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.

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.

Reducing the budget for Amtrak makes no sense unless the Administration is prepared to implement a reform strategy which can be supported by the budget request.

Change is not a destination, just as hope is not a strategy.

Living in the past is a Jethro Tull album, not a smart poker strategy.

The world is changing. Networks without a specific branding strategy will be killed. I envision a world of highly niched services and tightly run companies without room for all the overhead the established networks carry.

Churchill knew the importance of peace, and he also knew the price of it. Churchill finally got his voice, of course. He stressed strategy, but it was his voice that armed England at last with the old-fashioned moral concepts of honor and duty, justice and mercy.

I think the players, I put in the book for example that we should go back to wood rackets, probably they laughed at me, I'm a dinosaur, but I think that you see these great players, have even more variety and you see more strategy, there'd be more subtlety.

Our strategy is to defend ourselves against an occupying army and against settlers and settlements.

All men can see these tactics whereby I conquer, but what none can see is the strategy out of which victory is evolved.

My strategy has always been to give people just enough of me, then pull back. That way, they'll want more.

The experience and behavior that gets labeled schizophrenic is a special strategy that a person invents in order to live in an unlivable situation.

When an aggressor force continually launches attacks from a particular base of operations, it is sound military strategy to take the flight to the enemy.

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.

A country's strategy is always based on a fundamental philosophical outlook.

No one talked about the fact that in this year under the Obama administration you've seen the highest casualties in Afghanistan. And the fact that it took him almost 90 days to figure out what his strategy is going to be was absolutely appalling.

Incentives are not strategy, they are tactics. Defensive measures.

And we want to develop our strategy to partnership and friendship with the United States, which is connected with a very rich history but what is very important for our future.

Hussein has a strategy. I'm sure he'll implement that strategy, and it would be to our detriment. We're embarking on an exercise about which we know nothing.