It is management's job to direct the efforts of all components toward the aim of the system. The first step is clarification: everyone in the organization must understand the aim of the system, and how to direct his efforts toward it. Everyone must understand the damage and loss to the whole organization from a team that seeks to become a selfish, independent, profit center.

Retroactive management emphasizes the bottom line.

The only useful function of a statistician is to make predictions, and thus to provide a basis for action.

Knowledge is theory. We should be thankful if action of management is based on theory. Knowledge has temporal spread. Information is not knowledge. The world is drowning in information but is slow in acquisition of knowledge. There is no substitute for knowledge.

A man who knows not his limitations is of no use to anyone.

The most basic problem is that performance appraisals often don't accurately assess performance.

We must understand variation.