Management Quotes

I think control systems are one of the most important, least understood, and least examined aspects of management that we have today. Most companies tend to accrete their control systems, whether on the financial, production, or sales side. So over time you get hundreds of these systems. If you ask companies how many control systems they have, they don’t know. If you ask them how much they’re spending on control, they say, “We don’t add it up like that.” If you ask them to rank their control systems from most to least cost-effective, then cut out the 20 percent at the bottom, they can’t.
— Richard Foster

No Comments » Posted by Administrator / Management and Process

The fact that the Web is distracting is not an accident. It is the Web’s hyperlinked nature to pull our attention here and there. But it is not clear that this represents a weakening of our culture’s intellectual powers, a lack of focus…. Maybe set free in a field of abundance, our hunger moves us from three meals a day to day-long grazing…. Perhaps the Web isn’t shortening our attention span. Perhaps the world is just getting more interesting.
— David Weinberger

No Comments » Posted by Administrator / Attention and Information

The seductive pull of equilibrium poses a constant danger to successful established companies.

…While equilibrium endangers living systems, it often wears the disguise of an attribute. Equilibrium is concealed inside strong values or a coherent, close-knit social system, or within a company’s well-synchronized operating system (often referred to as “organizational fit”). Vision, values, and organizational fit are double-edged swords.
— Richard Pascale

No Comments » Posted by Administrator / Challenge and Miscellaneous

Through learning we reperceive the world and our relationship to it… This then is the basic meaning of a ‘learning organization’ - an organization that is continuously expanding its capacity to create its future.
— Peter Senge / The Fifth Discipline

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The best way to predict the future is to create it.
— Alan Kay

No Comments » Posted by Administrator / Future and Innovation

The best executive is the one who has sense enough to pick good men to do what he wants done, and self-restraint enough to keep from meddling with them while they do it.
— Theodore Roosevelt (26th US president, 1901-09)

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Isn’t a fair social system the one that we would pick if we didn’t know ahead of time what our role will be?
— John Rawls (American philosopher)

No Comments » Posted by Administrator / Government and Philosophy

Never mistake a clear view for a short distance.
— Paul Saffo (technology forecaster)

No Comments » Posted by Administrator / Future and Perception

Ultimately, companies are like people, in that what they forget is essential for determining what they remember.
— Eric Chen

No Comments » Posted by Administrator / Memory

If you build a better mousetrap, the world will only beat a path to your door if people are interested in catching mice.
— Jerry Wind / Vijay Mahajan / Robert Gunther

No Comments » Posted by Administrator / Business Plans and Marketing