Every company has two organizational structures: The formal one is written on the charts; the other is the everyday relationship of the men and women in the organization.

You can know a person by the kind of desk he keeps. If the president of a company has a clean desk then it must be the executive vice president who is doing all the work.

It is much more difficult to measure non-performance than performance. Performance stands out like a ton of diamonds. Non-performance can almost always be explained away

Managers in all too many American companies do not achieve the desired results because nobody makes them do it.

I don't believe in just ordering people to do things. You have to sort of grab an oar and row with them. My philosophy is to stay as close as possible to what's happening. If I can't solve something, how the hell can I expect my managers to.

Ninety-nine percent of all surprises in business are negative.

The professional's grasp of the numbers is a measure of the control he has over the events that the figures represent.