In 2002, after acquiring and integrating gum-maker Adams—a…

“Executives are doers; they execute. Knowledge is useless to executives until it has been translated into deeds. But before springing into action, the executive…

— Harvard Business School Press

“In short, a customer feedback program should be viewed not as “market research” but as an operating management tool.”

— Harvard Business School Press

“When is the urgency rate high enough? From what I have seen, the answer is when about 75% of a company’s management is honestly…

— Harvard Business School Press

“they’ve also changed the nature of top management’s discussions about strategy—from “review and approve” to “debate and decide,”

— Harvard Business School Press

“By embracing decision-focused planning, companies will almost certainly find that the quantity and quality of their decisions will improve.”

— Harvard Business School Press

“Is that not what consumer research is for—to find out before the fact what is going to happen? The answer is that Detroit never…

— Harvard Business School Press

“Worried that you’re not a born leader? That you lack charisma, the right talents, or some other secret ingredient? No need: leadership isn’t about…

— Harvard Business School Press

“Management must think of itself not as producing products but as providing customer-creating value satisfactions. It must push this idea (and everything it means…

— Harvard Business School Press

“Stockdale Paradox This finding is named after Admiral James Stockdale, winner of the Medal of Honor, who survived seven years in a Vietcong POW…

— Harvard Business School Press

“Uhlaner put in place a Growth and Performance Planning Process that starts with agreement by Ballmer’s leadership team on a set of strategic themes—major…

— Harvard Business School Press

“More than anything else, this disconnect—between the way planning works and the way decision making happens—explains the frustration, if not outright antipathy, most executives…

— Harvard Business School Press

“Business-unit managers should remain involved in corporate-level strategy planning that affects their units. But a focus on issues rather than business units better aligns…

— Harvard Business School Press

“If thinking is an intellectual response to a problem, then the absence of a problem leads to the absence of thinking.”

— Harvard Business School Press

“The use of “war games” is a powerful antidote to the lack of thinking about competitors’ reactions to proposed moves. 11.”

— Harvard Business School Press

“Executives also owe it to the organization and to their fellow workers not to tolerate nonperforming individuals in important jobs. It may not be…

— Harvard Business School Press