It is commonly believed that innovations create changes - but few ever do. Successful innovations exploit changes that have already happened.

Most of what we call management consists of making it difficult for people to get their work done.

Effective innovations start small. They are not grandiose. They try to do one specific thing.

Adequacy is the enemy of excellence.

Few relationships are as critical to the business enterprise as the relationship to the government. Managers have responsibility for this relationship as part of their responsibility to the enterprise itself. It is an area of social impact of the business. To a large extent the relationship to government results from what businesses do or fail to do.

An institution which is financed by a budget - or which enjoys a monopoly which the customer cannot escape - is rewarded for what it deserves rather than what it earns. It is paid for 'good intentions' and 'programs'. It is paid for not alienating important constituents rather than satisfying any one group. It is misdirected by the way it is being paid into defining performance and results as what will produce the budget rather than as what will produce contribution.

The leader sees leadership as responsibility rather than as rank and privilege.