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…our ability to make ourselves better as individuals – to dive into more satisfying work, to foster real hopes of success, to strengthen our social connections, to become a part of something bigger – also helps us work together, longer, on more complex and pressing problems.

Competition is about creating change… the ability to recognize that the winds have shifted and to take appropriate action before you wreck your boat is crucial to the future of an enterprise.

…most CEOs… [are] in the center of a fortified palace, and the news from the outside has to percolate through layers of people from the periphery where the action is.

…misalignment between corporate statements and operational actions hints at more than the normal chaos that you have learned to live with.

The first mover and only the first mover, the company that acts while the others dither, has a true opportunity to gain time over its competitors – and time advantage, in business, is the surest way to gain market share.

…inaction might lead to a bad result for your business and that should frighten you more than anything else.

…in the case of a strategic inflection point, the sequence (of mourning) goes more as follows: denial, escape or diversion, and finally, acceptance and pertinent action.

As in many sports, timing is everything. The same action taken in business early on may do the job; taken later on, it may well fall short because it won’t be enough.

Strategic plans are statements of what we intend to do. Strategic actions are steps we have already taken or are taking which suggest our longer-term intent.

If the actions are dynamic, if top management is able to alternately let chaos reign and then rein in chaos, such a dialectic can be very productive.