Quotes About Efficiency

Shook and Verble, Managing to Learn.

Too often, failing government agencies get bigger budgets, while successful agencies have their budgets cut because government caters to those screaming the loudest, regardless of what theyre screaming about. In business, its exactly the opposite! You invest more in the most successful departments, and less in those that arent performing.

Sport is about acceleration, not top speed.

The design intention behind the current industrial infrastructure is to make an attractive product that is affordable, meets regulations, performs well enough, and lasts long enough to meet market expectations

fought, it was usually more trouble than it was

It took more paper than ever to support the paperless society.

Over time, the system will get better as long as people aren't introducing duplication behind your back. If they are, you can take steps with them short of physical violence, but that is another issue.

system will get better as long as people aren't introducing duplication behind your back. If they are, you can take steps with them short of physical violence

We may have to force people to get together in terms of picking a particular type of technology and starting to build to that technology, as opposed to everybody exercising their right to buy their own system, you know, at will.

I've overseen over 150 presidentially declared disasters. I know what I'm doing, and I think I do a pretty darn good job of it.

The first task in making a successful transition is to accelerate your learning. Effective learning gives you the foundational insights you need as you build your plan for the next 90 days. So it is essential to figure out what you need to know about your new organization and then to learn it as rapidly as you can. The more efficiently and effectively you learn, the more quickly you will close your window of vulnerability.

Focus on strained external relationships, and begin to repair them. Cut out redundant meetings, shorten excessively long ones, or improve problems with physical work spaces.

Finally, you can use the information you collect during this first-cut prioritization and planning process to sketch out an early road map. The map will give you focus, help you understand how to deploy resources and talent most efficiently,

it is essential to figure out what you need to know about your new organization and then to learn it as rapidly as you can. The more efficiently and effectively you learn, the more quickly you will close your window of vulnerability.

They put me in the job because of my skills and accomplishments," the reasoning goes. "So that must be what they expect me to do here." This thinking is destructive, because doing what you know how to do (and avoiding what you don't) can appear to work, at least for a while. You can exist in a state of denial, believing that because you're being efficient, you're being effective. You may keep believing this until the moment the walls come crashing down around you.

Devote some time to defining your learning agenda as early as possible, and return to it periodically to refine and supplement it. Efficient learning means identifying the best available sources of insight and then figuring out how to extract maximum insight with the least possible outlay of time.

Programming is a lot like construction. Imagine a contractor building a house for you without a blueprint. Yikes! You might end up with a house that has 12 bathrooms, no windows, and a front door on the second floor. Plus, it probably would cost you 10 times the estimated price. Programming is the same way. Without a plan, you'll likely struggle through the process and waste time. You might even end up with a program that doesn't quite work.

The way I describe this when talking with businesspeople is that the domain of technology is no longer in the IT department; the whole company is technology. I'm talking about all companies. If you're trying to make cars or medical devices or any kind of product at all, and you want to have new customers, technology is the fulcrum of progress in everything you're doing.

I started the business with a simple question: How can we make the process of buying a computer better? The answer was: Sell computers directly to the end customer. Eliminate the reseller's markup and pass those savings on to the customer.

A business that looks orderly says to your customer that your people know what they're doing.

Managers must clearly distinguish operational effectiveness from strategy.

El valor es la capacidad de satisfacer o rebasar las necesidades de los clientes, y también de hacerlo eficientemente.

At the most basic level, competition in health care must take place where value is actually created.

Thus a low-cost position protects the firm against all five competitive forces because bargaining can only continue to erode profits until those of the next most efficient competitor are eliminated, and because the less efficient competitors will suffer first in the face of competitive pressures.