide what to do. Take your priorities and follow the simple ABCD method. (A)-do it, (B)- delegate it, (C)-postpone it, (D)-refuse to do it. Write down your priorities and start your day with the most important priority. Concentrate on your priorities and stick to them until they are complete. To do this, you will have to learn to say no to all those low return activities which keep demanding your at- tention. Every time you feel swamped check your priorities. 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