Strategy is about setting yourself apart from the competition. It's not a matter of being better at what you do - it's a matter of being different at what you do.

If a strategy meets a goal: It's working. If a strategy meets a target: It's a success.

Apple does all of its research and development in America. It has all these brilliant people sitting in Silicon Valley. But until recently, Apple made nothing in America. Zero. And the jobs that were accessible to a good, well-trained worker that knew how to do welding or assembly, none of those jobs had stayed in America. We don't have the workforce.

Strategy is about making choices, trade-offs; it's about deliberately choosing to be different.

Strategy is choice. Strategy means saying no to certain kinds of things.

Businesses must reconnect company success with social progress. Shared value is not social responsibility, philanthropy, or even sustainability, but a new way to achieve economic success. It is not on the margin of what companies do but at the center. We believe that it can give rise to the next major transformation of business thinking.

I teach in the medical school, the School of Public Health, the Kennedy School of Government, and the Business School. And it's the best perch... because most of my work crosses boundaries.