DWD20200410

David's Time With Peter F. Drucker 2020.4.10 Industries, whether businesses or nonbusinesses, have to be managed differently depending on whether on whether they are growth industries, mature industries or declining industries. A growth industry that can count on demand for its products or services growing faster than economy or population managers to create the future. It needs to take the lead in innovation and needs to be willing to take risks. A mature industry needs to be managed to have a leadership position in a few, a very few, but crucial areas, and especially in areas where the demand can be satisfied at substantially lower cost by advanced technology or advanced quality. And it needs to be managed for flexibility and rapid change. A manure industry shifts from one way of satisfying wants to another. A manure industry therefore needs to be managed for alliances, partnerships and joint ventures to adapt rapidly to such shifts. In a declining industry one has to manage, above all, for steady, systematic, purposeful cost reduction and for steady improvement in quality and service, that is, for strengthening the company's position within the industry, rather than for growth in volume——which one can only take away from somebody else. For in a declining industry it is more and more difficult to establish meaningful product differentiation. Products in a declining industry tend to become “commodities”——as is rapidly happening with passenger automobiles(except so far for a few luxury cars). ——《Management Challenges for the 21st Century · Chapter2》(Peter F.Drucker,1999)