Managing Priorities Most of us are kept so busy managing our own lives that we can’t imagine how top executives manage the work of thousands of people and millions of dollars and still have time to eat, sleep, and live. (9) But in talking about how they run their lives and companies, they do tend to focus on common themes. Unfortunately, popular time management courses are not the answer. Even the founder of the time management movement, Alec Mackenzie, agrees that few people who take his courses stick with the techniques and really benefit from them. (10) Like many other company executives, Alcoa’s CEO, Paul O’Neill, lists "quality" among his highest priorities~ But at the very top of his list is a surprise, "safety. " Alcoa leads its industry in safety and has been cutting its injury records by 50% every five years. O’Neill feels that to make an operation truly safe, you must understand it perfectly and make sure that the operation isn’t inefficient in any way that would encourage dangerous shortcuts. (11) One principle that works for many busy managers is the 80/20 rule, (12) —20% of its customers. A business that can identify the 20% and what they order can focus attention on those products. Illinois Tool Works, for example, used the 80/20 rule to identify which of its thousands of products it should concentrate on as it realigned its manufacturing processes. In an other instance, Office Club, a discount office-supplies supermarket, decided to carry 2,200 items instead of its competitors’ 5,000 because it found that 85 % of its sales came from only 650 core items. Every CEO has techniques for making time in a hectic schedule, (13) Some count on expert secretaries to arrange their time; others learn to walk out of a meeting if participants are late. According to management expert, Peter Drucker, (14) A. You will find different things at the top of CEOs’ priority lists B. Establishment of priorities is a key factor in managerial and organizational effectiveness C. There is no one secret that successful executives share D. the most important skill for setting priorities and managing time is simply learning to say No E. In other words, quality and safety go hand in hand F. doing important thinking while jogging or showering or flying to meetings G. Defined as a ranking of goals, objectives, or activities in order of importance, priorities play a special role in planning H. which states that 80% of a company’s business generally comes from a small group