Boris Yavitz - Collected Quotes

"A second general way to deal with uncertainty is limiting potential losses. If we are unsure what will happen, we then try to maintain a position in which we can bear the adverse results if unpredictable events turn out badly for us. [...] Contingency plans are a device for limiting losses. They provide a fallback alternative if the main goal is unattainable." (Boris Yavitz & William H Newman, "Strategy in Action", 1982)

"An essential feature of all strategic planning is a forecast of the world ahead - or, at best, a forecast of those parts of the environment that will have significant impact on the company's successes and failures. Of course, there will be a variety of uncertainties, and our strategic planning will have to deal with them. Nevertheless, forecast we must if we are to grasp full advantage of the changes that lie ahead." (Boris Yavitz & William H Newman, "Strategy in Action", 1982)

"Managers are being confronted by a wider range of external pressures that must be taken into account in their major decisions [...] includ[ing] environmental protection, employment opportunities for minorities and all sorts of disadvantaged, shielding the consumer, and conforming to increasing government regulations." (Boris Yavitz & William H Newman, "Strategy in Action", 1982)

"One important function of strategy is to counteract a tendency of professional managers to become too conservative and bureaucratic." (Boris Yavitz & William H Newman, "Strategy in Action", 1982)

"[...] strategic change is likely to call for different management techniques than continuous running of well-established business-units. [...] If effectively done, strategic management can have even greater payoffs in rough seas than in clear sailing." (Boris Yavitz & William H Newman, "Strategy in Action", 1982)

"Strategy is not a functional plan, not even a long-run one - such as a five-year marketing plan or a seven-year production plan. Rather, strategy involves the integration of all these functional plans into a balanced overall scheme. In some circumstances one function may drive the others - product development, say, may determine marketing efforts or vice versa. Nevertheless, it is company strategy that sets the priorities and weighs or minimizes the risks. An overall viewpoint is essential."  (Boris Yavitz & William H Newman, "Strategy in Action", 1982)

"Strategy is not a rationalization of what we did last year or of what appears in next year's budget. With a bit of imagination and artful wording, a statement that looks like a strategy can be written around almost any set of activities of a going concern. An actual strategy, in contrast, is a longer-term plan that sets the direction and tone of the shorter-range plans. Unless the strategy provides underlying guidance, its preparation is mere window dressing."  (Boris Yavitz & William H Newman, "Strategy in Action", 1982)

"Strategy is not a response to short-term fluctuations in operations or the environment, nor is it the response to the frequent short-term reports on, for example, sales, labor turnover, weekly output, or competitors' prices that every manager receives. Instead, strategy deals with the predetermined direction toward which these quick responses are pointed. It is concerned with the longer-term course that the ship is steering, not with the waves." (Boris Yavitz & William H Newman, "Strategy in Action", 1982)

"Strategy is not a statement of pious intentions or optimistic wishes. Merely envisioning a future world and selecting an attractive position in that world is not a strategic plan. Instead, a strategy must be feasible in terms of resources that will be mobilized, and it must identify ways by which at least some form of superiority over competitors is to be achieved."  (Boris Yavitz & William H Newman, "Strategy in Action", 1982)