Billions are wasted on ineffective philanthropy. Philanthropy is decades behind business in applying rigorous thinking to the use of money.

The company without a strategy is willing to try anything.

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

The ability to change constantly and effectively is made easier by high-level continuity.

Sound strategy starts with having the right goal.

Strategy is about making choices, trade-offs; it's about deliberately choosing to be different.

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.

The chief strategist of an organization has to be the leader - the CEO.

A strategy delineates a territory in which a company seeks to be unique.

Finally, strategy must have continuity. It can't be constantly reinvented.

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

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.

Change brings opportunities. On the other hand, change can be confusing.

Companies operating in urban communities have a tremendous ripple effect.

The best CEOs I know are teachers, and at the core of what they teach is strategy.

The essence of strategy is that you must set limits on what you're trying to accomplish.

Strategy 101 is about choices: You can't be all things to all people.

Billions are wasted on ineffective philanthropy. Philanthropy is decades behind business in applying rigorous thinking to the use of money.

The essence of strategy is choosing what not to do.

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.

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.

Innovation is the central issue in economic prosperity.

Companies understand that if their employees are sick, it's really expensive. So despite the rhetoric I hear, thank God employers are still in the health-care system.

I teach in the medical school, the School of Public Health, the Kennedy School of Government, and the Business School. And it's the best perch... because most of my work crosses boundaries.

I'm really puzzled by why people in societies find it difficult to work collaboratively together with other people in societies.

In America, the problems of poverty and low income, particularly for minorities, are disproportionately focused in the inner cities. Shining a spotlight on the businesses growing in these communities is proof that any community has the potential for entrepreneurship.

Unfortunately, I'm an engineer. I'm always thinking about, what's the task and how do I get it done? And some of my tasks are pretty broad, and pretty fuzzy, and pretty funky, but that's the way I think.

You can't have a healthy society unless you have healthy companies that are making a profit, that are employing people and that are growing.

Competitive strategy is about being different. It means deliberately choosing a different set of activities to deliver a unique mix of value.

The thing is continuity of strategic direction and continuous improvement in how you do things are absolutely consistent with each other. In fact theyre mutually reinforcing.

Good leaders need a positive agenda not just an agenda of dealing with crisis.

Good leaders need a positive agenda, not just an agenda of dealing with crisis.

Natural resources are so vast that no single individual or business is going to protect them; they don't have an incentive to.

The bronze powder business, however, no longer required my personal attention, and was well managed by those I had chosen as the guardians of a secret, which was long and honourably kept.

I have done things politically, and I've been running a business at the same time, but I sort of joke that to some extent I do more than most legislators have done in their whole careers, and I've been doing it as a part-time job.

Howard Hughes himself was a regular at the restaurant, and in a way it became his headquarters, too. Howard had recently relocated to Las Vegas, so when he wanted to do business in Los Angeles, he went into the back of our restaurant to use the telephone.

Prosperous farmers mean more employment, more prosperity for the workers and the business men of every industrial area in the whole country.

My parents were amazing people who had no business being together - and they knew it.

We mean by "politics" the people's business - the most important business there is.

Slovakia's joining the OECD in 1999 is totally dependent on meeting economic reforms required such as transparency and legislation that permits fair and open conduct of trade and business.

The way the business things work in Russia is you have to meet people, you have to go through a certain amount of etiquette and business things are done just simply by a shake of the hand and whether they like you or not.

I make no claim to being a business genius. You can make so much money in this business that it loses its value.

It costs a great deal of money to do a musical, and the more money involved, the more big business influences the artform.

It's a very hard and competitive business in which you have to fight every day in order to impose yourself.

I know the history of the record business so well because I followed Billie Holiday into the record studios. It was so primitive compared to the sophisticated business today.

Chicago kept industry, attracted new business, became the center for convention trade and transportation.

I have been, and will go on, fighting that damnable, dirty, rotten business with all the power at my command.

All business success rests on something labeled a sale, which at least momentarily weds company and customer.

I knew an actor's career goes up and down and back up again. Your standing in this business can't be your whole identity; otherwise, you're doomed.