Decision makers need to factor into their present decisions the “future that has already happened.”
Decision makers—in government, in the universities, in business, in the labor unions, in churches—need to factor into their present decisions the future that has already happened. For this they need to know what events have already occurred that do not fit into their present-day assumptions, and thereby create new realities.
Intellectuals and scholars tend to believe that ideas come first, which then lead to new political, social, economic, psychological realities. This does happen, but it is the exception. As a rule, theory does not precede practice. Its role is to structure and codify already proven practice. Its role is to convert the isolated and “atypical” from exception to “rule” and “system,” and therefore into something that can be learned and taught and, above all, into something that can be generally applied.
ACTION POINT: Are the premises that you base your decisions on obsolete? Do you need a new intellectual framework to win in the market, as it exists today?
The New Realities
* Source: The Daily Drucker by Peter F. Drucker