♟️Strategic Management: Strategy & Tactics in Chess (Just the Quotes)

"If we assume that strategy consists in defining the object and making plans accordingly, and tactics in executing these plans, then we must look upon combination as the culmination of tactics. By combination we mean a short part of the game, within which a certain purpose is attained by force. Its sequence of moves forms a logical chain and cannot be divided up. When looked at one by one, they may seem to be purposeless or even mistakes, yet together they form an exceedingly beautiful unit. After a series of moves incomprehensible by themselves, the solution suddenly follows and their real purpose comes clearly to light. From this it follows that the aim must have already been conceived .from the first move of the combination. This is the difference between combinative and straightforward play. For a short space of time special and not general rules apply; as it were an exceptional state of things prevails." (Dr. Max Euwe, "Strategy & Tactices in chess", 1937)

"In chess we distinguish between Strategy and Tactics. Strategy is concerned with the setting of an aim and the forming of schemes. Tactics are concerned with the execution of the schemes. Strategy is abstract, tactics are concrete. Expressing it in a popular way: Strategy requires thought, tactics require observation." (Dr. Max Euwe, "Strategy & Tactices in chess", 1937)

"Notwithstanding the obviously great importance of tactics, nearly all existing manuals give greater prominence to strategica1 problems. This is principally due to two reasons: Firstly: the development of tactical capabilities is for the greater part a matter of practice and a question of routine. Secondly: the problems of tactics are so numerous and so varied in nature, that it seems an almost impossible undertaking to treat this domain systematically." (Dr. Max Euwe, "Strategy & Tactices in chess", 1937)

"We call games such as the preceeding one, in which strategy plays such an important part, positional games, in contrast to combinative games, in which the strategy is of secondary importance. One must not, however, identify strategy with positional play, for strategy is an aim and positional play represents a certain method of playing. The study of positional play teaches us the strategic lines." (Dr. Max Euwe, "Strategy & Tactices in chess", 1937)

"We have stated that strategy forms an indispensable element in the proper treatment of a game of chess; the same can be said, perhaps even with greater reason, about tactics. The chess-player who can judge a position very clearly and who can adapt his schemes to this position, will not be able to make use of these capabilities, if at the same time he is not well practised in tactics. As a rule a tactical mistake involves a much heavier punishment than a strategical one.
Nor are the conceptions of tactics and combinative play identical. One might say that tactics comprise all the moves in a game, and thus include also the combinations which occur in it." (Dr. Max Euwe, "Strategy & Tactices in chess", 1937)

"We make a difference between general and special principles of strategy. The general principles originate directly from the aim and the nature of Chess, and therefore they are constantly in force. It is, for instance, a general principle which goes without saying, that one has to procure the greatest possible freedom of action for one's men. The special principles apply only if the position shows certain peculiarities on account of which a special line of strategy has to be followed." (Dr. Max Euwe, "Strategy & Tactices in chess", 1937)

"Strategy means abstract thinking and planning, as opposed to tactics, which are the individual operations used to implement strategy. Tactics are specific; strategy is general. Tactics tend to be immediate, strategy long-term." (Bruce Pandolfini, "Weapons of Chess: An omnibus of chess strategy", 1989)

"Castling may even be unnecessary. In some cases it might be prudent to keep the king in the center, possibly not castling at all. The center is often safer than the flank in closed positions. Strategy and long-term planning assume great importance . You usually have time to maneuver against your opponent's weaknesses, something hard to do when the center is open." (Bruce Pandolfini, "Weapons of Chess: An omnibus of chess strategy", 1989)

"A weakness can be tactical or positional. A tactical weakness is one based on immediate or temporary circumstances. Given time, a tactical weakness can be defended or eliminated: protection can be added, or the threatened man moved to safety. [...] When people talk about weakness, they usually mean positional, not tactical weakness. Positional weaknesses tend to have long-term ramifications. They are not subject to the shifting situation from move to move as are tactical weaknesses. It takes more than a few moves to correct a positional weakness, if it can be done at all." (Bruce Pandolfini, "Weapons of Chess: An omnibus of chess strategy", 1989)

"The strengths, often concealed below the surface, depend on the activity and interrelationship of the pieces, and on the tactical possibilities and threats that can be generated. Bringing these latent resources to the surface requires a deep and penetrating analysis and accurate calculation." (Bruce Pandolfini, "Weapons of Chess: An omnibus of chess strategy", 1989)

"[...] events on the chessboard are by no means accidental, on the contrary: everything is linked with everything and the dynamics involved in selecting a correct strategic plan reflects, delicately but also accurately, your dynamic thinking abilities!" (Vlastimil Jansa, "Dynamics of Chess Strategy", 2003)

"Every player appreciating the aesthetics of chess dreams about games where a single main strategical plan is carried through without distraction to a successful conclusion; these should go hand in hand with the competitive aspects of chess. Such a course is very difficult because our opponent usually has his own plan, his own strategy and intentions - which are very different from ours. A flawless game won by somebody probably does not exist, a mistake must creep into the game somewhere." (Vlastimil Jansa, "Dynamics of Chess Strategy", 2003)

"However, the dynamic changes and laws should be understood, not only from the point of view of strategy and tactics but also from that of the time of the development of ideas." (Vlastimil Jansa, "Dynamics of Chess Strategy", 2003)

"Opening presents opportunities for the most complicated but also the most fantastic strategic and tactical manoeuvres. In both cases the prerequisite is an accurate rhythm, first, a slow, wait-and-see type, then, at the right moment, a rapid one with surprising turns [...] An average dancer does not have the gusto for it - nor does a chess player without a sufficient sense of dynamics!" (Vlastimil Jansa, "Dynamics of Chess Strategy", 2003)

"Strategy and tactics often work hand in glove." (Vlastimil Jansa, "Dynamics of Chess Strategy", 2003)

"The ability to think dynamically in opening strategy may also be illustrated by a mastery of transferring experience and ideas from one opening to another. Seemingly incoherent courses of the game may sometimes have much in common. And sometimes a simple comparison brings new experience, surprising findings and thoughts!" (Vlastimil Jansa, "Dynamics of Chess Strategy", 2003)

"A tactician feels at home reacting to threats and seizing opportunities on the battlefield. When your opponent has blundered, a winning tactic can suddenly appear and serve as both means and end. […] Every time you make a move, you must consider your opponent’s response, your answer to that response, and so on. A tactic ignites an explosive chain reaction, a forceful sequence of moves that carries the players along on a wild ride. You analyze the position as deeply as you can, compute the dozens of variations, the hundreds of positions. If you don’t immediately exploit a tactical opportunity, the game will almost certainly turn against you; one slip and you are wiped out. But if you seize the opportunities that your strategy creates, you’ll play your game like a Grandmaster." (Garry Kasparov, "How Life Imitates Chess", 2007)

"Against solid strategy, diversionary tactics will either be insufficient, or flawed. If they are insufficient, you can and should ignore them, continuing along your path. If they are radical enough to force you from your path, they are likely flawed in some way - unless you have blundered. Often an opponent is so eager to get you to change your course that he fatally weakens his own position in the attempt." (Garry Kasparov, "How Life Imitates Chess", 2007)

"Effective tactics result from alertness and speed, this is obvious, but they also require an understanding of all the possibilities at hand. Experience allows us to instantly apply the patterns we have successfully used in the past." (Garry Kasparov, "How Life Imitates Chess", 2007)

"In chess we see many cases of good strategy failing due to bad tactics and vice versa. A single oversight can undo the most brilliant concepts. Even more dangerous in the long run are cases of bad strategy succeeding due to good tactics, or due to sheer good fortune. This may work once, but rarely twice. This is why it is so important to question success as vigorously as you question failure." (Garry Kasparov, "How Life Imitates Chess", 2007)

"Tactics involve calculations that can tax the human brain, but when you boil them down, they are actually the simplest part of chess and are almost trivial compared to strategy." (Garry Kasparov, "How Life Imitates Chess: Making the Right Moves, from the Board to the Boardroom", 2007)

"Whereas strategy is abstract and based on long-term goals, tactics are concrete and based on finding the best move right now. Tactics are conditional and opportunistic, all about threat and defense. No matter what pursuit you’re engaged in - chess, business, the military, managing a sports team - it takes both good tactics and wise strategy to be successful." (Garry Kasparov, "How Life Imitates Chess", 2007)

"A chess hypothesis is basically the equivalent to drawing up a strategic plan. Experimentation in chess is equivalent to the moves that are found to carry out each plan. Throughout the history of chess, both the plans (the hypotheses) as well as the moves (the experiments) have been evolving (thanks to results from the practice of the game and from analyses), and this knowledge is the patrimony of professional players." (Diego Rasskin-Gutman, "Chess Metaphors: Artificial Intelligence and the Human Mind", 2009)

"Finally, chess has a science - like special attraction since it lets the player first propose hypotheses of different strategic plans that are based on the game rules and possible moves of the pieces and then refute those hypotheses after careful investigation of the different lines of play. This process is analogous to the everyday work of a scientist." (Diego Rasskin-Gutman, "Chess Metaphors: Artificial Intelligence and the Human Mind", 2009)

"Still, it is good to realize how the synthesis between strategy and tactics is established. Therefore, we must always consider the activity of the pieces on both sides. A player may have a fantastic pawn formation, control a beautiful open file and possess a strong square, but if he goes down to a direct mating attack on the other side of the board, all his strategic advantages come to naught." (Herman Grooten, "Chess Strategy for Club Players: The Road to Positional Advantage", 2009)

"tactics and strategy hold together, as it were. With tactics, a combination is a 'random picture' in the game. For example, a piece is unprotected and this can immediately be exploited. Strategy means longer-term thinking." (Herman Grooten, "Chess Strategy for Club Players: The Road to Positional Advantage", 2009)

"The problem of identifying the subset of good moves is much more complicated than simply counting the total number of possibilities and falls completely into the domain of strategy and tactics of chess as a game." (Diego Rasskin-Gutman, "Chess Metaphors: Artificial Intelligence and the Human Mind", 2009)

"Vision is a capacity to understand a position and to generate solid strategic plans. And a good base of chess knowledge is needed to understand what it means to play with brilliance or elegance." (Diego Rasskin-Gutman, "Chess Metaphors: Artificial Intelligence and the Human Mind", 2009)

"[...] we can gather that strategy and tactics are in constant conflict with each other. For example, a strategically beautiful set-up can be spoilt by an 'accidental combination' at any moment. But it is also true that a well-built-up game in most cases needs to be crowned with a tactical turn. In practice it has turned out that many players find it difficult to combine long-term play with a timely discovery of tactical finesses. Only the strongest players manage to find a kind of balance between these two components of the game." (Herman Grooten, "Chess Strategy for Club Players: The Road to Positional Advantage", 2009)

"Strategy must show us how to fight against players of our own strength and how to make progress. It must help us play a bit better this week than last week, not just by studying opening variations because, as Petrosian pointed out: 'to study opening variations without reference to the strategic concepts that develop from them in the middlegame is, in effect, to separate the head from the body." (Mihai Suba, "Dynamic Chess Strategy", 2010)

"A good strategy is one that takes into account not only the requirements of the position, but also the opponent's strategy and tactics. Strategy lies between science and art. It supports the ability to evaluate positions, recognize patterns and imagine adequate plans. Modern chess both offers and requires more 'move-to-move' combat." (Mihai Suba, "Dynamic Chess Strategy", 2010)

"Chess strategy must lose some of its grandness, some of its sentential character, must come back to earth and become practical, so that we can make it work for us move by move." (Mihai Suba, "Dynamic Chess Strategy", 2010)

"Discovering the truth about a specific variation is a trial-and-error process. A complete strategy must consider human reactions as part of it." (Mihai Suba, "Dynamic Chess Strategy", 2010)

"Dynamic strategy is not only a reconciliation of classical strategy with the new problems raised in competitive chess, but also an escape from the circle of slow manoeuvres which rarely produce more than half points. It aims to promote fighting and uncompromising chess. The history of chess shows clearly that players who are afraid of losing rarely obtain outstanding results. Dynamic strategy is an attempt to revise the standard, static, conservative opinion on what strategy should be (a collection of rules about the centre, fixed pawn structure, open files, minority attack, queen- or kingside majority, two bishops, weak pawns and squares, and the standard plans to cope with these occurrences) and highlight strategy as a continuous process dealing with the present, the near future, and the distant future of modern chess positions." (Mihai Suba, "Dynamic Chess Strategy", 2010)

"Some theoreticians define tactics as combinations with sacrifices." (Mihai Suba, "Dynamic Chess Strategy", 2010)

"Strategy places an arsenal of efficient weapons in our conscious as well as (hopefully) our subconscious mind; the better this arsenal, the less superficial the assessment of the actual and emergent set-ups. By associating the general aspects of a position with some concepts, our strategic knowledge builds the foundations for suitable plans." (Mihai Suba, "Dynamic Chess Strategy", 2010)

"Strategy should neither be imparted nor perceived as a surrogate for ultimate truth, but as an organizer which turns an amorphous mass of perceptual concepts into a collection." (Mihai Suba, "Dynamic Chess Strategy", 2010)

"Strategy shouldn't set rules to be followed blindly; nonetheless, any theory can declare its stepping-stone concepts." (Mihai Suba, "Dynamic Chess Strategy", 2010)

"The main goal of dynamic strategy is to develop the personality of a player, to discover everyone's uniqueness and turn it to good account. Social dynamism and the human personality are two assets of our day, and this is reflected in chess. Tactics and dynamics are becoming predominant in chess. (Mihai Suba, "Dynamic Chess Strategy", 2010)

"The true task of strategy is to help evaluate chess positions, their present state and their future possibilities. The ability to evaluate correctly is at least as important as tactical skill. Evaluation is, to an extent, subjective (it depends on which side of the board Tal is on!) and a strategy which claims 100% objectivity is utopian. A player must be flexible enough to adapt himself to the strategy, the strategy must be flexible enough to adapt itself to the player and both, in turn, must be flexible enough to adapt themselves to the position." (Mihai Suba, "Dynamic Chess Strategy", 2010)

"The basic functions of strategy are to help the player: to reach a superficial evaluation of the position; to understand and/ or anticipate the opponent's plan; to understand and/ or anticipate the opponent's other weapons, especially when his play doesn't seem to obey a logical plan; to establish his own plan." (Mihai Suba, "Dynamic Chess Strategy", 2010)

"In chess we use the term strategy as opposed to tactics and we assimilate it with positional play. I must show from the beginning that the use of these terms can be confusing. Strategy is not the opposite of tactics; it is the theory of tactics. It tries to clarify the general lines of tactics as well as its directions. In other words, it gives pointers for discovering plans, and plans, in their turn, direct the moves in given positions." (Mihai Suba, "Dynamic Chess Strategy", 2010)

"Appreciation of both strategy and tactics are the 'Ying and Yang' of a strong chess player. They sit side by side, in harmony with each other and you cannot hope to improve your play without working on both aspects of the game." (Adam Hunt, "Chess Strategy: Move by move", 2013)

"Chess strategy is concerned with the correct evaluation of a position and the formulation of an effective plan based upon its characteristic features. When the word 'strategy' is mentioned, people tend to jump to the conclusion that we are talking about long-term middlegame planning, and that you have to be some sort of psychic who can see the future, but that is rarely the case. Many features of a given position which are strategically important will evolve out of the opening and finish in the endgame, so it would be foolish to completely ignore these phases of the game. Plans can be short or long term, depending on how the landscape in front of you is changing as the game progresses. This is why the subject is so complex and so much material is available on it." (Adam Hunt, "Chess Strategy: Move by move", 2013)

♟️Strategic Management: Strategy (Just the Quotes)

"Everything in strategy is very simple, but that does not mean everything is very easy." (Carl von Clausewitz, "On War", 1832)

"Strategy is a system of expedients. It is more than science, it is the translation of science into practical life, the development of an original leading thought in accordance with the ever-changing circumstances." (Helmuth von Moltke, "On Strategy", 1871) 

"Strategy is concerned with the setting of an aim and the forming of schemes. Tactics are concerned with the execution of the schemes. Strategy is abstract, tactics are concrete. Expressing it in a popular way: Strategy requires thought, tactics require observation." (Dr. Max Euwe, "Strategy & Tactices in chess", 1937)

"A policy therefore might be likened to strategy, the broad, overall, long term conception which gives direction and purpose to the tactics of immediately daily operations and decisions." (Lawrence K. Frank, "National Policy for the Family", 1948)

"A natural companion to the competitive advantage is the synergy component of strategy. This requires that opportunities within the scope possess characteristics which will enhance synergy." (Igor Ansoff, "Corporate Strategy", 1965) 

"The leading attempt at a complete normative theory of planning and resource allocation is provided by the concept of 'strategy'." (Joseph L Bower, "Managing the Resource Allocation Process", 1970)

"As in war, strategic success depends on tactical effectiveness, and no degree of planning can lessen management's tactical imperatives. The first responsibility of the executive, anyway, is to the here and now. If he makes a shambles of the present, there may be no future; and the real purpose of planning - the one whose neglect is common, but poisonous - is to safeguard and sustain the company in subsequent short-run periods." (Robert Heller, "The Naked Manager: Games Executives Play", 1972)

"'Structure follows strategy' is one of the fundamental insights we have acquired in the last twenty years. Without understanding the mission, the objectives, and the strategy of the enterprise, managers cannot be managed, organizations cannot be designed, managerial jobs cannot be made productive. [...] Strategy determines what the key activities are in a given business. And strategy requires knowing 'what our business is and what it should be'." (Peter F Drucker, "Management: Tasks, Responsibilities, Practices", 1973)

"Any approach to strategy quickly encounters a conflict between corporate objectives and corporate capabilities. Attempting the impossible is not good strategy; it is just a waste of resources." (Bruce Henderson, Henderson on Corporate Strategy, 1979)

"The act of making a decision consists of selecting one course of action, or strategy, from among the set of admissible strategies." (Richard A Epstein, "The Theory of Gambling and Statistical Logic", 1977)

"The corporation without an explicit strategy will fall into the hands of politicians." (Bruce Henderson, "Henderson on Corporate Strategy", 1979)

"The essence of formulating strategy is relating a company to its environment." (Michael Porter, "Competitive Strategy", 1980)

"Coaching subordinates is a business strategy and one of the vital ways a manager makes things happen; not just in this accounting period, but over the long haul." (George S Odiorne, "How Managers Make Things Happen", 1982)

"In business as on the battlefield, the object of strategy is to bring about the conditions most favorable to one's own side, judging precisely the right moment to attack or withdraw and always assessing the limits of compromise correctly. Besides the habit of analysis, what marks the mind of the strategist is an intellectual elasticity or flexibility that enables him to come up with realistic responses to changing situations, not simply to discriminate with great precision among different shades of gray." (Kenichi Ohmae, "The Mind Of The Strategist", 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)

"Without competitors there would be no need for strategy." (Kenichi Ohmae, "The Mind of the Strategist", 1982)

"Risk is a function of how poorly a strategy will perform if the 'wrong' scenario occurs." (Michael Porter, "Competitive Advantage: Creating and Sustaining Superior Performance", 1985)

"Opportunities abound for linking productivity to business strategy." (John L Grahn, Harvard Business Review, 1986)

"The opportunities and threats existing in any situation always exceed the resources needed to exploit the opportunities or avoid the threats. Thus, strategy is essentially a problem of allocating resources. If strategy is to be successful, it must allocate superior resources against a decisive opportunity." (William Cohen, "Winning on the Marketing Front: The corporate manager's game plan", 1986)

"View thinking as a strategy. Thinking is the best way to resolve difficulties. Maintain faith in your ability to think your way out of problems. Recognize the difference between worrying and thinking. The former is repeated, needless problem analysis while the latter is solution generation." (Timothy W Firnstahl, Harvard Business Review, 1986)

"All organizations engage in the three basic activities of strategy, tactics, and logistics. Strategy defines the job. Tactics does the job. Logistics provides the resources to get the job done - not only material resources, but also manpower, funds, and data." (Robert L Siegel, 1987)

"[Successful organizations] comprehend uncertainty. They set direction, not detailed strategy. They are the best strategists precisely because they are suspicious of forecasts and open to surprise. They think strategic planning is greatas long as no one takes the plans too seriously." (Robert H Waterman, "The Renewal Factor", 1987)

"Inertial pressures prevent most organizations from radically changing strategies and structures." (Michael T Hannan, "Organizational Ecology", 1989)

"It is possible to learn strategic flexibility [...] however, that it is difficult to teach it. It is not a matter of learning a few readily grasped general principles, but of learning a lot of small, 'local' rules, each of which is applicable in a limited area. The point is not to learn how to drive a steamroller with which one can flatten all problems in the same way, but to learn the adroitness of a puppeteer, who at one time holds many strings in his hands and who is able to adapt his movements to the given circumstances in the most sophisticated ways." (Dietrich Dörner, "The Logic of Failure", Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society of London (B), 1990)

"Strategy means abstract thinking and planning, as opposed to tactics, which are the individual operations used to implement strategy. Tactics are specific; strategy is general. Tactics tend to be immediate, strategy long-term." (Bruce Pandolfini, "Weapons of Chess: An omnibus of chess strategy", 1989)

"One of the issues involved in moving strategy making down into the business organization concerns common understanding or focus. To carry out tactics, we do not need to share common objectives. But with strategy, we must interpret conditions, events, and actions in a similar manner to have any hope of creating a successful plan." (Terry Richey, "The Marketer's Visual Tool Kit", 1994)

"Sometimes strategies must be left as broad visions, not precisely articulated, to adapt to a changing environment." (Henry Mintzberg, "The Fall and Rise of Strategic Planning", Harvard Business Review, 1994) [source] 

"Strategy and tactics. Thinking and doing. Vision and execution. Whatever you call it, finding a balance between these two powerful forces of success remains a lifelong search for the best in any field: military leader, artist, baseball coach, or marketing manager." (Terry Richey, "The Marketer's Visual Tool Kit", 1994)

"Strategy making needs to function beyond the boxes to encourage the informal learning that produces new perspectives and new combinations. […] Once managers understand this, they can avoid other costly misadventures caused by applying formal techniques, without judgement and intuition, to problem solving." (Henry Mintzberg, 1994)

"The key to strategy is the ability to think forward and reason backward. We imagine where the future will take us and then build a pathway back to today. The problem lies in not knowing which of many possible futures will unfold. A Decision Tree allows you to visualize these futures and evaluate their potential impact from the future, rather than from today." (Terry Richey, "The Marketer's Visual Tool Kit", 1994)

"[…] the most successful strategies are visions, not plans. Strategic planning isn’t strategic thinking. One is analysis, and the other is synthesis." (Henry Mintzberg, "The Fall and Rise of Strategic Planning", Harvard Business Review, 1994) [source] 

"A strategy is a set of hypotheses about cause and effect. The measurement system should make the relationships (hypotheses) among objectives (and measures) in the various perspectives explicit so that they can be managed and validated. The chain of cause and effect should pervade all four perspectives of a Balanced Scorecard." (Robert S Kaplan & David P Norton, "The Balanced Scorecard", Harvard Business Review, 1996)

"But the essence of strategy is in the activities – choosing to perform activities differently or to perform different activities than rivals. Otherwise, a strategy is nothing more than a marketing slogan that will not withstand competition." (Michael E Porter, "What is Strategy?", Harvard Business Review, 1996)

"Commonly, the threats to strategy are seen to emanate from outside a company because of changes in technology or the behavior of competitors. Although external changes can be the problem, the greater threat to strategy often comes from within. A sound strategy is undermined by a misguided view of competition, by organizational failures, and, especially, by the desire to grow." (Michael E Porter, "What is Strategy?", Harvard Business Review, 1996)

"Managers must clearly distinguish operational effectiveness from strategy. Both are essential, but the two agendas are different. The operational agenda involves continual improvement everywhere there are no trade-offs. Failure to do this creates vulnerability even for companies with a good strategy. The operational agenda is the proper place for constant change, flexibility, and relentless efforts to achieve best practice. In contrast, the strategic agenda is the right place for defining a unique position, making clear trade-offs, and tightening fit. It involves the continual search for ways to reinforce and extend the company’s position. The strategic agenda demands discipline and continuity; its enemies are distraction and compromise." (Michael E Porter, "What is Strategy?", Harvard Business Review, 1996)

"Organizations need the capacity for double-loop learning. Double-loop learning occurs when managers question their underlying assumptions and reflect on whether the theory under which they were operating remains consistent with current evidence, observations, and experience. Of course, managers need feedback about whether their planned strategy is being executed according to plan-the single-loop learning process. But even more important, they need feedback about whether the planned strategy remains a viable and successful strategy - the double-loop learning process. Managers need information so that they can question whether the fundamental assumptions made when they launched the strategy are valid." (Robert S Kaplan & David P Norton, "The Balanced Scorecard", Harvard Business Review, 1996)

"Strategy is creating fit among a company’s activities. The success of a strategy depends on doing many things well - not just a few - and integrating among them. If there is no fit among activities, there is no distinctive strategy and little sustainability. Management reverts to the simpler task of overseeing independent functions, and operational effectiveness determines an organization’s relative performance."  (Michael E Porter, "What is Strategy?", Harvard Business Review, 1996)

"Strategy renders choices about what not to do as important as choices about what to do. Indeed, setting limits is another function of leadership. Deciding which target group of customers, varieties, and needs the company should serve is fundamental to developing a strategy. But so is deciding not to serve other customers or needs and not to offer certain features or services. Thus strategy requires constant discipline and clear communication. Indeed, one of the most important functions of an explicit, communicated strategy is to guide employees in making choices that arise because of trade-offs in their individual activities and in day-to-day decisions." (Michael E Porter, "What is Strategy?", Harvard Business Review, 1996)

"There's a fundamental distinction between strategy and operational effectiveness. Strategy is about making choices, trade-offs; it's about deliberately choosing to be different. Operational effectiveness is about things that you really shouldn't have to make choices on; it's about what's good for everybody and about what every business should be doing."  (Michael E Porter, "What is Strategy?", Harvard Business Review, 1996)

"You can’t judge the significance of strategic inflection points by the quality of the first version. You need to draw on your experience [...] you must discipline yourself to think things through and separate the quality of the early versions from the longer-term potential and significance of a new product or technology." (Andy Grove, 1996)

"Senior management needed to step in and make some very tough moves. [...] we also realized then that there must be a better way to formulate strategy. What we needed was a balanced interaction between the middle managers, with their deep knowledge but narrow focus, and senior management, whose larger perspective could set a context." (Andrew Grove, Only the Paranoid Survive, 1998)

"Strategy maps show the cause-and effect links by which specific improvements create desired outcomes [...] From a larger perspective, strategy maps show how an organization will convert its initiatives and resources - including intangible assets such as corporate culture and employee knowledge - into tangible outcomes." (Robert S Kaplan & David P Norton, "Having Trouble with Your Strategy? Then Map It", Harvard Business Review, 2000)

"The difference between strategy and tactics is that tactics get you down to the 'nitty-gritty' details of exactly how you are going to do the work." (James P Lewis, "Project Planning, Scheduling, and Control" 3rd Ed., 2001)

"[...] a general-purpose universal optimization strategy is theoretically impossible, and the only way one strategy can outperform another is if it is specialized to the specific problem under consideration." Yu-Chi Ho & David L Pepyne, "Simple explanation of the no-free-lunch theorem and its implications", Journal of Optimization Theory and Applications 115, 2002)

"Strategic modeling discovers what areas of the business need to be developed if the company is going to implement its corporate strategy." (Alan Chmura & J Mark Heumann, "Logical Data Modeling: What it is and How to do it", 2005)

"Strategy is about stretching limited resources to fit ambitious aspirations." (Coimbatore K Prahalad, "Don Soderquist", 2005)

"Strategy-making is an immensely complex process involving the most sophisticated, subtle, and at times subconscious of human cognitive and social processes." (Henry Mintzberg, "Strategy Safari: A Guided Tour Through The Wilds of Strategic Mangement", 2005)

"Businesses are themselves a form of design. The design of a business encompasses its strategy, organizational structure, management processes, culture, and a host of other factors. Business designs evolve over time through a process of differentiation, selection, and amplification, with the market as the ultimate arbiter of fitness [...] the three-way coevolution of physical technologies, social technologies, and business designs…accounts for the patterns of change and growth we see in the economy." (Eric D Beinhocker, "The Origin of Wealth. Evolution, complexity, and the radical remaking of economics", 2006)

"Strategy is the direction and scope of an organisation over the long term, which achieves advantage in a changing environment through its configuration of resources and competences with the aim of fulfilling stakeholder expectations." (G Johnson et al, "Exploring corporate strategy: text and cases" 8th Ed., 2007)

"The real challenge in crafting strategy lies in detecting subtle discontinuities that may undermine a business in the future. And for that there is no technique, no program, just a sharp mind in touch with the situation." (Henry Mintzberg, "Tracking Strategies: Toward a General Theory", 2007) 

"A bad strategy will fail no matter how good your information is and lame execution will stymie a good strategy. If you do enough things poorly, you will go out of business." (Bill Gates, "Business @ the Speed of Thought: Succeeding in the Digital Economy", 2009)

"Strategy is a constant reconciling of possibilities, means and ends." (Bernard Jenkin, 2010)

"A strategy coordinates action to address a specific challenge. It is not defined by the pay grade of the person authorizing the action." (Richard Rumelt, "Good Strategy/Bad Strategy", 2011)

"Any strategy that involves crossing a valley - accepting short-term losses to reach a higher hill in the distance - will soon be brought to a halt by the demands of a system that celebrates short-term gains and tolerates stagnation, but condemns anything else as failure. In short, a world where big stuff can never get done." (Neal Stephenson, "Innovation Starvation," World Policy Journal, 2011)

"Despite the roar of voices wanting to equate strategy with ambition, leadership, 'vision', planning, or the economic logic of competition, strategy is none of these. The core of strategy work is always the same: discovering the critical factors in a situation and designing a way of coordinating and focusing actions to deal with those factors." (Richard Rumelt, "Good Strategy Bad Strategy", 2011) 

"First develop a strategy that utilizes everything around you. The best way to prepare for a challenge is to cultivate the ability to call on an infinite variety of responses." (Paulo Coelho, "Aleph", 2011)

"The kernel of a strategy contains three elements: a diagnosis, a guiding policy, and coherent action." (Richard Rumelt, "Good Strategy/Bad Strategy", 2011)

"When organizations are unable to make new strategies - when people evade the work of choosing among different paths in the future - then you get vague mom-and-apple-pie goals everyone can agree on. Such goals are direct evidence of leadership's insufficient will or political power to make or enforce hard choices." (Richard Rumelt, "Good Strategy/Bad Strategy", 2011)

"An organization's strategy is simply its plan for success. It's nothing more than the collection of intentional decisions a company makes to give itself the best chance to thrive and differentiate from competitors." (Patrick Lencioni, "The Advamtage: Why Organizational Health Trumps Everything Else In Business", 2012)

"The central issue is never strategy, structure, culture, or systems. The core of the matter is always about changing the behavior of people." (John Kotter, "The Heart of Change: Real-Life Stories of How People Change Their Organizations", 2012)

"By and large, strategy comes into play when there is actual or potential conflict, when interests collide and forms of resolution are required." (Lawrence Freedman, “Strategy: A history”, 2013)

"It is hard to avoid the conclusion that while strategy is undoubtedly a good thing to have, it is a hard thing to get right. […] So what turns something that is not quite strategy into strategy is a sense of actual or imminent instability, a changing context that induces a sense of conflict. Strategy therefore starts with an existing state of affairs and only gains meaning by an awareness of how, for better or worse, it could be different." (Lawrence Freedman, “Strategy: A history”, 2013)

"You can only look so far, and so you better just keep looking frequently. That’s the most important element of strategy: You understand the direction you’re going, but you also know what you’re going to do in the next six months. Most companies will do a pretty good job many times about the direction, but then they never break it down to shorter metrics. Intel did a super job on that. When you ask why [we] succeeded, this is one of the reasons." (Les Vadasz, 2013)

"Any chief executive who hires a consultant to give them strategy should be fired." (Duff McDonald, "The Firm", 2014)

"Strategy is concerned with an organisation's direction for the future; its purpose, its ambitions, its resources and how it interacts with the environment in which it operates." (Peter Lake & Robert Drake, "Information Systems Management in the Big Data Era", 2014)

"A strategy that doesn't take into account resources is doomed to failure." (John C Maxwell, "JumpStart Your Thinking: A 90-Day Improvement Plan", 2015)

"Business strategy comes first. IT can be aligned with business provided that business strategy is commonly understood and accepted. Sometimes, this first step itself is a hurdle. Business strategy may exist in the heads of the execs but it may not be articulated or shared beyond vision, mission, and a plan for the year." (Sriram Narayan, "Agile IT Organization Design: For Digital Transformation and Continuous Delivery", 2015)

"Change strategy is, by this definition, the way a business (1) manages the portfolio of change to make sure that the parts deliver the whole business strategy, (2) creates the context for change, and (3) monitors change risk and change performance across the entire business." (Paul Gibbons, "The Science of Successful Organizational Change",  2015)

"In business, as in game theory and chess, all great strategies start with a vision of the future. In one sense, the recipe is simple: it should include a sense of where the organization should go, what customers are likely to pay for, and how the organization can offer a unique product or service that customers will buy. The devil, of course, lies in the details." (David B Yoffie & Michael A Cusumano, "Strategy Rules", 2015)

"Master strategists understand that day-to-day tactical decisions are just as important as big competitive moves. Strategy creates the playing field; tactics define how you play the game - and ultimately whether you win or survive to play another day." (David B Yoffie & Michael A Cusumano, "Strategy Rules", 2015)

"One way of managing complexity is to constrain the freedom of the parts: to hold some of those nonlinear interactions still. Businesses accomplish this with tight rules, processes, hierarchies, policies, and rigid strategies. Gathering people together under a corporate roof reduces complexity by constraining individual autonomy. The upside, of course, is collaboration, alignment of goals, and faster exchange of information." (Paul Gibbons, "The Science of Successful Organizational Change",  2015)

"Strategic coherence is more important than strategic precision in an uncertain world. It is impossible to get everything right because of market volatility, but we can ensure strategies do not collide. In large, complex organizations where many executives are empowered to launch major change, strategic incoherence can be a big problem." (Paul Gibbons, "The Science of Successful Organizational Change",  2015)

"Strategy is ineffective if it cannot be articulated in terms of day-to-day tradeoffs." (Sriram Narayan, "Agile IT Organization Design: For Digital Transformation and Continuous Delivery", 2015)

"Strategy is not for the faint of heart. Great strategists do the non-obvious, the difficult, and the counterintuitive in order to alter the competitive landscape in their favor. Often this means making big bets, whether in the form of huge financial commitments or competitive gambits, such as an all-out attack on the leaders in the field. The scale of these gambles may intimidate colleagues and partners as well as the competition. When executed skillfully, however, they deliver suitably outsized rewards." (David B Yoffie & Michael A Cusumano, "Strategy Rules", 2015)

"Strategy that takes no account of tactical practicalities is doomed, and great tactics without strategy produce incoherence and nonalignment. Despite this, the strategy-tactics dialogue happens too rarely in organizations." (Paul Gibbons, "The Science of Successful Organizational Change",  2015)

"Thinking strategically is the fun part of business. Great strategists think big thoughts about the purpose of their enterprises, the long-run visions for their firms, the big bets they plan to make, and the products, platforms, and ecosystems they hope to build. But it is not enough to think big thoughts. To become a great strategist, you must turn your vision and high-level ideas into tactics, actions, and organizations that reach the customer and fend off the competition." (David B Yoffie & Michael A Cusumano, "Strategy Rules", 2015)

"Somebody once told me, 'Manage the top line, and the bottom line will follow.' What's the top line? It's things like, why are we doing this in the first place? What's our strategy? What are customers saying? How responsive are we? Do we have the best products and the best people? Those are the kind of questions you have to focus on." (Steve Jobs, "Motivating Thoughts of Steve Jobs", 2016)

"Every strategy starts with a set of problems to be solved. The strategy itself is the set of solutions to those problems. A Logic Tree is the critical starting point for any strategy. It ensures you have defined the problem correctly and helps you enumerate the best strategic solutions." (Eben Hewitt, "Technology Strategy Patterns: Architecture as strategy" 2nd Ed., 2019)

"[...] strategy is about determining the problems and opportunities in front of you, defining them properly, and shaping a course of action that will give your business the greatest advantage. Balancing problem solving with creating and exploiting new opportunities through imagination and analysis is the cornerstone of a great strategy." (Eben Hewitt, "Technology Strategy Patterns: Architecture as strategy" 2nd Ed., 2019)

"Strategy is the cornerstone of the organization design process. If the strategy is not clear, or not agreed upon by the leadership team, there are no criteria on which to base other design decisions. Without knowing the goal, it is impossible to make rational choices along the way." (Jay R Galbraith et al, "Designing Dynamic Organizations", 2022)

"The strategy determines what types of skills, competencies, and other capabilities are required of employees and managers." (Jay R Galbraith et al, "Designing Dynamic Organizations", 2022)

"Strategy is a style of thinking, a conscious and deliberate process, an intensive implementation system, the science of insuring future success." (Pete Johnson)

"Strategy requires thought, tactics require observation." (Max Euwe)

"The normal 'cascade' strategy for implementing change is usually ineffective, because memories remain embedded in the way the organization works after the change. This applies particularly if the change relates to the culture rather than to work practices or systems." (Dick Beckhard)

♟️Strategic Management: Technology (Just the Quotes)

"The decision which achieves organization objectives must be both (1) technologically sound and (2) carried out by people. If we lose sight of the second requirement or if we assume naively that people can be made to carry out whatever decisions are technically sound we run the risk of decreasing rather than increasing the effectiveness of the organization." (Douglas McGregor, "The Human Side of Enterprise", 1960)

"Technological invention and innovation are the business of engineering. They are embodied in engineering change." (Daniel V DeSimone & Hardy Cross, "Education for Innovation", 1968)

"Above all, innovation is not invention. It is a term of economics rather than of technology. [...] The measure of innovation is the impact on the environment. [...] To manage innovation, a manager has to be at least literate with respect to the dynamics of innovation." (Peter F Drucker, "People and Performance", 1977)

"No matter how high or how excellent technology may be and how much capital may be accumulated, unless the group of human beings which comprise the enterprise works together toward one unified goal, the enterprise is sure to go down the path of decline." (Takashi Ishihara, Cherry Blossoms and Robotics, 1983)

"With the changes in technological complexity, especially in information technology, the leadership task has changed. Leadership in a networked organization is a fundamentally different thing from leadership in a traditional hierarchy." (Edgar Schein, "Organizational Culture and Leadership", 1985)

"[Computer and other technical managers] must become business managers or risk landing on the technological rubbish heap." (Jim Leeke, PC Week, 1987)

"The major problems of our work are not so much technological as sociological in nature. Most managers are willing to concede the idea that they’​​​​​​ve got more people worries than technical worries. But they seldom manage that way. They manage as though technology were their principal concern. They spend their time puzzling over the most convoluted and most interesting puzzles that their people will have to solve, almost as though they themselves were going to do the work rather than manage it. […] The main reason we tend to focus on the technical rather than the human side of the work is not because it’​​​​​​s more crucial, but because it’​​​​​​s easier to do." (Tom DeMarco & Timothy Lister, "Peopleware: Productive Projects and Teams", 1987)

"The obsession with methodologies in the workplace is another instance of the high-tech illusion. It stems from the belief that what really matters is the technology. [...] Whatever the technological advantage may be, it may come only at the price of a significant worsening of the team's sociology." (Tom DeMarco & Timothy Lister, "Peopleware: Productive Projects and Teams", 1987)

"[...] technology always fosters radical social change." (Neil Postman, "Conscientious Objections", 1988)

"In a world where routine production is footloose [...] competitive advantage lies not in one-time breakthroughs but in continual improvements. Stable technologies get away." (Robert Reich, "Tales of a New America: The Anxious Liberal's Guide to the Future", 1988)

"Now that knowledge is taking the place of capital as the driving force in organizations worldwide, it is all too easy to confuse data with knowledge and information technology with information." (Peter Drucker, "Managing in a Time of Great Change", 1995)

"The presence of an enterprise reference architecture aids an enterprise in its ability to understand its structure and processes. Similar to a computer architecture, the enterprise architecture is comprised of several views. The enterprise architecture should provide activity, organizational, business rule (information), resource, and process views of an organization." (Joseph Sarkis et al, "The management of technology within an enterprise engineering framework", Computers & Industrial Engineering, 1995)

"Commonly, the threats to strategy are seen to emanate from outside a company because of changes in technology or the behavior of competitors. Although external changes can be the problem, the greater threat to strategy often comes from within. A sound strategy is undermined by a misguided view of competition, by organizational failures, and, especially, by the desire to grow." (Michael E Porter, "What is Strategy?", Harvard Business Review, 1996)

"Management is a set of processes that can keep a complicated system of people and technology running smoothly. The most important aspects of management include planning, budgeting, organizing, staffing, controlling, and problem solving. Leadership is a set of processes that creates organizations in the first place or adapts them to significantly changing circumstances. Leadership defines what the future should look like, aligns people with that vision, and inspires them to make it happen despite the obstacles." (John P Kotter, "Leading Change", 1996) 

"Most managers are not capable of making decisions involving complex technological matters without helplots of it. [...] The finest technical people on the job should have dual role: doing technical work and advising management." (Philip W Metzger & John Boddie, "Managing a Programming Project: People and Processes", 1996)

"You can’t judge the significance of strategic inflection points by the quality of the first version. You need to draw on your experience [...] you must discipline yourself to think things through and separate the quality of the early versions from the longer-term potential and significance of a new product or technology." (Andy Grove, 1996)

"Issues of quality, timeliness and change are the conditions that are forcing us to face up to the issues of enterprise architecture. The precedent of all the older disciplines known today establishes the concept of architecture as central to the ability to produce quality and timely results and to manage change in complex products. Architecture is the cornerstone for containing enterprise frustration and leveraging technology innovations to fulfill the expectations of a viable and dynamic Information Age enterprise." (John Zachman, "Enterprise Architecture: The Issue of The Century", 1997)

"The Enterprise Architecture is the explicit description of the current and desired relationships among business and management process and information technology. It describes the 'target' situation which the agency wishes to create and maintain by managing its IT portfolio." (Franklin D Raines, 1997)

"Enterprise architecture is a family of related architecture components. This include information architecture, organization and business process architecture, and information technology architecture. Each consists of architectural representations, definitions of architecture entities, their relationships, and specification of function and purpose. Enterprise architecture guides the construction and development of business organizations and business processes, and the construction and development of supporting information systems." (Gordon B Davis, "The Blackwell encyclopedic dictionary of management information systems"‎, 1999)

"Enterprise architecture is a holistic representation of all the components of the enterprise and the use of graphics and schemes are used to emphasize all parts of the enterprise, and how they are interrelated. [...] Enterprise architectures are used to deal with intra-organizational processes, interorganizational cooperation and coordination, and their shared use of information and information technologies. Business developments, such as outsourcing, partnership, alliances and Electronic Data Interchange, extend the need for architecture across company boundaries." (Gordon B Davis," The Blackwell encyclopedic dictionary of management information systems"‎, 1999)

"The business changes. The technology changes. The team changes. The team members change. The problem isn't change, per se, because change is going to happen; the problem, rather, is the inability to cope with change when it comes." (Kent Beck, Extreme Programming Explained, 2000)

"Not finance. Not strategy. Not technology. It is teamwork that remains the ultimate competitive advantage, both because it is so powerful and so rare." (Patrick Lencioni, "The Five Dysfunctions of a Team: A Leadership Fable", 2002)

"An Enterprise Architecture is a dynamic and powerful tool that helps organizations understand their own structure and the way they work. It provides a ‘map’ of the enterprise and a ‘route planner’ for business and technology change. A well-constructed Enterprise Architecture provides a foundation for the ‘Agile’ business." (Bob Jarvis, "Enterprise Architecture: Understanding the Bigger Picture - A Best Practice Guide for Decision Makers in IT", 2003)

"Normally an EA takes the form of a comprehensive set of cohesive models that describe the structure and functions of an enterprise. An important use is in systematic IT planning and architecting, and in enhanced decision-making. The EA can be regarded as the ‘master architecture’ that contains all the subarchitectures for an enterprise. The individual models in an EA are arranged in a logical manner that provides an ever-increasing level of detail about the enterprise: its objectives and goals; its processes and organisation; its systems and data; the technology used and any other relevant spheres of interest." (Bob Jarvis, "Enterprise Architecture: Understanding the Bigger Picture - A Best Practice Guide for Decision Makers in IT", 2003)

"You need a very product-oriented culture, even in a technology company. Lots of companies have tons of great engineers and smart people. But ultimately, there needs to be some gravitational force that pulls it all together. Otherwise, you can get great pieces of technology all floating around the universe." (Steve Jobs, Newsweek, 2004)

"An enterprise architecture is a blueprint for organizational change defined in models [using words, graphics, and other depictions] that describe" (in both business and technology terms) how the entity operates today and how it intends to operate in the future; it also includes a plan for transitioning to this future state." (US Government Accountability Office, "Enterprise Architecture: Leadership Remains Key to Establishing and Leveraging Architectures for Organizational Transformation", GAO-06-831, 2006)

"Businesses are themselves a form of design. The design of a business encompasses its strategy, organizational structure, management processes, culture, and a host of other factors. Business designs evolve over time through a process of differentiation, selection, and amplification, with the market as the ultimate arbiter of fitness [...] the three-way coevolution of physical technologies, social technologies, and business designs [...] accounts for the patterns of change and growth we see in the economy." (Eric D Beinhocker, "The Origin of Wealth. Evolution, complexity, and the radical remaking of economics", 2006)

"Enterprise architecture is the organizing logic for business processes and IT infrastructure reflecting the integration and standardization requirements of a company's operation model. […] The key to effective enterprise architecture is to identify the processes, data, technology, and customer interfaces that take the operating model from vision to reality." (Jeanne W Ross et al, "Enterprise architecture as strategy: creating a foundation for business", 2006)

"Most dashboards fail to communicate efficiently and effectively, not because of inadequate technology" (at least not primarily), but because of poorly designed implementations. No matter how great the technology, a dashboard's success as a medium of communication is a product of design, a result of a display that speaks clearly and immediately. Dashboards can tap into the tremendous power of visual perception to communicate, but only if those who implement them understand visual perception and apply that understanding through design principles and practices that are aligned with the way people see and think." (Stephen Few, "Information Dashboard Design", 2006)

"Enterprise architecture is the process of translating business vision and strategy into effective enterprise change by creating, communicating and improving the key requirements, principles and models that describe the enterprise's future state and enable its evolution. The scope of the enterprise architecture includes the people, processes, information and technology of the enterprise, and their relationships to one another and to the external environment. Enterprise architects compose holistic solutions that address the business challenges of the enterprise and support the governance needed to implement them." (Anne Lapkin et al, "Gartner Clarifies the Definition of the Term 'Enterprise Architecture", 2008)

"Synergy occurs when organizational parts interact to produce a joint effect that is greater than the sum of the parts acting alone. As a result the organization may attain a special advantage with respect to cost, market power, technology, or employee." (Richard L Daft, "The Leadership Experience" 4th Ed., 2008)

"Implementing new systems provides organizations with unique opportunities not only to improve their technologies, but to redefine and improve key business processes. Ultimately, for organizations to consider these new systems successes, the post-legacy environment must ensure that business processes, client end users, and systems work together." (Phil Simon, "Why New Systems Fail: An Insider’s Guide to Successful IT Projects", 2010)

"Thorough rethinking of all business processes, job definitions, management systems, organizational structure, work flow, and underlying assumptions and beliefs. BPR’s main objective is to break away from old ways of working, and effect radical" (not incremental) redesign of processes to achieve dramatic improvements in critical areas" (such as cost, quality, service, and response time) through the in-depth use of information technology." (Elvira Rolón, "Healthcare Process Development with BPMN", 2010)

"Enterprise Architecture presently appears to be a grossly misunderstood concept among management. It is NOT an Information Technology issue. It is an ENTERPRISE issue. It is likely perceived to be an Information Technology issue as opposed to a Management issue for two reasons: (1) Awareness of it tends to surface in the Enterprise through the Information Systems community. (2) Information Technology people seem to have the skills to do Enterprise Architecture if any Enterprise Architecture is being or is to be done." (John A Zachman, 2011)

"The field of big-data analytics is still littered with a few myths and evidence-free lore. The reasons for these myths are simple: the emerging nature of technologies, the lack of common definitions, and the non-availability of validated best practices. Whatever the reasons, these myths must be debunked, as allowing them to persist usually has a negative impact on success factors and Return on Investment (RoI). On a positive note, debunking the myths allows us to set the right expectations, allocate appropriate resources, redefine business processes, and achieve individual/organizational buy-in." (Prashant Natarajan et al, "Demystifying Big Data and Machine Learning for Healthcare", 2017) 

"Standardize technology so that you may accumulate technology organically in your company." (Kaoru Ishikawa)

"The fact that standards are not revised demonstrates that your technology has stopped progressing." (Kaoru Ishikawa)

"You cannot standardize or control effectively without intrinsic technology." (Kaoru Ishikawa)

"Enterprise Architecture is not a method, principle or doctrine – It is a way of thinking enabled by patterns, frameworks, standards etc. essentially seeking to align both the technology ecosystem and landscape with the business trajectory driven by both the internal and external forces." (Daljit R Banger)

♟️Strategic Management: Cause & Effect (Quotes)

"All effects follow not with like certainty from their supposed causes." (David Hume, "An Enquiry Concerning Human Understanding", 1748)

"The first obligation of Simplicity is that of using the simplest means to secure the fullest effect. But although the mind instinctively rejects all needless complexity, we shall greatly err if we fail to recognise the fact, that what the mind recoils from is not the complexity, but the needlessness." (George H Lewes, "The Principles of Success in Literature", 1865)

"In complex systems cause and effect are often not closely related in either time or space. The structure of a complex system is not a simple feedback loop where one system state dominates the behavior. The complex system has a multiplicity of interacting feedback loops. Its internal rates of flow are controlled by nonlinear relationships. The complex system is of high order, meaning that there are many system states (or levels). It usually contains positive-feedback loops describing growth processes as well as negative, goal-seeking loops. In the complex system the cause of a difficulty may lie far back in time from the symptoms, or in a completely different and remote part of the system. In fact, causes are usually found, not in prior events, but in the structure and policies of the system." (Jay W Forrester, "Urban dynamics", 1969)

"[…] fitting lines to relationships between variables is often a useful and powerful method of summarizing a set of data. Regression analysis fits naturally with the development of causal explanations, simply because the research worker must, at a minimum, know what he or she is seeking to explain." (Edward R Tufte, "Data Analysis for Politics and Policy", 1974)

"The language of association and prediction is probably most often used because the evidence seems insufficient to justify a direct causal statement. A better practice is to state the causal hypothesis and then to present the evidence along with an assessment with respect to the causal hypothesis - instead of letting the quality of the data determine the language of the explanation." (Edward R Tufte, "Data Analysis for Politics and Policy", 1974)

"A system is a set of two or more elements that satisfies the following three conditions. (1) The behavior of each element has an effect on the behavior of the whole. (2) The behavior of the elements and their effects on the whole are interdependent. the way each element behaves and the way it affects the whole depends on how at least one other element behaves. (3) However subgroups of the elements are formed, each has an effect on the behavior of the whole and none has an independent effect on it." (Russell L Ackoff, "Creating the Corporate Future", 1981) 

"The complexities of cause and effect defy analysis." (Douglas Adams, "Dirk Gently's Holistic Detective Agency", 1987)

"Chaos demonstrates that deterministic causes can have random effects […] There's a similar surprise regarding symmetry: symmetric causes can have asymmetric effects. […] This paradox, that symmetry can get lost between cause and effect, is called symmetry-breaking. […] From the smallest scales to the largest, many of nature's patterns are a result of broken symmetry; […]" (Ian Stewart & Martin Golubitsky, "Fearful Symmetry: Is God a Geometer?", 1992)

"The multiplier effect is a major feature of networks and flows. It arises regardless of the particular nature of the resource, be it goods, money, or messages." (John H Holland, "Hidden Order - How Adaptation Builds Complexity", 1995) 

"Delay time, the time between causes and their impacts, can highly influence systems. Yet the concept of delayed effect is often missed in our impatient society, and when it is recognized, it’s almost always underestimated. Such oversight and devaluation can lead to poor decision making as well as poor problem solving, for decisions often have consequences that don’t show up until years later. Fortunately, mind mapping, fishbone diagrams, and creativity/brainstorming tools can be quite useful here." (Stephen G Haines, "The Managers Pocket Guide to Systems Thinking & Learning", 1998)

"Our simplistic cause-effect analyses, especially when coupled with the desire for quick fixes, usually lead to far more problems than they solve - impatience and knee-jerk reactions included. If we stop for a moment and take a good look our world and its seven levels of complex and interdependent systems, we begin to understand that multiple causes with multiple effects are the true reality, as are circles of causality-effects." (Stephen G Haines, "The Managers Pocket Guide to Systems Thinking & Learning", 1998)

♟️Strategic Management: Organization Charts (Just the Quotes)

"The writer has found, in analyzing and diagnosing organization and accounting work, that charts can express more on one page than is sometimes expressed in several chapters of writing, and has been the author and originator of many methods of charting industrial expressions. It is necessary, as a first step, for analytical and other purposes, to make a chart expressing all of the relations governing the organization of a business so as to show the very foundation upon which all authorities, accounting, and business transactions are based and conducted. There have been more failures scored both personally and financially for lack of these very elements in a business than by reason of any other one thing. As well try to build a house without a foundation as to try to conduct a business, especially a manufacturing business, without proper organization." (Clinton E. Woods, "Organizing a factory", 1905)

"An Organization Chart is a cross section picture covering every relationship in the bank. It is a schematic survey showing department functions and interrelations, lines of authority, responsibility, communication and counsel. Its purpose is 'to bring the various human parts of the organization into effective correlation and co-operation'." (John W Schulze, "Office Administration", 1919)

"The frame work of the entire organization should be sketched, and the particular place in the scheme of things which his department and his position occupy should be explained. Almost any one can be shown a particular location on a map. An organization chart is a map." (John W Schulze, "Office Administration", 1919)

"The most elementary aspect of administration is organization the structure of social institutions and their constituent parts, the composition of economic enterprises and their various branches, the organization of governmental agencies and their numerous departments. As it is mainly a matter of structure, organization bears the same rudimentary relationship to administration as does the science of anatomy or skeletology to the field of medicine. An administrative organization can be sketched and charted just as the human body can be physically depicted. Apart from its graphic convenience and its 'teachable' quality, however, what intrinsic relationship does organization bear to administration?" (Albert Lepawsky, "Administration: the art and science of organization and management", 1949)

"Although organization charts are useful, necessary, and often revealing tools, they are subject to many important limitations. In the first place, a chart shows only formal authority relationships and omits the many significant informal and informational relationships that exist in a living organization. Moreover, it does not picture how much authority exists at any point in the organization." (Harold Koontz & Cyril O Donnell, "Principles of Management", 1955)

"Essential to organization planning, then, is the search for an ideal form of organization to reflect the basic goals of the enterprise. This entails not only charting the main lines of organization and reflecting the organizational philosophy of the enterprise leaders (e.g., shall authority be as centralized as possible, or should the company try to break its operations down into semiautonomous product or territorial divisions?), but also a sketching out of authority relationships throughout the structure." (Harold Koontz & Cyril O Donnell, "Principles of Management", 1955)

"If charts do not reflect actual organization and if the organization is intended to be as charted, it is the job of effective management to see that actual organization conforms with that desired. Organization charts cannot supplant good organizing, nor can a chart take the place of spelling out authority relationships clearly and completely, of outlining duties of managers and their subordinates, and of defining responsibilities." (Harold Koontz & Cyril O Donnell, "Principles of Management", 1955)

"One of the tools for making organization principles work is the organization chart. Any organization which exists can be charted, for a chart is nothing more than an indication of how departments are tied together along their principal lines of authority." (Harold Koontz & Cyril O Donnell, "Principles of Management", 1955)

"Since a chart maps lines of authority, sometimes the mere charting of an organization will show inconsistencies and complexities and lead to their correction. A chart also acts as a guide for managers and new personnel in an organization, revealing how they tie into the entire structure. Charts are, therefore, not only evidences of organization planning but also road maps for decision making, and training devices for those who would learn how a company is organized." (Harold Koontz & Cyril O Donnell, "Principles of Management", 1955)

"While good charting will attempt, as far as possible, to make levels on the chart conform to levels of importance in the business enterprise, it cannot always do so. This problem can be handled by clearly spelling out authority relationships." (Harold Koontz & Cyril O Donnell, "Principles of Management", 1955)

"The relations outlined on an organization chart provide a framework within which fuller and more spontaneous human behavior takes place. The formal system may draw upon that behavior for added strength; it will in its turn be subordinated to personal and group egotism." (Philip Selznick, "Leadership in Administration: A Sociological Interpretation", 1957)

"It is probable that one day we shall begin to draw organization charts as a series of linked groups rather than as a hierarchical structure of individual 'reporting' relationships." (Douglas McGregor, "The Human Side of Enterprise", 1960)

"In some firms role relationships prescribed by the chart seemed to be of secondary importance to personal relationships between individuals. (Joan Woodward, "Industrial Organization: Theory and practice", 1965)

"Every organization structure, even a poor one, can be charted, for a chart merely indicates how departments are tied together along the principal lines of authority. It is therefore somewhat surprising to find top managers occasionally taking pride in the fact that they do not have an organization chart or, if they do have one, feeling that the chart should be kept a secret." (Harold Koontz, "Principles of management", 1968)

"[…] the organization chart will initially reflect the first system design, which is almost surely not the right one […] as one learns, he changes the design […]. Management structures also need to be changed as the system changes […]" (Fred Brooks, "The Mythical Man-Month: Essays on Software Engineering", 1975)

"An organization chart is a graphic device that uses pictorial methods to show qualitative information about an organization. [...] The organization chart can be used to show one or more of three things: (1) What the various staff positions in the organization are, how they are structurally related to each other and the span of control and chain of command within the organization. (2) What the different units of the organization are and how they are arranged and related to each other. (3) What the various functions are within the organization and how they are organized and related." (Robert Lefferts, "Elements of Graphics: How to prepare charts and graphs for effective reports", 1981)

"Every company has two organizational structures: the formal one is written on the charts; the other is the everyday living relationship of the men and women in the organization." (Harold Geneen & Alvin Moscow, "Managing", 1984)

"Organization charts and fancy titles count for next to nothing." (Colin Powell, "My American Journey", 1995)

"The premise here is that the hierarchy lines on the chart are also the only communication conduit. Information can flow only along the lines. [...] The hierarchy lines are paths of authority. When communication happens only over the hierarchy lines, that's a priori evidence that the managers are trying to hold on to all control. This is not only inefficient but an insult to the people underneath." (Tom DeMarco, "Slack: Getting Past Burnout, Busywork, and the Myth of Total Efficiency", 2001)

"Traditional organizational charts tend to institutionalize inefficiency, and misalignment of natural talents to job descriptions." (John Hoover, "Unleashing Leadership", 2005)

"Organization charts are subject to important limitations. A chart shows only formal authority relationships and omits the many significant informal and informational relationships." (Harold Koontz and Heinz Weihrich, "Essentials Of Management", 2006)

"When you accepted your job, you were not chosen solely to fill a position on the organization chart; you were chosen to fill a responsibility." (David Cottrell, "Monday Morning Mentoring: Ten Lessons to Guide You Up the Ladder", 2009)

"[…] decisions based on org-chart structure tend to optimize for only part of the organization, ignoring upstream and downstream effects. Local optimizations help the teams directly involved, but they don’t necessarily help improve the overall delivery of value to customers. Their impact might be negligent if there are larger bottlenecks in the stream of work." (Matthew Skelton, "Team Topologies: Organizing Business and Technology Teams for Fast Flow", 2019)

"However, in a highly collaborative context filled with uncertainty over outcomes, relying on the org chart as a principal mechanism of splitting the work to be done leads to unrealistic expectations." (Matthew Skelton & Manuel Pais, "Team Topologies: Organizing Business and Technology Teams for Fast Flow", 2019)

"Organizations that rely too heavily on org charts and matrixes to split and control work often fail to create the necessary conditions to embrace innovation while still delivering at a fast pace. In order to succeed at that, organizations need stable teams and effective team patterns and interactions. They need to invest in empowered, skilled teams as the foundation for agility and adaptability. To stay alive in ever more competitive markets, organizations need teams and people who are able to sense when context changes and evolve accordingly." (Matthew Skelton, "Team Topologies: Organizing Business and Technology Teams for Fast Flow", 2019

♟️Strategic Management: Methodologies (Just the Quotes)

"In strategic thinking, one first seeks a clear understanding of the particular character of each element of a situation and then makes the fullest possible use of human brainpower to restructure the elements in the most advantageous way. Phenomena and events in the real word do not always fit a linear model. Hence the most reliable means of dissecting a situation into its constituent parts and reassembling then in the desired pattern is not a step-by-step methodology such as systems analysis. Rather, it is that ultimate nonlinear thinking tool, the human brain. True strategic thinking thus contrasts sharply with the conventional mechanical systems approach based on linear thinking. But it also contrasts with the approach that stakes everything on intuition, reaching conclusions without any real breakdown or analysis." (Kenichi Ohmae, "The Mind Of The Strategist", 1982) 

"The obsession with methodologies in the workplace is another instance of the high-tech illusion. It stems from the belief that what really matters is the technology. [...] Whatever the technological advantage may be, it may come only at the price of a significant worsening of the team's sociology." (Tom DeMarco & Timothy Lister, "Peopleware: Productive Projects and Teams", 1987)

"The future prospects of management science will be much enhanced if (a) the diversity of issues confronting managers is accepted, (b) work on developing a rich variety of problem-solving methodologies is undertaken, and (c) we continually ask the question: 'What kind of issue can be managed with which sort of methodology?'." (Robert L Flood & Michael C Jackson, "Creative Problem Solving: Total Systems Intervention", 1991)

"An enterprise architecture can be thought of as a 'blueprint' or 'picture' which assists in the design of an enterprise. The enterprise architecture must define three things. First, what are the activities that an enterprise performs? Second, how should these activities be performed? And finally, how should the enterprise be constructed? Consequently, the architecture being developed will identify the essential processes performed by a virtual company, how the virtual company and the agile enterprises involved in the virtual company will perform these processes, and include a methodology for the rapid reconfiguration of the virtual enterprise." (William Barnett et al, "An architecture for the virtual enterprise", Systems, Man, and Cybernetics, 1994)

"Enterprise Engineering is not a single methodology, but a sophisticated synthesis of the most important and successful of today's change methods. 'Enterprise Engineering' first explains in detail all the critical disciplines (including continuous improvement, radical reinvention of business processes, enterprise redesign, and strategic visioning). It then illustrates how to custom-design the right combination of these change methods for your organization's specific needs." (James Martin, "The Great Transition, 1995)

" Project failures are not always the result of poor methodology; the problem may be poor implementation. Unrealistic objectives or poorly defined executive expectations are two common causes of poor implementation. Good methodologies do not guarantee success, but they do imply that the project will be managed correctly." (Harold Kerzner, "Strategic Planning for Project Management using a Project Management Maturity Model", 2001)

"EE [Enterprise Engineering] is where the business side meets IT. It is a methodology for active collaboration between business and IT during project development. When business people and IT people know how to work together, the result is faster development and higher quality." (Alan Chmura & J Mark Heumann, "Logical Data Modeling: What it is and How to do it", 2005)

"Effective project and program management involves more than strict adherence to a prescriptive methodology. Leadership skills, judgement, common sense, initiative, effective communication, negotiation skills and a broad perspective on the surrounding environment are all essential. Project and program management is a creative and collaborative process." (Peter Shergold, "Learning from Failure", 2015)

"No methodology can guarantee success. But a good methodology can provide a feedback loop for continual improvement and learning." (Ash Maurya, "Scaling Lean: Mastering the Key Metrics for Startup Growth", 2016)

"[OKRs (Objectives and Key Results): are a] management methodology that helps to ensure that the company focuses efforts on the same important issues throughout the organization." (John Doerr, "Measure what Matters", 2018)

♟️Strategic Management: Enterprise Engineering (Just the Quotes)

"Enterprise Engineering is based on the belief that an enterprise, as any other complex system can be designed or improved in an orderly fashion thus giving a better overall result than ad hoc organisation and design." (Peter Bernus et al, "Possibilities and limitations of reusing enterprise models", 1994) 

"Enterprise engineering is an integrated set of disciplines for building an enterprise, its processes, and systems." (James Martin, "The Great Transition, 1995)

"Enterprise Engineering is not a single methodology, but a sophisticated synthesis of the most important and successful of today's change methods. 'Enterprise Engineering' first explains in detail all the critical disciplines (including continuous improvement, radical reinvention of business processes, enterprise redesign, and strategic visioning). It then illustrates how to custom-design the right combination of these change methods for your organization's specific needs." (James Martin, "The Great Transition, 1995)

"Various perspectives exist in an enterprise, such as efficiency, quality, and cost. Any system for enterprise engineering must be capable of representing and managing these different perspectives in a well-defined way." (Michael Grüninger & Mark S Fox, "Benchmarking - Theory and Practice", 1995)

"Enterprise Engineering is defined as that body of knowledge, principles, and practices having to do with the analysis, design, implementation and operation of an enterprise. In a continually changing and unpredictable competitive environment, the Enterprise Engineer addresses a fundamental question: 'how to design and improve all elements associated with the total enterprise through the use of engineering and analysis methods and tools to more effectively achieve its goals and objectives' [...]" (Donald H Liles, "The Enterprise Engineering Discipline", 1996)

"There are several world view assumptions present in enterprise engineering. The first assumption is that the enterprise can be viewed as a complex system. This is necessary because systems in organizations are systems of organized complexity. Complexity is the result of the multiplicity and intricacy of man’s interaction with other components of the system. Secondly, the enterprise is to be viewed as a system of processes. These processes are engineered both individually and holistically. The final assumption is the use of engineering rigor in transforming the enterprise. The enterprise engineering paradigm views the enterprise as a complex system of processes that can be engineered to accomplish specific organizational objectives. In the Enterprise Engineering paradigm, the enterprise is viewed as a complex system of processes that can be engineered to accomplish specific organizational objectives." (Donald H Liles, "Enterprise modeling within an enterprise engineering framework", 1996)

"Enterprise Engineering is the collection of those tools and methods which one can use to design and continually maintain an enterprise." (Peter Bernus et al , (eds.), "Handbook on Enterprise Architecture", 2003)

"Enterprise architecture (EA) promotes the belief that an enterprise, as a complex system, can be designed or improved in an orderly fashion achieving better overall results than ad-hoc organisation and design. EA is a co-operative effort of designers, analysts and managers and uses enterprise models in the process [...] enterprise models carry meaning. This resulted in requirements for the enterprise engineering process, which - if not met - can limit the viability of the process. The analysis of the same factors resulted in requirements for improved Enterprise Modelling Tools." (Peter Bernus, "Enterprise models for enterprise architecture and ISO9000: 2000", 2003) 

"EE [Enterprise Engineering] is where the business side meets IT. It is a methodology for active collaboration between business and IT during project development. When business people and IT people know how to work together, the result is faster development and higher quality." (Alan Chmura & J Mark Heumann, "Logical Data Modeling: What it is and How to do it", 2005)

"Enterprise engineering is an emerging discipline that studies enterprises from an engineering perspective. The first paradigm of this discipline is that enterprises are purposefully designed and implemented systems. Consequently, they can be re-designed and re-implemented if there is a need for change. The second paradigm of enterprise engineering is that enterprises are social systems. This means that the system elements are social individuals, and that the essence of an enterprise's operation lies in the entering into and complying with commitments between these social individuals." (Erik Proper, "Advances in Enterprise Engineering II", 2009)

"Enterprise engineering is rooted in both the organizational sciences and the information system sciences. In our current understanding, three concepts are paramount to the theoretical and practical pursuit of enterprise engineering: enterprise ontology, enterprise architecture, and enterprise governance." (Erik Proper, "Advances in Enterprise Engineering II", 2009)

♟️Strategic Management: Competence (Just the Quotes)

"Every discipline develops standards of professional competence to which its workers are subject. [...] Every scientific community is a society in the small, so to speak, with its own agencies of social control." (Abraham Kaplan, "The Conduct of Inquiry: Methodology for Behavioral Science", 1964)

"A job competency is an underlying characteristic of a person in that it may be a motive, trait, skill, aspect of one’s self-image or social role, or a body of knowledge which he/she uses. The existence and possession of these characteristics may or not be known to the person. In this sense, the characteristics may be unconscious aspects of the person. Because job competencies are underlying characteristics, they can be said to be generic. A generic characteristic may be apparent in many forms of behaviour, or a wide variety of different actions." (Richard Boyatzis, "Competent Manager: A Model for Effective Performance", 1982)

"Decisions should be pushed down as far as possible, to the level of competence. This allows senior managers more time for making decisions of a more complex nature." (Robert Heller, "The Pocket Manager", 1987)

"Every person is going to have a circle of competence. And it's going to be very hard to advance that circle. [...] So you have to figure out what your own aptitudes are." (Charlie Munger, "A Lesson on Elementary, Worldly Wisdom As It Relates To Investment Management & Business. [speech at USC Business School] 1994)

"It is important here to clarify the difference between 'strategic assets' and 'core competences.' Strategic assets are assets that underpin a firm's cost or differentiation advantage in a particular market and that are imperfectly imitable, imperfectly substitutable and imperfectly tradeable. These assets also tend to be market- specific. An example would be Honda's dealer network distributing and servicing its motorbikes. On the other hand, core competences are the pool of experience, knowledge and systems, etc. that can be deployed to reduce the cost or time required in creating or expanding the stock of strategic assets." (Constantinos C Markides, "Related diversification, core competences and corporate performance", 1994) 

"Strategy is the serious work of figuring out how to translate vision and mission into action. Strategy is a general plan of action that describes resource allocation and other activities for dealing with the environment and helping the organization reach its goals. Like vision, strategy changes, but successful companies develop strategies that focus on core competence, develop synergy, and create value for customers. Strategy is implemented through the systems and structures that are the basic architecture for how things get done in the organization." (Richard L Daft, "The Leadership Experience" 4th Ed., 2008)

"Having conflicting goals, dedicating resources to unconnected targets, and accommodating incompatible interests are the luxuries of the rich and powerful, but they make for bad strategy. Despite this, most organizations will not create focused strategies. Instead, they will generate laundry lists of desirable outcomes and, at the same time, ignore the need for genuine competence in coordinating and focusing their resources. Good strategy requires leaders who are willing and able to say no to a wide variety of actions and interests. Strategy is at least as much about what an organization does not do as it is about what it does." (Richard Rumelt, "Good Strategy/Bad Strategy", 2011)

"It is important to strengthen the weakest link, to ensure all important business elements integrated and knitted into ongoing organizational capabilities and unique business competency." (Pearl Zhu, "Digital Capability: Building Lego Like Capability Into Business Competency", 2017)

"Professional knowledge and professional competence are the main attributes of leadership. Unless you know, and the men you command know that you know your job, you will never be a leader." (Sam Manekshaw) 

"While basic laws underlie command authority, the real foundation of successful leadership is the moral authority derived from professional competence and integrity. Competence and integrity are not separable." (William C Westmoreland)