An army is the life-breath of a fort.
Justice is the life-breath of society.
The signature is the life-breath of a pronote.
(SSS Vol.22, p. 10)
The five life breaths of business are: Production, Collection, Protection, Connection and Direction. If any one of these is not satisfactory, the business suffers. All the five are equally important and concentration on only one or few of them will not be effective. So, if one concentrates on production, collection and protection of goods only, it will be of no use if the goods are not connected to the market. For a train, the engine is in the front and the guard at the rear. For business, production is the engine and direction is the guard. In between them, the other three aspects lie. These are the keys to success in management.
These five life breaths of the business have to be in tune with the ‘nature of the nation’. The business has to be carried on in tune with the nature, traditions and culture of the nations. Today, business is carried on an international basis. Machinery is imported and if it undergoes repairs even spares must be imported. Management is no longer limited to certain frontiers of a given nation. As business has become international, even management should possess international orientation with a cross-cultural perspective. (M, p. 47)
Today for all the types of businesses, the following five are regarded as five life breaths viz.:
- Attitude based costing
- Business process re-engineering
- Creative market
- International Marketing
- Total quality management.
(M, p. 47)