Managing is about nuance as much as it is about decisiveness.

That is the trouble with flying: We always have to return to airports. Thank of how much fun flying would be if we didn’t have to return to airports.

To ‘turn around’ is to end up facing the same way. Maybe that is the problem, all the turning organizations around.

It is time to recognize conventional MBA programs for what they are – or else to close them down. They are specialized training in the functions of business, not general educating in the practice of management.

Management is a curious phenomenon. It is generously paid, enormously influential, and significantly devoid of common sense.

We’re all flawed, but basically, effective managers are people whose flaws are not fatal under the circumstances. Maybe the best managers are simply ordinary, healthy people who aren’t too screwed up.

Corporations are social institutions. If they don’t serve society, they have no business existing.

If you ask managers what they do, they will most likely tell you that they plan, organise, co-ordinate and control. Then watch what they do. Don’t be surprised if you can’t relate what you see to those four words.

I describe management as arts, crafts and science. It is a practice that draws on arts, craft and science and there is a lot of craft – meaning experience – there is a certain amount of craft meaning insight, creativity and vision, and there is the use of science, technique or analysis.

Anecdotal data is not incidental to theory development at all, but an essential part of it.