How effective management is within an organization is dependent on the executives that control it. Top management’s role has always been to navigate the ship’s course and occasionally steer it to the destination. In The Effective Executive, Peter Drucker lays out what makes an executive or manager effective and what practices need to be implemented in order to get there. The first practice before anything an executive needs to ask is “What needs to be done?”

Individuals working throughout the day can tend to lean toward the question of “What would I like to do at work today?” instead of “What do I need to do at work today?” The artificial reality of “being busy” is broken when one realizes they are not working on the right tasks. Drucker believes executives and individuals should focus always on getting the right things done as opposed to getting things done right. What do effective executives do day by day to make sure they are focusing on the core priorities of their organization and impacting the lives of not only them, but the organization and society around it?

Steve Jobs the CEO of Apple focused his energies on following and impacting his core priorities. In 1996 when he was brought back into Apple after his 1985 layoff from his own company, Jobs immediately began to reflect on what Apple was about when the company was created, and that was “being different”. Jobs began to decrease Apple Computer’s massive product line of over twenty models, and research and development began putting its energy on creating a computer that was different from those in the market. In 1998, the Bondi Blue iMac was released to the public and was successful not only in sales, but projecting Apple’s brand image because of its radical design and true uniqueness. Instead of having sixteen Macintosh models to choose from when purchasing a new computer, there was only one “premium personal computer” which reflected everything Apple wanted to offer for the common consumer. 

Everyone employed at Apple since the seeds of its creation wanted Apple Computer to become a dominant computer company, what it took to head into that direction was an executive that focused on an urgent task: to re-invent Apple’s brand. With Steve Jobs concentrating on an urgent task which he was best suited for, and delegating all other priorities, the success of Apple has been reflected in the iMac line of personal computers, the Mac OS X operating system and the iPod and iTunes Music hardware and software. Steve Jobs has even re-branded Apple Computer Inc. to Apple Inc. to reflect the success of not only the computer industry, but the ever expanding personal electronics sector. An effective executive does not focus on working on many tasks, but on the one that can make the most impact. Once that task is complete, the executive then reflects on what the new priorities are as the organization’s corporate landscape has now changed and what needs to be done now.

Discovering what the main priority is the first concern of the effective executive. Looking on that and finding out if the job can be delegated is next, if such a task cannot be delegated the executive must then take on the task with a sense of urgency and treat all other priorities as secondary. A manager may want to focus on people development as a core task, or in Steve Jobs case as a CEO re-branding his organization. Other priorities that come by are delegated to others until the main one is complete, and continuously following this process until completion not only reduces effectiveness in regards to the one resource that cannot be re-created: time, but also helps the enterprise perform as top management performs.