Peter Drucker on Line Two

I only spoke with him twice, although I have a number of hand-typed letters he knocked out to me on his manual typewriter buried somewhere in my file cabinet.

Once I was trying to get him and ELCA Bishop Mark Hanson together. Drucker had just turned 92. The Rev. Hansen was about to start his call as presiding bishop of the national church. For some reason I had this hair-brained idea that the granddaddy of American business management might have something to teach the new captain assigned to supervise the last voyage of a declining church. The meetings never occurred.

The second time I was writing a book called The Fifth Church and trying to get some friendly advice directly from Mr. Drucker on moving the Titanic mainline church from its collision course with an ice berg called irrelevance.

"Peter Drucker on line two..." interrupted me in a staff meeting. It was one of the fondest phrases I've ever heard in my life.

“Melheim? Sounds German.”

I apologized for being Norwegian.

“Three questions you’ve got to ask before you try to turn this around,” he said with a hard German accent and a smile in his voice.

• "What is our      business?"
• "Who is our      customer?"
• "What does the customer      consider of value?"

That sums it up pretty clearly.

Before we go about trying to market the church, grow the church, or stop the bleeding of the church, we’d better give those questions some thought. Let me give you two world-class examples of contemporary companies who know the answers to these three questions in their respective fields: Starbucks and Apple.

Example 1: The Coffee Shop That Isn’t Just Selling Coffee

I stepped out of Starbucks on a frosty

Minnesota

morning with the steaming cup of Jo in my bare hands and sipped in the steam.

"There is coffee on at my office, three doors down from the store," I thought to myself. "Why do I find myself drawn to this place to lay down $1.54 each morning?"

It isn't the coffee. Our office coffee is just as good. It isn't the price. I'm normally a notorious penny pincher who demands my staff use paper recycled from the trash to print notes. Paying for something that could be free goes against my cheapskate nature.

What is it? Why do I go most every morning?

I had noticed Mary in the corner by the fireplace that morning when I first walked in. 15 years earlier I had married her daughter when I was their pastor. Mary smiled and told me of two new babies in the family. Thomas Loome, owner of the antique bookstores in

Stillwater

, sat in the overstuffed chair by the door reading his daily Wall Street Journal. He smiled and asked what I was up to today. Mark Youngdahl was corralled in the corner with some friends. Mark had been a member of my congregation a decade and a half ago. He had since joined a growing non-denominational church. "They worship 10,000 and have 1000 members. Your church has 5000 members and worship 1000. Any questions?" he asked with a wry smile.

So, what would drive a skinflint Norwegian out on a frosty morning to buy coffee that could have been free? Why is this daily pilgrimage a cheap preacher's habit?

There was and is one word: Smiles.

I find myself looking about the place in anticipation the moment I walk trough the door. Perchance there is someone I know. Perchance there will be a laugh, an encounter with someone who knows my name. Perchance a smile that says ,"You are a friend. You are alive. You are valued. You are you and I know it."

So, what does this mean? Ask yourself the Drucker Three:

• "What is Starbucks      business?"
• "Who is their customer?"     
• "What does their      customer consider of value?"

Example 2: The Music Empire that Isn’t Selling Mere Music

They just sold their billionth iTune.

Apple and their college drop-out CEO know how to market.

What are they selling? Music? No, music is only a part of it.

The 1,000,000,000th sale occurred over the internet only a few short years after their first song was sold, changing the way my kids think (and expect) things should be done and delivered.

Immediate. Cheap. High Quality. Personal. At their fingertips. What they want when they want it.

Apple pretty much invented the category and pioneered the delivery system for music sales over the net. It now owns 80% of the market for online music.

People carry their iPods with them where ever they go. They wear them on the outside with pride, buy gadgets to go along with them, and are happy to be seen with them. They are tuned in to them constantly. They happily purchase and don Apple apparel and attach Apple stickers on their cars, skate boards and guitar cases. They are evangelists - telling others about their iPod experience at every opportunity. They love to show them off to friends, strangers, and non-pod believers alike. When one gets broken, they run right to the Apple store and get their precious companion attended to, knowing they don’t want to be caught without it, and knowing they will be treated right.

Again, ask yourself the Drucker Three:

• "What is Apple’s      business?"
• "Who is their      customer?"
• "What does their      customer consider of value?"

So, What Does This Mean?

What is Starbuck’s business? Some would call it the “third place” concept. In our busy world, we don’t have time to know too many people and we don’t have energy to go too many places. We may only have the resources and emotional capital to reside in three main places of comfort. Our homes are first place. (Usually.) Our work or school may be the second place. Where is your third place? Where are you drawn when you have the time? Do you want to you go where everybody knows your name? For many, that place is the Starbucks.

What is Apple’s business? Music? Songs? Music delivery systems? Not merely and not hardly. So what are they selling? They are selling an image. In the process they are defining four words for a whole generation.

Cool. Style. Choice. Experience.

One other word: When my son’s iPod broke a week after the warranty expired, he asked me to bring it into the Apple Store on the outside chance he could still get it fixed. The geeky techno priest college student at the "Genius Bar" - the cool place where they fix all Apple products at Mall of America - said: "Ah, what's a week? You're an Apple customer. You’re one of us! Here's a new one."

My son walked out of the mall with a new iPod, even though it was his own fault it broke and his own fault he brought it in after the warranty expired. Now he thinks Apple is even more cool than before because he is one of them, and they believe in and practice…

Grace!

You think he’s going to ever switch from Apple? Not a chance.

So, what are they selling?

Cool. Style. Choice. Experience and grace, too? You can’t touch that!

So, you might want to ask yourself: What would it take for a person’s third place to be your church? And what would it take for a person to think of your church as the grace place in their lives?

 

Back to Marketing and the Church

Before you can think of marketing your church, lock yourself in a room or sit down by the beach and crank out a paragraph on each of the Drucker Three. If you can’t answer these questions, don’t expect to change anything.

• "What is your      business?"
• "Who is your      customer?"
• "What does your customer      consider of value?"

 

 

Comments

[Richard Stals]

I'm currently reading 'Thriving on Chaos' by Tom Peters. He quotes Peter Drucker a lot. What hits me hard when I read these management books is that we can spend so much time and effort in pursuit of money , but we often make do with second best (if we're feeling generous!) when it comes to the Kingdom of God.

I honour you Rich for being a voice and force for thoughtful change, not only in the Lutheran Church but in all churches that you come into contact with. Keep it up!

[Trogdor]

Nice post, given me some things to think about.

Great to have you back in the saddle man.

JZ