The truth is that business is simple: create great products, merchandise them at the point of sale, continuously innovate and surprise, reward and achieve a position of loyalty with your front line, and seek new truth from the market. Deliver the goods at a competitive cost. Price to earn a decent but not competitively inviting return. Not much else matters.

Companies that get in trouble have a failure to see two realities: market trends and competitor attacks.

Take giant leaps. Too many companies are into incremental innovation. The only thing that moves markets is violent turns. Major differences. Don't get caught in the trap of small steps.

Business operators that really deeply care about their employees and consumers deliver the right response every day.

Our most exciting discoveries come from studying anomalies. The once-in-1000 occurrence is worth getting detail on.

I believe in classic ideas. They are timeless. They are forever. There are many fads in management.

A curious mind does not jump to conclusions but tests carefully and thoroughly. A curious mind will draw on all of life's experience to get to the big "uh huh." The curious cut the data by quintile, by segment, and by user.