Consulting Drucker by William Cohen

Author:William Cohen
Language: eng
Format: azw3, epub
ISBN: 9781911498674
Publisher: LID Publishing
Published: 2018-05-15T04:00:00+00:00

Picking the Right Risk Is Crucial

General Walter Short commanded the US Army in Hawaii, including the Air Force, which in those days was part of the army. The Navy Commander was Admiral Husband Kimmel. Both Admiral Kimmel and General Short thought that the danger of sabotage was greater than that of an air attack and that the Navy, responsible for air surveillance, could provide adequate warning of an air attack, roughly thought beyond the capability of Japanese forces, which were thousands of miles away. Short therefore parked his aircraft close together, almost wingtip to wingtip, where they could be easily and more efficiently guarded. He was lowering the risk of sabotage, but greatly raising the risk of destruction if there were an attack by air.

Consequently, when 353 Japanese airplanes launched from six aircraft carriers attacked at 7:48a.m. on Sunday morning, 7 December 1941, it was a complete surprise. Of the eight US battleships in port, all were damaged and four were sunk, as were many other smaller ships. No less than 188 aircraft were destroyed and another 159 from a total of 390 aircraft were damaged, almost all on the ground, The US suffered immensely, with almost 4,000 killed and wounded. Both US commanders were accused of dereliction of duty and relieved of command. They were forced to retire and played no further part in the war. In their defence, some commented on their previous efficiency or even on the efficiency of the wrong actions they took. But it was for naught. These leaders may have been very efficient in doing the wrong thing, but they were not effective in protecting their crews defending their charges, or saving the Hawaiian Islands when they came under attack.

Drucker learned to analyse the situation and to emphasize taking the right risks, because taking the wrong risk could be even more disastrous. Drucker’s investigations led to the discovery of a critical factor in the process: while deciding on the right risk, one had to institute controls in the actions involved in taking the risk. Otherwise, even though it might well be the right risk to take, there might be other considerations and more important risks. Risks that, in the end, may result in mismanaged actions, intended objectives not reached, and failed results, even though taking a risk of some sort was fully understood and accepted. This is important for any client to understand. Moreover, it is useful in persuading clients to take this approach.

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