...it's easier to hold to your principles 100% of the time than it is to hold to them 98% of the time.

Almost always great new ideas don't emerge from within a single person or function, but at the intersection of functions or people that have never met before.

Disruptive technology is a theory. It says this will happen and this is why; it's a statement of cause and effect. In our teaching we have so exalted the virtues of data-driven decision making that in many ways we condemn managers only to be able to take action after the data is clear and the game is over. In many ways a good theory is more accurate than data. It allows you to see into the future more clearly.

Justification for infidelity and dishonesty in all their manifestations lies in the marginal cost economics of “just this once.

Often they [writers on the study of management] have a point of view based upon intuition and experience. They then offer a cadence of two-paragraph examples carefully selected to "prove" their theory, and then they write "one size fits all" books. The message is, "If you'd do what these companies did, you'd be successful too."

What you need is a fundamental humility - the belief that you can learn from anyone.

It is a company's customers who effectively control what it can and cannot do.