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

Progress is obtained only by exploiting opportunities, not by solving problems. When you solve problems, all you do is guarantee a return to normalcy.

Whenever you see a successful business, someone once made a courageous decision.

Understanding our strengths, articulating our values, knowing where we belong -- these are also essential to addressing one of the great challenges of organizations: improving the abysmally low productivity of knowledge workers.

Nothing is less productive than to make more efficient what should not be done at all.

But innovation is more than a new method. It is a new view of the universe, as one of risk rather than of chance or of certainty. It is a new view of man's role in the universe; he creates order by taking risks. And this means that innovation, rather than being an assertion of human power, is an acceptance of human responsibility.

What you have to do and the way you have to do it is incredibly simple. Whether you are willing to do it is another matter.