The productivity of people requires continuous learning, as the Japanese have taught us. It requires adoption in the West of the specific Japanese Zen concept where one learns to do better what one already does well.

When it rains manna from heaven, some people put up an umbrella. Others reach for a big spoon.

Cultivate a deep understanding of yourself - not only what your strengths and weaknesses are but also how you learn, how you work with others, what your values are, and where you can make the greatest contribution. Because only when you operate from strengths can you achieve true excellence.

You can either take action, or you can hang back and hope for a miracle. Miracles are great, but they are so unpredictable.

Balance Sheets are meaningless. Our accounting systems are still based on the assumption that 80% of costs are manual labor.

Customers pay only for what is of use to them and gives them value. Nothing else constitutes quality.

Knowledge has become the key economic resource and the dominant-and perhaps even the only-source of competitive advantage.