Business enterprise is an organ of society. There is only one valid definition of business purpose: to create a customer.

To satisfy the customer is the mission and purpose of every business.

Inside an organization there are only cost centers. The only profit center is a customer whose check has not bounced.

Objectives can be compared to a compass bearing by which a ship navigates. A compass bearing is firm, but in actual navigation, a ship may veer off its course for many miles. Without a compass bearing, a ship would neither find its port nor be able to estimate the time required to get there.

The relevant question is not simply what shall we do tomorrow, but rather what shall we do today in order to get ready for tomorrow.

The "non-profit" institution neither supplies goods or services not controls. Its "product" is neither a pair of shoes nor an effective regulation. Its product is a changed human being. The non-profit institutions are human-change agents. Their "product" is a cured patient, a child that learns, a young man or woman grown into a self-respecting adult; a changed human life altogether.

Important decisions are risky. They should be controversial. Acclamation means that nobody has done the homework.