December 2, 2005

Does this make me a groupie now? ;)

This is one of those "I've died and gone to heaven" moments. The other day, I left a comment on one of Tom Peter's posts ("I Disagree!") at his blog. Now I've been a big fan of Tom's books since the '80s, and today I found that Tom had personally responded to my comment. My comment above (in black), followed by Tom's response (in blue):


Robert Floyd wrote: "...they [non-profits] do not understand that they must run their organization like a business if they want to survive."

I started my own non-profit a few years ago, and I've worked as an accountant for another (very large) one. The thing is, non-profits *are* businesses, the only difference being, they're trying to minimize their profits. Otherwise, the principles of business (whether it's accounting, management, finance, marketing, etc.) all apply. Non-profits must be run as a business, period.

Posted by JD at December 1, 2005 02:37 AM


JD, I remember addressing Boy Scout leaders years ago. Couldn't figure out what to say. Then I talked to one of their top people. He said, "Say what you always say." He went on to add that the Boy Scouts were in a life and death competitive struggle like any other business. "We compete for boys' attention," he said. "That attention increasingly goes to TV, computer games, etc. We need more 'mind share.'" I was amused-amazed that he was out me-ing me.

Posted by tom peters at December 1, 2005 07:24 AM


I haven't had this feeling since meeting Alan Parsons for the first time ;) (but that's another story).

No comments: