Quotes About Strategy

You start slow. You find the subject's limits and get him to spend some time there. He gets used to it. Before long, the limits have moved. You never take him more than a centimeter beyond. You make it feel it's his choice.

I thought of Musashi, the master swordsman, who wrote, You must think of neither victory nor of defeat, but only of cutting and killing your enemy.

When Nobel Prize–winning economist and psychologist Herbert Simon initially introduced the idea of "satisficing" in the 1950s, he suggested that when all the costs (in time, money, and anguish) involved in getting information about all the options are factored in, satisficing is, in fact, the maximizing strategy.

And the side that knew how to utilize power was the side that won.

Business is like football, Craig. If you have to knock someone down to reach the goal line, you better damn well do it, or you shouldn't put on a uniform and go out on the field in the first place.

When you planned rough, you allowed room for improvisation.

Most American-sponsored "regime change" operations have, in the end, weakened rather than strengthened American security.

modern Afghan history shows that "an ounce of nation-building prevention will be worth a pound of military-operation cure.

In the mid-1950s Winston Churchill advised his American friends to recognize that Ho Chi Minh was unbeatable, accept his victory, and try to make the best of it. This the Dulles brothers could not do—because they were Americans.

War, 46. 267. Bunyan, Intervention, 277

Had Wilhelm II backed off and curbed his dependent Austro-Hungarian ally, Nicholas II would have backed down as well.

Remember the six Ps. Perfect Planning Prevents Piss-Poor Performance.

while high trust won't necessarily rescue a poor strategy, low trust will almost always derail a good one.

people are working harder than ever, but because they lack clarity and vision, they aren't getting very far. They, in essence, are pushing a rope...with all of their might.

In the words of both Peter Drucker and Warren Bennis, "Management is doing things right; leadership is doing the right things." Management is efficiency in climbing the ladder of success; leadership determines whether the ladder is leaning against the right wall.

Management is doing things right; leadership is doing the right things." Management

Point out the potential failure paths, what not to do, but don't tell them what to do.

To begin with the end in mind means to start with a clear understanding of your destination. It means to know where you're going so that you better understand where you are now and so that the steps you take are always in the right direction.

In the words of both Peter Drucker and Warren Bennis, "Management is doing things right; leadership is doing the right things.

Management is doing things right; leadership is doing the right things." Management is efficiency in climbing the ladder of success; leadership determines whether the ladder is leaning against the right wall.

Efficient management without effective leadership is, as one individual has phrased it, "like straightening deck chairs on the Titanic." No

2: Begin with the End in Mind).

Management is doing things right; leadership is doing the right things

the more completely weekly goals are tied into a wider framework of correct principles and into a personal mission statement, the greater the increase in effectiveness will be.