When I come upon a man who has a gleaming, empty, clear desktop, I am dealing with a fellow who is so far removed from the realities of his business that someone else is running it for him.

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.

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

Performance stands out like a ton of diamonds. Nonperformance can always be explained away.

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

I think it is an immutable law in business that words are words, explanations are explanations, promises are promises, but only performance is reality

It is much more difficult to measure nonperformance than performance.