The story, set in 1890, goes like this.

JP Morgan, Westinghouse, Charles Schwab and Heinz were all contemporaries of Andrew Carnegie who was the richest man in America (and, by extension, the world) and were residents of Pittsburgh. Carnegie was seated very sagely in a corner of a room during a cocktail party for the above-mentioned movers and shakers of Pittsburgh surrounded by an admiring crowd listening to his every word. Frederick Taylor, who was starting to make a name for himself as a business consultant, was introduced to Carnegie who said, “Young man, should you tell me something about management that is worthy of my attention, I will send you a check for ten thousand dollars’” Now, ten thousand dollars was a princely sum but Taylor did not even blink. With everyone’s eyes on him he replied, “Mr Carnegie, my advice to you is to make a list of the ten most important things you can do, and then start doing them beginning with number one.” Carnegie did not even pretend to have registered the suggestion and continued his banter with the assembled crowd.

 

A week later, a messenger arrived at Taylor’s with a check for ten thousand dollars.

 

The question is, why would Carnegie see the benefit of making a list, especially when he was a titan of industry.

 

The benefit is not the list itself but the process of putting it together. Taylor’s advice is, in a nutshell, to think through the intersection of what was important and what was actionable. Carnegie was forced to ruminate on those things that were fundamental purposes to him and to devise ways to advance them.

 

Being strategic is being less myopic, less shortsighted than others