By Joan Magretta, Simon and Schuster, Inc., 2002, O-7432-0318-6 Excellent customer-oriented book. [p23] One of the most powerful insights of modern management, however, is that there is really only one test of a job well done – a customer who is willing to pay for it.

Customers don’t care how much hard work or ingenuity goes into designing a product. Nor are they always properly impressed by genuine breakthroughs, as every new generate of entrepreneurs is destined to discover.

[p71] “The essence of strategy is choosing what not to do.” – Michael E. Porter.

[p115] Designing an organization is an exercise in frustration. Time and events will inevitably overtake the best-laid plan: One way or another, you’ll outgrow the design. You’ll erase here, and redraw there, and, because the whole is a complex system, a change in one place will show up as an unintended consequence someplace else. Organizations are always slipping out of alignment.

[p207] Respect for the individual… More than anything else, says Herb Kelleher [of Southwest Airlines], “We draft great attitudes. If you don’t have a good attitude we don’t want you, no matter how skilled you are. We can change skill levels through training. We can’t change attitude.”