This book is intended for junior, middle and senior managers and those that aspire to be a manager. Therefore, many of you may be tempted to skip this section as you don’t run the business you are employed in. That would be a mistake. As a middle or junior manager, you run a team, section or department. That is your business and the principles outlined in this section are just as applicable to your domain as to the entire organisation. For example, your department or section may contribute to the organisation’s cash-flow problems (see Quotation 4) or failure to control costs (see Quotation 5).

There are three categories of entries in this section. Quotations:

• 1 and 2 deal with the essential prerequisites that any business needs if it is to succeed, namely customers and a competitive advantage.
• 3 to 8 are concerned with the basics of running any business.
• 9 and 10 consider some of the reasons businesses decline and fail and suggest ways to minimise these risks.

Some of the entries in this section talk about customers. Many managers claim that they don’t have any customers. They say things like, ‘I’m just the accountant or purchasing manager. I don’t sell anything.’ This misses a vital point. Just because you provide an internal service to colleagues does not mean that you have no customers. The colleagues who receive and use your reports or use the materials you purchase are your customers. You need to treat them as such. Especially as they have greater access to the powers that be within the organisation than external customers. Therefore, unless you want complaints and criticisms to quickly reach the ears of your boss, you need to treat them as valued customers.

Finally, it’s worth remembering that, if you are in business just to make money, it will be a poor business. The really big bucks are made by people who love the job they do and just use money to keep score.