Management Quotes

A venture capitalist is happy if two out of every 10 tries work. Everyone gets rewarded—even those who made the eight investments that failed. But big companies are unhappy if two of 10 tries fail. Those involved in the failures are demoted or sidelined when it comes to promotions. That means big companies focus on small, low-risk, incremental improvements and miss the big, but risky, opportunities.
— Lester Thurow

No Comments » Posted by Administrator / Organizational Behavior and Risk

Three simultaneous revolutions—new technologies, globalization, and the end of communism—are destroying the fixed reference points for business. As they do, would-be business leaders have to think of themselves as economic explorers. Leaders are people who know they’re at point B and need to go to point A. Their problem is to find a route from B to A and persuade the troops to follow. Explorers are people who don’t know where they are, don’t know where they want to go, don’t know how they’ll get there, but do know they want to get rich. Explorers are essentially strategic thinkers without a road map.
— Lester Thurow

No Comments » Posted by Administrator / Leadership and Trends / Analysis

In the long run, the U.S. economy can be very flexible: 120 years ago, half of the population still worked on farms. So over the long run, we are optimistic that better education and training will prepare most of the workforce to do meaningful work in the computerized world. But education takes time and change is happening fast. Forty years ago, John Kennedy could say, “The rising tide lifts all the boats” and be correct. He governed in a lucky economic time when technology and trade did not favor one group of workers over others.

While politicians still invoke Kennedy’s language, it no longer applies. Technology and trade are still engines of economic growth but the engines now favor educated and skilled workers. Less educated workers are paying a big price so the nation as a whole can advance. The short run challenge is to work out a better safety net—long-run training, assistance in areas like health insurance—to get through this period.
— Frank Levy and Richard J. Murnane

No Comments » Posted by Administrator / Economics

If you know one (of anything), that’s it: You know one. But if you know two, you know much, much more than two. With two computer languages, not only do you know both languages, but you also know what makes them similar, what makes them different, what you like best and least about each, and how each is better suited for certain tasks.

Call it the “epiphany of multiples.” I’m not a linguist or a musician, but I have been told by those who are that the same miracle holds true in these fields: Learning your second language or instrument opens a door to learning multiple languages or instruments more easily than the first or the second.

Similarly, consultants have often worked in many companies, countries, industries, functional areas or technologies. This wide-ranging exposure has given them the perspective that can generate valuable innovations. This perspective, in turn, helps them tackle challenges or realize opportunities that would be overlooked by someone with twice the experience but without the epiphany of multiples.
— Glover T. Ferguson

No Comments » Posted by Administrator / Consulting and Learning

Conventional incentive plans work only with current value, leaving future value—which is often the larger amount—up for grabs.
— John J. Ballow, Brian McCarthy, Michael J. Molnar

No Comments » Posted by Administrator / Compensation and Incentives

Processes don’t do work, people do. Look closely at the inner workings of any company and you’ll discover gaps between official work processes — the “ideal” flows of tasks and procedures - and the real-world practices behind how things actually get done. These gaps are not problems that need fixing; they’re opportunities that deserve leveraging…We’re not arguing against business processes per se. The challenge is to keep them elegantly minimal - to under prescribe formal procedures and create “elbow room” for local interpretations and innovations. It’s a point that off-the-shelf reengineering misses: you can’t build processes without the practices to implement them - and the most effective practices grow from the grassroots.
— John Seely Brown and Estee Solomon

No Comments » Posted by Administrator / Organizational Behavior and Process

…if you pit a good performer against a bad system, the system will win almost every time.
— Geary Rummler

No Comments » Posted by Administrator / Organizational Behavior

Performance is dependent on ability, but the reverse does not hold true. Because an individual or group has the ability to do something does not necessarily mean they will do it. When competencies focus on abilities, values, or beliefs, they begin to stray from what is observable, understandable and measurable. And the link to performance becomes highly tenuous.
— Professor Robin Stuart-Kotze

No Comments » Posted by Administrator / Management and Measurement

A business model should enhance a company’s special strengths and core competencies: how it wins customers, attracts and deploys economic and human capital, leverages the capabilities of suppliers and business partners, and earns profits. Effective business models are rich and detailed; their components reinforce each other. Change any one thing and you have a different model.
— Michael Sutcliff

No Comments » Posted by Administrator / Business Plans and Strategy

One method for discovering where to innovate that I always encourage companies to use is customer sacrifice mapping. Customer satisfaction is all well and good — but all it does is measure how well we’ve trained customers not to expect too much. Customer sacrifice mapping goes beyond expectations to examine the gap between the ideal offering individual customers want and what they have to settle for today. Examining this sacrifice will identify dimensions of customization along which companies can innovate for competitive advantage.
— Joe Pine

No Comments » Posted by Administrator / Customer Related and Innovation