Management is all about managing in the short term, while developing the plans for the long term.
Strategy is simply resource allocation. When you strip away all the noise, that’s what it comes down to. Strategy means making clear cut choices about how to compete. You cannot be everything to everybody, no matter what the size of your business or how deep its pockets.
Failing to differentiate among employees – and holding on to bottom-tier performers – is actually the cruelest form of management there is.
An overburdened, overstretched executive is the best executive, because he or she doesn’t have the time to meddle, to deal in trivia, to bother people.
Never miss out on an opportunity like a good recession.
Keep learning; don’t be arrogant by assuming that you know it all, that you have a monopoly on the truth; always assume that you can learn something from someone else.
There are only two sources of competitive advantage: the ability to learn more about our customers faster than the competition and the ability to turn that learning into action faster than the competition.
Every employee, not just the senior people, should know how a company is doing.
In the future, those who are not coaches will not be promoted.
Trust is enormously powerful in a corporation. People won’t do their best unless they believe they’ll be treated fairly. The only way I know how to create that kind of trust is by laying out your values and then walking the talk. You’ve got to do what you say you’ll do, consistently, over time.
People aren’t the same. Business is, in my opinion, all about the team that fields the best players. It’s not about an idea. An idea goes away. Somebody catches up with it. It’s not about a widget.
Get the best player because whether it’s soccer or whether it’s anything else the team with the best players wins. So focus your energy on getting the best and getting rid of the weakest.
Cash is king. Get every drop of cash you can get and hold onto it.
In difficult times your best must be hugged, loved, kissed, rewarded, paid – everything. And your worst must be the people that leave, because your best are going to take you to the next game.
You can’t behave in a calm, rational manner. You’ve got to be out there on the lunatic fringe.
One of the ways we’ll know that Work-Out has been successful is that my style of leadership will no longer be tolerated in this company.
All of management is about self-confidence.
One of the things about leadership is that you cannot be a moderate, balanced, thoughtful, careful articulator of policy. You’ve got to be on the lunatic fringe.
Every great leader has a generosity gene.
You can’t believe how hard it is for people to be simple, how much they fear being simple. They worry that if they’re simple, people will think they’re simpleminded. In reality, of course, it’s just the reverse. Clear, tough-minded people are the most simple.