Businessman

All white-collar work is project work. The single salient fact that touches all of our lives is that work is being reinvented.

Leaders understand the ultimate power of relationships.

Winners must learn to relish change with the same enthusiasm and energy that we have resisted it in the past.

If you really want to kill morale, have layoffs every two months for the next two years.

For the blue-collar worker, the driving force behind change was factory automation using programmable machine tools. For the office worker, it's office automation using computer technology: enterprise-resource-planning systems, groupware, intranets, extranets, expert systems, the Web, and e-commerce.

Business book writing for me is when some set of ideas gets stuck in my mind, I write a book about it. I haven't got a theory and I haven't got a framework.

As far as I'm concerned, the first business leader who was able to establish a cult of personality around his tenure was Lee Iacocca.

If you're not confused, you're not paying attention.

Vision is dandy, but sustainable company excellence comes from a huge stable of able managers.

I had no idea what I was doing when I wrote 'Search.' There was no carefully designed work plan. There was no theory that I was out to prove.

Mittelstand companies are incredibly focused and almost always family-run. The young men and women go through the apprenticeship system and learn that the goal is excellence.

'In Search of Excellence' - even the title - is a reminder that business isn't dry, dreary, boring, or by the numbers. Life at work can be cool - and work that's cool isn't confined to Tiger Woods, Yo-Yo Ma, or Tom Hanks. It's available to all of us and any of us.

All business success rests on something labeled a sale, which at least momentarily weds company and customer.

I think economics is about passion. Economic progress, whether it is a two-person coffee shop or whether it is Netscape, is about people with brave ideas. Because it is brave to mortgage the house, when you've got two kids, to start a coffee shop.

Good managers have a bias for action.

Statistically and emotionally, I believe that the way I can be of help to society is by doing what I know and what I've been good at.