Charisma becomes the undoing of leaders. It makes them inflexible, convinced of their own infallibility, unable to change

We all have a vast number of areas in which we have no talent or skill and little chance of becoming even mediocre. In those areas a knowledge workers should not take on work, jobs and assignments. It takes far more energy to improve from incompetence to mediocrity than it takes to improve from first-rate performance to excellence.

The final test of greatness in a CEO is how well he chooses a successor and whether he can step aside and let the successor run the company.

The enterprise, by definition, must be capable of producing more or better than all the resources that comprise it.

Education can no longer be the sole property of the state.

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

My greatest strength as a consultant is to be ignorant and ask a few questions.