Managers are to information as alcoholics are to booze. They consume enormous amounts, constantly crave more, but have great difficulty in digesting their existing intake.

The first myth of management is that it exists.

Cash in must exceed cash out.

No decision in business provides greater potential for the creation of wealth (or its destruction, come to think of it) than the choice of which innovation to back.

Think before you act: it's not your money.

Either an executive can do his job or he can't.

Effective management always means asking the right question.

In getting good results team leaders become conductor rather than driver, enabling others to play the right music, not by hands-on domination of all decisions and execution, but by providing inspiration, motivation and stimulus.

The first myth of management is that it exists. The second myth of management is that success equals skill.

Management is a far more homely business than its would be scientists suggest, more closely allied to cookery than any other human activity. Like cooking, it rests on a degree of organisation and on adequate resources. But just as no two chefs run their kitchens the same way, so no two managements are the same.

Most people don't manage to the utmost of their ability because they don't want to.

If you are attempting the impossible, you will fail.

If you are doing something wrong, you will do it badly.

If sophisticated calculations are needed to justify an action, don't do it.

Never ignore a gut feeling, but never believe that it's enough.