Listening is not a skill; it is a discipline.

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 most common source of mistakes in management decisions is the emphasis on finding the right answer rather than the right question.

The customer rarely buys what the business thinks it sells him.

Profit for a company is like oxygen for a person. If you don't have enough of it, you're out of the game. But if you think your life is about breathing, you're really missing something.

You cannot predict the future, but you can create it.

What the customer buys and considers value is never a product. It is always utility, that is, what a product or a service does for the customer.