Shareholder value is a result, not a strategy . . . Your main constituencies are your employees, your customers and your products.

What's important at the grocery store is just as important in engines or medical systems. If the customer isn't satisfied, if the stuff is getting stale, if the shelf isn't right, or if the offerings aren't right, it's the same thing. You manage it like a small organization. You don't get hung up on zeros.

The essence of competitiveness is liberated when we make people believe that what they think and do is important - and then get out of their way while they do it.

An overburdened, overstretched executive is the best executive, because he or she doesn't have the time to meddle, to deal in trivia, to bother people.

Focus on a few key objectives ... I only have three things to do. I have to choose the right people, allocate the right number of dollars, and transmit ideas from one division to another with the speed of light. So I'm really in the business of being the gatekeeper and the transmitter of ideas.

Business is a game, and as with all games, the team that puts the best people on the field and gets them playing together wins. It's that simple.

If you're a leader and you're the smartest guy in the world - in the room, you've got real problems.