“Business success contains the seeds of its own destruction. The more successful you are, the more people want a chunk of your business and then another chunk and then another until there is nothing left. I believe that the prime responsibility of a manager is to guard constantly against other people’s attacks and to inculcate this guardian attitude in the people under his or her management.”
Andrew S. Grove
High Output Management (Primary source)
Andy Grove’s High Output Management, published in 1983 at the zenith of America’s transition from industrial to information economy, stands as a seminal treatise on the art and science of organizational leadership. The work’s enduring contribution lies in its audacious central premise: that management itself constitutes a production process, measurable and optimizable like any manufacturing operation, where the manager’s output equals the output of his organization.
More about “High Output Management” →
“I’m often credited with the motto, "Only the paranoid survive." I have no idea when I first said this, but the fact remains that, when it comes to business, I believe in the value of paranoia. Business success contains the seeds of its own destruction. The more successful you are, the more people want a chunk of your business and then another chunk and then another until there is nothing left. I believe that the prime responsibility of a manager is to guard constantly against other people’s attacks and to inculcate this guardian attitude in the people under his or her management.”
Andrew S. Grove
“Stressing output is the key to improving productivity, while looking to increase activity can result in just the opposite.”
— Andrew S. Grove Primary source“A fundamental rule in technology says that whatever can be done will be done.”
— Andrew S. Grove Primary source“The absolute truth is that if you don’t know what you want, you won’t get it”
— Andrew S. Grove Primary source“Remember too that your time is your one finite resource, and when you say yes to one thing you are inevitably saying no to another.”
— Andrew S. Grove Primary sourceMore quotes by Andrew S. Grove →
“You can’t get away from yourself by moving from one place to another.”
— Ernest Hemingway Primary source“I don’t play in a game where the other people are wise and I’m stupid. I look for a place where I’m wise and they’re stupid.”
— Charlie Munger Primary source“When it is useful to them, men can believe a theory of which they know nothing more than its name.”
— Vilfredo Pareto Primary source“The type of person who comes up with the brilliant idea isn’t often the best person to turn it into a business.”
— Bill Gates Primary source