What we are left with is an overmanipulated economy that can't function normally.

Nobody knows how Honda is organized, except that it uses lots of project teams and is quite flexible.

What we are left with is an overmanipulated economy that can't function normally.

It is hard to let old beliefs go. They are familiar. We are comfortable with them and have spent years building systems and developing habits that depend on them. Like a man who has worn eyeglasses so long that he forgets he has them on, we forget that the world looks to us the way it does because we have become used to seeing it that way through a particular set of lenses. Today, however, we need new lenses. And we need to throw the old ones away.

The sole purpose of strategic planning is to enable the company to gain, as effectively as possible, a sustainable edge over its competitors.

What business strategy is all about-what distinguishes it from all other kinds of business planning-is, in a word, competitive advantage. Without competitors there would be no need for strategy, for the sole purpose of strategic planning is to enable the company to gain, as efficiently as possible, a sustainable edge over its competitors.

More strategies fail because they are overripe than because they are premature.