Quotes About Decision-making

key challenge for managers is how to strike a balance between being decisive and being collegial

To succeed at any ambitious project, you had to assess all of the intricate ramifications of an action, weigh probabilities, share information, organize people, and more.

Apple's chief technology officer, Ellen Hancock, argued for going with Sun's UNIX-based Solaris operating system, even though it did not yet have a friendly user interface. Amelio began to favor using, of all things, Microsoft's Windows NT, which he felt could be rejiggered on the surface to look and feel just like a Mac while being compatible

Debo dejar los asuntos molestos en manos de personas objetivas.

When one has so many different people with different opinions to deal with in a new affair

one is obliged sometimes to give up some smaller points in order to obtain greater.

It is a rash man indeed who would set himself up as final arbiter on all that happened the incredible night the Titanic went down.

On one foggy, misty night, King ordered the air groups from the Lexington and Saratoga to launch simultaneously well after sunset. The chaos was predictable but, in King's mind, instructional.

Then Nimitz, being Nimitz, posted the usual watches and did the only thing that made sense to him. "On that black night somewhere in the Philippines," he later recalled, "the advice of my grandfather returned to me: 'Don't worry about things over which you have no control.' So I set up a cot on deck and went to sleep.

Other men would get to command the spear point; Nimitz would calmly and diligently manage the arm that held the spear.

Hunger and fear are excellent casuists.

To overlook extra possibilities is the fallacy of false dichotomy.

You've gotta keep control of your time, and you can't unless you say no. You can't let people set your agenda in life.

I won't close down a business of subnormal profitability merely to add a fraction of a point to our corporate returns. I also feel it inappropriate for even an exceptionally profitable company to fund an operation once it appears to have unending losses in prospect. Adam Smith would disagree with my first proposition and Karl Marx would disagree with my second; the middle ground is the only position that leaves me comfortable.

In the 54 years (Charlie Munger and I) have worked together, we have never forgone an attractive purchase because of the macro or political environment, or the views of other people. In fact, these subjects never come up when we make decisions.

Don't ask the barber whether you need a haircut.)

I could improve your ultimate financial welfare by giving you a ticket with only 20 slots in it so that you had 20 punches—representing all the investments that you got to make in a lifetime. And once you'd punched through the card, you couldn't make any more investments at all. Under those rules, you'd really think carefully about what you did and you'd be forced to load up on what you'd really thought about. So you'd do so much better.

The difference between successful people and very successful people is that very successful people say no to almost everything.

Furthermore, we do not think so-called EBITDA (earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization) is a meaningful measure of performance. Managements that dismiss the importance of depreciation - and emphasize cash flow or EBITDA - are apt to make faulty decisions, and you should keep that in mind as you make your own investment decisions

Regardless of the impact upon immediately reportable earnings, we would rather buy 10% of Wonderful Business T at X per share than 100% of T at 2x per share. Most corporate managers prefer just the reverse.

Our basic principle is that if you want to shoot rare, fast-moving elephants, you should always carry a loaded gun. p217

But we will never allow Berkshire to become some monolith that is overrun with committees, budget presentations and multiple layers of management. Instead, we plan to operate as a collection of separately-managed medium-sized and large businesses, most of whose decision-making occurs at the operating level. Charlie and I will limit ourselves to allocating capital, controlling enterprise risk, choosing managers and setting their compensation.

The difference between successful people and really successful people is that really successful people say no to almost everything

A cumulation of small managerial stupidities will produce a major stupidity—not a major triumph.