Quotes About Strategy

the second test of strategy is often overlooked because it is not intuitive at all. A distinctive value proposition, Porter explains, will not translate into a meaningful strategy unless the best set of activities to deliver it is different from the activities performed by rivals. His logic is simple and compelling: "If that were not the case, every competitor could meet those same needs, and there would be nothing unique or valuable about the positioning.

Coalition politics, the building of bridges between disparate groups who share a common vision of how things should be, is a strategy that calls for a tough blend of clarity, compassion, and most of all the willingness to experience someone else's history.

Positive reputation management. I Googled your name, and a few obnoxious articles popu up. I work with the leading reputation management company that can backlink to the positive articles to make a "firewall" which prevents negative pieces from ranking well on Google. Your first page of Google is key as 95% never go beyond the first Google page. Let's improve this. Easy to do.

While the women talked, he did what he often did in the presence of people he didn't particularly like; he began planning Martha Q's funeral.

Rules are for children. This is war, and in war the only crime is to lose.

If you have a plan," hissed Sumael from the corner of her mouth, "now would be the time." "I have a plan," said Nothing. "Does it involve swords?" A pause. "All my plans do." "Do you have a sword?" Another. "No." "How will you succeed without one?" Muttered Sumael. A third. "Death waits for us all.

They've strengthened the walls since last year. I wouldn't fancy trying to storm the place." "Don't pretend you'd have the guts to storm the place" "I wouldn't fancy telling someone else to storm the place" "Don't pretend you'd have the guts to give the orders" "I wouldn't fancy watching you tell someone else to storm the place." "No.

It can be a fearsome weapon, patience. One that few men ever learn to use.

Mercy and weakness are the same thing in war, and there's no prize for nice behavior.

To have a good enemy, choose a friend: he knows where to strike.

Aye, well, we all play the cards we're dealt." "Some of us do. Some of us kill men with better cards and play theirs instead.

Sometimes the best plays are performed behind the scenes

There is an art, a deeply political art, of taking circumstances as they arise and attributing them to your side or the opposition, in a constant tallying of reality towards ends of which it is innocent.

Month after month, the Russians, bearing the brunt of war, had waited. The Anglo-American landing did not come until June 6, 1944, when the Russian army had already liberated most of the USSR and was driving across Poland. Many Russians had bitterly wondered whether the Allies delayed so that Russia might take the loss, and landed at last in Normandy because they could not afford to let Russians take Berlin alone.

I suppose [...] that the most convincing way to fool an enemy would be to fool a friend.

A leader needs to look beyond his own kind, needs the obedience of everyone in the Courtyard because we're surrounded by the enemy.

It is better to arm and strengthen your hero, than to disarm and enfeeble your foe.

Too many women means that men are in a good market position to enforce their preferred reproductive strategy and that strategy is likely to be one that minimizes paternal investment in favor of maternal investment.

You read a hundred military manuals you won't find the word kill they trick you into killing.

I'll tell you one thing I learned from studying History, Kitty. As soon as you see your opponents are reduced to insulting you personally, you know you're on the way to victory.

Mormons would like to cut back on American missionaries and rely more on Russians.

Turnaround or growth, it's getting your people focused on the goal that is still the job of leadership.

It would, of course, have to look like an accident.

building a network—connecting people or institutions in specific ways for specific purposes—is a far better starting point than a strategy of deterrence, cooperation, or coordination with another government.