We have embarked upon the world's largest and longest cocktail party, and every issue imaginable is up for grabs.

Systems are corporate funded mechanisms for increasing efficiency; programs are user funded mechanisms for increasing effectiveness. Programs should generally be charged back to users, systems should never be. Allocating corporate overhead to the operating units is simply a mistake.

The biggest problem is typically overly ambitious expectations combined with undercapitalization.

Sustaining innovations are the key to consistent performance, whereas disruptive innovations are the key to dramatic changes in power.

We have embarked upon the world's largest and longest cocktail party, and every issue imaginable is up for grabs.

If you ask why start-ups outperform established enterprises when it comes to catching the next wave, the answer is that they are not conflicted. Everyone is rowing in the same direction. That is never the case in a company that has a portfolio of businesses at different stages in their maturity. So the key to winning there has to be to "zone out" the conflicts - sort of like sending quarrelling children each to their own room.

The danger is to cling to comfort and custom at a time when events demand breaking away from both. But it is also foolish to jump at every startling moment. Darwin selects primarily for prudent fast-following.