In the great city of San Francisco, where I used to live, at 2 in the morning every other Victorian house has somebody who is writing the great American novel. And the city is not loaded with James Joyces or Virginia Woolfs. But entrepreneurship is about distorted views of reality.
They say plan it. I say do it.
Success requires a persistent misreading of the odds.
Every managerial act must be seen as an unequivocal support for urgency in pursuit of constant testing, change, and improvement.
Companies have got to learn to eat change for breakfast.
Champions are pioneers, and pioneers get shot at. The companies that get the most from champions, therefore, are those that have rich support network so their pioneers will flourish. This point is so important it’s hard to overstress. No support systems, no champions. No champions, no innovations.
Leaders win through logistics. Vision, sure. Strategy, yes. But when you go to war, you need to have both toilet paper and bullets at the right place at the right time. In other words, you must win through superior logistics.
The little people will get even, which is one of a thousand reasons why they are not little people at all. If you’re a jerk as a leader, you will be torpedoed. And usually it won’t be by your vice presidents; it will be on the loading dock at 3am when no supervisors are around.
Don’t ‘tolerate’ mistakes. Embrace them!
In McKinsey’s world, all of life is one of two things: strategy or organization.
Advantage comes not from the spectacular or the technical. Advantage comes from a persistent seeking of the mundane edge.
Who, precisely, are your Dreamers? Are their Dreams in Technicolor? Do you allow their most Outrageous Dreams to be seen in public?
Who comes first? Don’t be silly, says King Hal; it’s employees. That is – and this dear Watson, is elementary – if you genuinely want to put customers first, you must put employees more first.
Forget loyalty. Or at least loyalty to one’s corporation. Try loyalty to your Rolodex-your network-instead.
The unthinkable is thinkable. No: likely.
Forget all the conventional ‘rules’ but one. There is one golden rule: Stick to topics you deeply care about and don’t keep your passion buttoned inside your vest. An audience’s biggest turn-on is the speaker’s obvious enthusiasm. If you are lukewarm about the issue, forget it!
You can’t live life without an eraser.
It doesn’t matter what product or service you’re offering; there is unlimited ability to improve the quality of anything.
You have to stand out if you want to move up.
Leaders do stuff that matters.