Want to accomplish something, any-damn-thing? Sharpen your political skills!
I don’t know what it means to manage the human imagination, but I do know that imagination is the main source of value in the new economy. And I know we’d better figure out the answer to my question-quick.
Winston Churchill said that appetite was the most important thing about education. Leadership guru Warren Bennis says he wants to be remembered as ‘curious to the end.’ David Ogilvy contends that the greatest ad copywriters are marked by an insatiable curiosity ‘about every subject under the sun.’
Organize as much as possible around teams, to achieve enhanced focus, task orientation, innovativeness, and individual commitment.
Confidence means non-paralysis, a willingness to act, and act decisively, to start new things and cut failing ventures off.
The company’s most urgent task is to learn to welcome, beg for, demand – innovation from everyone.
Quality involves living the message of the possibility of perfection and infinite improvement, living it day in and day out, decade by decade.
Rewards should go to teams as a whole.
Nothing good or great can be done in the absence of enthusiasm.
We cannot innovate without opening the door to havoc.
Brand inside is more important than brand outside for sustained success.
Learning is a matter of intensity not elapsed time.
Be guided by the axiom: There are no limits to the ability to contribute on the part of a properly selected, well-trained, appropriately supported, and, above all, committed person.
Have you set high standards in the past that make it clear what level of performance you demand?
I think economics is about passion. Economic progress, whether it is a two-person coffee shop or whether it is Netscape, is about people with brave ideas. Because it is brave to mortgage the house, when you’ve got two kids, to start a coffee shop.
I endorse a lot of people – sometimes people say I endorse too many books. And my response has always been the same: If I can get one case study that can give me one good idea that I can implement for $25, or for these days one-third of that on Kindle, I’ve gotten a very good deal.
Business book writing for me is when some set of ideas gets stuck in my mind, I write a book about it. I haven’t got a theory and I haven’t got a framework.
You are who you go to lunch with! Break bread with cool and you will become more cool. Conversely: break bread with dull and well, you can figure it out.
The best kept secret in the global economy today is this: When your service is AWESOME you get so stinking rich you have to buy new bags to carry all the money home.
When you choose a managerial path, you are choosing to devote your life to people. Period.