Mr. Cooke understands that a part of successful management is converting technology into well made products, investing for the long term and being aggressive in your markets. Successful Management also involves handling all of the day-to-day aspects of business within a framework designed for success.

The authors of "In Search of Excellence", Thomas J. Peters & Robert H. Watermann, Jr., set out the eight attributes of successful companies. They are:

1. A bias for Action
2. Close to the Customer
3. Autonomy and Entrepreneurship
4. Productivity through People
5. Hands-on, Value-Driven
6. Stick to the Knitting
7. Simple Form, Lean Staff
8. Simultaneous Loose-Tight Properties

These over-riding attributes encompass general philosophies such as:

When a problem arises, do not place blame. Understand, evaluate, solve the problem and move on. If you are working on fixing blame you are not working on solving the problem.

Incremental improvement over time will continually provide you with a better product. The product today should be the best you have, but it has to be on the market to sell. The perfect yet-to-be-marketed product will never sell.

The only way to succeed is to try.

Instead of trying to create rules and regulations to cover every specific situation, instill in the personnel, the business' values, customs, beliefs and culture. This will allow managers to make decisions based on current facts and within the business' goal structure.

These values and philosophies, in turn, help to define legal, internal operating and human resource procedures and allow the business to deal with these issues in a proactive and not reactive manner.

Successful management is also a function of successful leadership. As a manager and leader ask the people around you:

1. What are two things I should stop?
2. What are two things I should keep doing? and
3. What are two things I should start?

Feel free to contact Mr. Cooke at (312) 497-9002 or by email at "gc@Cookeslaw.com".

Mr. Cooke's fee is $300.00 per hour.

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