Management Insights
  The  Best  Insights for Managers

Strategy Insights

“Leaders establish the vision for the future and set the strategy for getting there; they cause change. They motivate and inspire others to go in the right direction and they, along with everyone else, sacrifice to get there.”  John Kotter - [Professor]

“If GE's strategy of investment in China is wrong, it represents a loss of a billion dollars, perhaps a couple of billion dollars. If it is right, it is the future of this company for the next century.”  - Jack Welch

“However beautiful the strategy, you should occasionally look at the results.”  - Winston Churchill  [British Orator, Author and Prime Minister during World War II. 1874-1965]


“What do you want to achieve or avoid? The answers to this question are objectives. How will you go about achieving your desire results? The answer to this you can call strategy.”  - William E Rothschild

Sustaining high business performance is a product of continuous strategic alignment, - Med Yones, [President of International Institute of Management]

A strategy delineates a territory in which a company seeks to be unique.  - Michael Porter [Harvard Professor]

Billions are wasted on ineffective philanthropy. Philanthropy is decades behind business in applying rigorous thinking to the use of money. - Michael Porter [Harvard Professor]

Change brings opportunities. On the other hand, change can be confusing. - Michael Porter [Harvard Professor]

Companies operating in urban communities have a tremendous ripple effect. - Michael Porter [Harvard Professor]

Finally, strategy must have continuity. It can't be constantly reinvented. - Michael Porter [Harvard Professor]

If all you're trying to do is essentially the same thing as your rivals, then it's unlikely that you'll be very successful. - Michael Porter [Harvard Professor]

If your goal is anything but profitability - if it's to be big, or to grow fast, or to become a technology leader - you'll hit problems. - Michael Porter [Harvard Professor]

Innovation is the central issue in economic prosperity. - Michael Porter [Harvard Professor]

So companies have to be very schizophrenic. On one hand, they have to maintain continuity of strategy. But they also have to be good at continuously improving. - Michael Porter [Harvard Professor]

Sound strategy starts with having the right goal. - Michael Porter [Harvard Professor]

Strategy 101 is about choices: You can't be all things to all people. - Michael Porter [Harvard Professor]

Strategy is about making choices, trade-offs; it's about deliberately choosing to be different. - Michael Porter [Harvard Professor]

The ability to change constantly and effectively is made easier by high-level continuity. - Michael Porter [Harvard Professor]

The best CEOs I know are teachers, and at the core of what they teach is strategy. - Michael Porter [Harvard Professor]

The chief strategist of an organization has to be the leader - the CEO. - Michael Porter [Harvard Professor]

The company without a strategy is willing to try anything. - Michael Porter [Harvard Professor]

The essence of strategy is choosing what not to do. - Michael Porter [Harvard Professor]

The essence of strategy is that you must set limits on what you're trying to accomplish. - Michael Porter [Harvard Professor]

The thing is, continuity of strategic direction and continuous improvement in how you do things are absolutely consistent with each other. In fact, they're mutually reinforcing.
Michael Porter

The underlying principles of strategy are enduring, regardless of technology or the pace of change.
Michael Porter

There's a fundamental distinction between strategy and operational effectiveness.
Michael Porter

“Strategy without tactics is the slowest route to victory. Tactics without strategy is the noise before defeat.” - Sun Tzu  [Chinese General and Author, b.500 BC]

“All men can see these tactics whereby I conquer, but what none can see is the strategy out of which victory is evolved.”  Sun Tzu  [Chinese General and Author, b.500 BC]

“Thus, what is of supreme importance in war is to attack the enemy's strategy.” - Sun Tzu  [Chinese General and Author, b.500 BC]

“A satisfied customer is the best business strategy of all.”  - Michael Leboeuf

“You have to be fast on your feet and adaptive or else a strategy is useless.”
Charles de Gaulle quotes [French general, writer and statesman, 1890-1970]

“You may not be interested in strategy, but strategy is interested in you.”  -Santiz Leon Trotsky quotes [Russian Communist theorist, a leader in Russia's October Revolution in 1917. 1879-1940]

“Creative without strategy is called 'art.' Creative with strategy is called 'advertising.'”
Jef I. Richards quotes [US advertising professor]

“The experience and behavior that gets labeled schizophrenic is a special strategy that a person invents in order to live in an unlivable situation.” - R. D. Laing quotes [British psychiatrist noted for his alternative approach to the treatment of schizophrenia. 1927-1989]

“There is no development strategy more beneficial to society as a whole - women and men alike - than the one which involves women as central players.”  - Kofi Annan quotes [Ghanaian diplomat, seventh secretary-general of the United Nations, 2001 Nobel Peace Prize.]

“Real love is a pilgrimage. It happens when there is no strategy, but it is very rare because most people are strategists.” - Anita Brookner quotes [English art Historian and Author, b.1928]

“This is a decisive move that accelerates our strategy and positions us to win by offering even greater value to our customers and partners. In addition to the clear strategic benefits of combining two highly complementary organizations and product families, we can create substantial shareowner value through significant cost-structure improvements and access to new growth opportunities.” - Carly Fiorina [Executive and president of Hewlett-Packard Co. in 1999. Chairwoman in 2000. She resigned from the company Feb. 9, 2005. b.1954]

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