Strategy Management Quotes & Sayings

ReThink culture, because it is the foundation of all strategic success. — Tony Dovale

Strategy has no value if your culture and leadership mindset are wrong — Tony Dovale

Foreign policy commands attention when it's crisis management. A street revolt breaks out in Egypt or Libya or Kiev and everyone asks, how should the president respond? Now these are important parts of America's role in the world, but they are essentially reactive and tactical. The broader challenge is to lay down a longer-term strategy that endures after the crisis of the moment. — Fareed Zakaria

Brainstorm your big idea(s). (2 hrs) Identify your product, customer, competition, and sales/marketing strategy. (2 hrs) Identify your plan for operations, management, capitalization, and finances. (4 hrs) Create a life plan. (4 hrs) Validate your business idea. (8 hrs) Type up your finished business plan. (4 hrs) Execute and follow through on your plan. — Steven Fies

management is an everyday thing. Strategy and financial reporting and planning are not. — Patrick Lencioni

We want a national emissions trading scheme, the Government does not and has rejected one for years. We want to boost the mandatory renewable energies target, the Government has failed to do that. We want a national demand side management strategy for the country to reduce electricity consumption and the Government, up until now, has done very little on that score. — Kevin Rudd

The scoreboard is strategy focused, and the dashboard is operation oriented. — Pearl Zhu

I basically see two reasons for a going public: Glencore gets access to more money. It is a way of funding your business and to finance growth. Plus: You have more liquid shares. It is easier to leave the company and redeem your shares. The 'going public' may also be an exit strategy for the top management. — Marc Rich

Creating change-agile businesses will eliminate the need for what we today call change management. — Paul Gibbons

As a multisport athlete, I was always fascinated with competition and how to win. At HBS and later at the Harvard Department of Economics, I was drawn to the field of competition and strategy because it tackles perhaps the most basic question in both business management and industrial economics: What determines corporate performance? — Michael Porter

Dream without fear, love without limits, and let your life sing its song. — Dilip Bathija

As I said before, a big part of my strategy says - and the management team I think is in agreement with this - we don't have to be out there with a lot of noise all the time. What we need to do is paint a vision for customers, promise them deliverables, and go hit at it. — Sanjay Kumar

The goals of applying scoreboard are to translate the vision and strategic planning into operational goals; communicate strategy and link it to individual performance. — Pearl Zhu

Technology has also given us greater automation that allows us to take large tasks and turn them into more manageable tasks. The pressure then comes from executive management to be "fully informed and fully engaged" in every aspect of our operation, after all, it's easier than ever to do so! This of course misses the point that those advancements free the leader from the "small" things and allows them to focus on things with bigger impact like, team member development, strategy and other proactive measures. We're missing out on the big picture if we are constantly focused on the small things. — Cameron L. Morrissey

STRATEGY, MERIT AND HARMONY CREATE SUSTAINABILITY! — Miguel Reynolds Brandao

...[I]t doesn't take an advanced degree to figure out that this education talk is less a strategy for mitigating inequality than it is a way of rationalizing it. To attribute economic results to school years finished and SAT scores achieved is to remove matters from the realm of, well, economics and to relocate them to the provinces of personal striving and individual intelligence. From this perspective, wages aren't what they are because one party (management) has a certain amount of power over the other (workers); wages are like that because the god of the market, being surpassingly fair, rewards those who show talent and gumption. Good people are those who get a gold star from their teacher in elementary school, a fat acceptance letter from a good college, and a good life when they graduate. All because they are the best. Those who don't pay attention in high school get to spend their days picking up discarded cans by the side of the road. Both outcomes are our own doing. — Thomas Frank

The notion of "business as usual" is a harmful myth. — Paul Gibbons

Our Company was participating in a management seminar in which we were taught a strategy that goes by the unlovely name of 'reverse your buts.' I did not make this up! It works like this:
Maybe you're thinking, 'I love you, but you're driving me crazy.' Instead, try thinking, 'You're driving me crazy, but I love you. Isn't it amazing how different that feels? — Emily Watts

Strategy, role-model, systems thinking, trust, relationship management, balance, etc., are all important culture change principles. — Pearl Zhu

In his work as a management consultant, Covey often asked his corporate clients to write a one-sentence answer to the question What is this organization's essential mission or purpose and what is its main strategy to accomplish that? — Bruce Feiler

Money management is the only strategy to survive in this crazy, stupid and doped financial world market. — William C. Brown

The organizational design is part of digital strategy management which needs to go neck-in-neck with performance management for improving organizational effectiveness and maturity. — Pearl Zhu

Operating divisions that manage their own long-term strategic uncertainty will most likely end up mediocre performers, avoiding high-risk bets to increase their odds of survival. In addition, since great performance demands relentless focus on a particular strategy, devoting resources - especially management time and attention - to creating options is typically beyond the capacity of an operating division. Consequently, Strategic Flexibility is not something a successful operating division can typically create for itself. Only by focusing the corporate office on the management of uncertainty can the overall corporation achieve high results (thanks to commitment-focused divisions) at lower risk (thanks to the uncertainty-focused corporate office). — Michael E. Raynor

Tyre management has always been part of the qualifying strategy and the race itself. I don't know about others; I just know that I always push as much as I can to obtain the best result possible. — Romain Grosjean

I think a very good system in a world with a lot of passive investors is one in which there are at least a few entrepreneurial investors, prepared to say what they think, prepared to propose a change in management, change in strategy, change in cost structure, capital structure. — Bill Ackman

Service is an intangible set of benefits, created by a series of activities. Over the last decade in the IT industry, the distinction between "products" and "services" is blurred, as products are positioned as services, and services are packaged as products. To blur the distinction between products and services is more of a marketing strategy and does not constitute real differentiation. Not only will the sales and pricing strategy between products and services greatly differ, but so will the management approach. Solution is not service, either. — Prafull Verma

When things go wrong, the standard management strategy is to decide who takes the blame. This should be an underling, as far down the chain as possible, but preferably with some visibility so people know management means business. — Jack McDevitt

Strategy is about shaping the future. — Max McKeown

Green light, STOP - if you want to see where you are taking the most risk, look where you are making the most money. — Paul Gibbons

Any change holds an opportunity. — Daniel Egger

Think crazily, even if others laugh at you. Act bravely, even if you are all alone. — Dilip Bathija

The smart strategist allows strategy to be shaped by events. Good reactions can make great strategy. Strategy involves competition of goals, and the risk is the difference between those goals and the ability of the organization to achieve them. So part of the risk is created by the strategy. — Max McKeown

A great strategy meeting is a meeting of minds. — Max McKeown

Most businesses would profit greatly from just applying Change Management 101 well. — Paul Gibbons

The success of strategy management undoubtedly lies in the "timely execution. — Pearl Zhu

It is time to euthanize change management. — Paul Gibbons

People are more motivated and confident when they believe they have more control over their environment. "People with low-power mindsets do less than they otherwise could," said one motivation researcher (Rigoglioso, 2008). Inviting students to have a voice in classroom decisions - where they sit, what day a test takes place, in what order units are studied, or even where a plant should be placed in the classroom - can help them develop that greater sense of control. An added benefit to this strategy could be fewer discipline issues. William Glasser suggests that power is a key need of students, and that 95% of classroom management problems happen because students are trying to fulfill that need (Ryan & Cooper, 2008, p. 85). — Larry Ferlazzo

Managing risk is very different from managing strategy. Risk management focuses on the negative-threats and failures rather than opportunities and successes. — Robert S. Kaplan

An organization has integrity - is healthy - when it is whole, consistent, and complete, that is, when its management, operations, strategy, and culture fit together and make sense. — Patrick Lencioni

Despite its pacific demeanor, tolerance is an internally unharmonious term, blending together goodness, capaciousness, and conciliation with discomfort, judgment, and aversion. Like patience, tolerance is necessitated by something one would prefer did not exist. It involves managing the presence of the undesirable, the tasteless, the
faulty - even the revolting, repugnant, or vile. In this activity of management, tolerance does not offer resolution or transcendence, but only a strategy for coping. — Wendy Brown

Managers' responsibility is to ensure that people deliver the expected results, which are the company's strategy. The company's strategy, in turn, determines its competitive advantage. So, if a manager does a poor job of motivating employees' productivity, the enterprise is a weak competitor. — Anna Stevens

Never hesitate to show your own staff that you need help. They need to be reminded how important they are to the process. In life and in business, we rely on each other to be responsible for individual tasks that benefit everyone. People sometimes forget how much interdependence there really is in a successful business. Learn the art of asking for help to empower and motivate others, and you will have learned a very powerful management strategy. — Georgette Mosbacher

Any successful hospitality operation - be it a hotel or restaurant, chain or independent, low-cost provider or luxury establishment - requires an effectively performing individual operation. You have to attract the right customers, have the service product, set the right price for your product, and provide the right level of service - all the while managing your employees the right way to achieve your goals. This requires a combination of knowledge from a variety of disciplines, and thus this section includes contributions from our faculty in human resources, management, marketing, operations, and strategy. — Michael C. Sturman

A clear mission statement describes the values and priorities of an organization. Developing a mission statement compels strategists to think about the nature and scope of present operations and to assess the potential attractiveness of future markets and activities. A mission statement broadly charts the future direction of an organization. A mission statement is a constant reminder to its employees of why the organization exists and what the founders envisioned when they put their fame and fortune at risk to breathe life into their dreams. — Fred R. David

In recognising the global problem posed by osteoporosis, WHO sees the need for a global strategy for prevention and control of osteoporosis, focusing on three major functions: prevention, management and surveillance. — Gro Harlem Brundtland

Most of us fear change. Even when our minds say change is normal, our stomachs quiver at the prospect. But for strategists and managers today, there is no choice but to change. — Robert Waterman Jr.

Corporate strategy is usually only useful if you get people engaged with helping you to make it work. — Max McKeown

Once management is on board, the sales team needs to understand the rationale behind the micromarket strategy and have simple tools that make it easy to implement. That means aligning sales coverage with opportunity and creating straightforward sales "plays" for each type of opportunity. — McKinsey Chief Marketing & Sales Officer Forum

My view is that, as management, the focus has to be on having a strategy and executing it. As you do the strategy and execution, it is important to communicate it consistently. — Uday Kotak

...for all my regard for democracy , and my embrace of consultative management, there's a lot to be said for benevolent depotism. My inclination towards that model only increased when I went on to study philosophy and politics and early civilisations. I'm happy to consult broadly where appropriate, to draw in ideas. But when it is clear the direction that must be taken, leadership is about persuading people to come on board to work together on the strategy you believe will work. Sometimes you might get them there through subtle persuasion. At other times, I might still say, as I did so often at fifteen, 'Oh, please, just shut up and let's get on with it. — Christine Nixon

Risk is a function of how poorly a strategy will perform if the 'wrong' scenario occurs. — Michael Porter

I think that intelligent forecasting (company revenues, earnings, etc.) should not seek to predict what will in fact happen in the future. Its purpose ought to be to illuminate the road, to point out obstacles and potential pitfalls and so assist management to tailor events and to bend them in a desired direction. Forecasting should be used as a device to put both problems and opportunities into perspective. It is a management tool, but it can never be a substitute for strategy, nor should it ever be used as the primary basis for portfolio investment decisions. — Peter Cundill

Data is great, but strategy is better — Steven Sinofsky

Business people need to understand the psychology of risk more than the mathematics of risk. — Paul Gibbons

Today, I think a CFO needs to be more of an operating CFO: someone who's using the financial data and the data of the company to help drive strategy, the allocation of capital, and the management of risks. — Anthony Noto

Keep strategy management and performance management synchronized to accelerate digital transformation. — Pearl Zhu

Leaders need to sacrifice "power-over" to get "power-to". — Paul Gibbons

Information is a significant component of most organizations' competitive strategy either by the direct collection, management, and interpretation of business information or the retention of information for day-to-day business processing. Some of the more obvious results of IS failures include reputational damage, placing the organization at a competitive disadvantage, and contractual noncompliance. These impacts should not be underestimated. — Institute Of Internal Auditors