To make the future demands courage. It demands work. But it also demands faith.
Here I am, fifty-eight, and I still don’t know what I’m going to be when I grow up.
Do what you do best, and outsource the rest.
Everybody has accepted by now that change is unavoidable. But that still implies that change is like death and taxes – it should be postponed as long as possible and no change would be vastly preferable. But in a period of upheaval, such as the one we are living in, change is the norm.
If you have too many problems, maybe you should get out of business. There is no law that says a company must last forever.
Some of the best business and nonprofit CEOs I’ve worked with over a sixty-five-year consulting career were not stereotypical leaders. They were all over the map in terms of their personalities, attitudes, values, strengths, and weaknesses.
One of the great movements in my lifetime among educated people is the need to commit themselves to action. Most people are not satisfied with giving money; we also feel we need to work.
The three most charismatic leaders in this century inflicted more suffering on the human race than almost any trio in history: Hitler, Stalin, and Mao. What matters is not the leader’s charisma. What matters is the leader’s mission.
People are effective because they say ‘no,’ because they say, ‘this isn’t for me.’
The worker’s effectiveness is determined largely by the way he is being managed.
Profit is not a cause, but a result.
If a business is to be considered a continuous process, instead of a series of disjointed stop-and-go events, then the economic universe in which a business operates-and all the major events within it-must have rhyme, rhythm, or reason.
A business exists because the consumer is willing to pay you his money. You run a business to satisfy the consumer. That isn’t marketing. That goes way beyond marketing.
Marketing is the distinguishing, unique function of the business.
Objectives are not commands; they are commitments.
The critical factor of a problem is the element that has to be changed before anything else can be changed.
Don’t solve problems. Pursue opportunities.
Most innovators are successful to the extent to which they define risks and confine them.
Most leaders don’t need to learn what to do. They need to learn what to stop.
Unless the power of the corporation can be organized on an accepted principle of legitimacy, it will be taken over by a Central government.