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

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.

Every American deserves to live in freedom, to have his or her privacy respected and a chance to go as far as their ability and effort will take them - regardless of race, gender, ethnicity or economic circumstances.

Never underestimate a child's ability to get into more trouble.

We have developed this unbelievable ability to deny. We have to. If we didn't, we'd go crazy.

To know how to hide one's ability is great skill.

It is the ability to take a joke, not make one, that proves you have a sense of humor.

The ability to deal with people is as purchasable a commodity as sugar or coffee and I will pay more for that ability than for any other under the sun.

Handcuffing the ability of states and localities to develop clean fuels in the cheapest possible way, using local resources, is not sound or sensible policy.

I realised from a very early age that God gave me a gift, and that gift was to run, and I wanted to use it to the best of my ability.

My vocal ability is very limited, but I'm fortunate in that I can write the songs around my vocal limitations.

The key to Operations at Wal-Mart is their ability to maintain the highest standards while at the same time getting things done with lockstep execution.

The test of a first-rate intelligence is the ability to hold two opposed ideas in mind at the same time and still retain the ability to function.

The Stones are a different kind of group. I realized that when I joined them. It's not really so much their musical ability, it's just they have a certain kind of style and attitude which is unique.

I liked his ability to deal with a lot of the negativity that surrounded him. Even though he was in a world that he didn't want to be in, he still saw the bigger picture.

We have the most flexible and adaptive economy. Making sure we sustain the ability of the American economy to perform well is really the priority of economic policy.

The system that enables the most people to earn the most success is free enterprise, by matching up people's skills, interests, and abilities. In contrast, redistribution simply spreads money around. Even worse, it attenuates the ability to earn success by perverting economic incentives.

Excellence is the unlimited ability to improve the quality of what you have to offer.

War should be the only study of a prince. He should consider peace only as a breathing-time, which gives him leisure to contrive, and furnishes as ability to execute, military plans.