Quotes and Notes

Quotes:

Good decisions come from experience, and experience comes from bad decisions.
You never learn anything when you're talking.
Spagetti Code to Ravioli Code (more modular)
Most ideas die in your head or around the table of friends or colleagues; start something
Henry Ford was heard to say, "If you do what you've always done, you'll get what you always got!"
Drucker: Culture eats strategy for breakfast (lunch)
Tell me how [and when] you'll measure me, and I'll tell you how I'll behave
What gets measured, gets done.
Nobody ever 'growed' a hog by weighin' it
Plant lots of seeds; 1% of the seeds turn into 50% of the flowers. Basic Garden Math.

Douglas Mc Gregor:
Theory X (managers believe people are lazy and must be motivated and controlled) 
Theory Y (people are basically self-motivated and need to be channeled and challenged)
http://www.accel-team.com/human_relations/hrels_03_mcgregor.html 

Dr.Eli Goldratt
"Tell me how you'll measure me, and I'll tell you how I will behave. If my measurements are not clear, no one can predict how I will behave, not even me." - Dr.Eli Goldratt, gives the direction for a metrics solution, according to a methodology called the Theory of Constraints,or TOC for short

Negotiation:
Always leave money on the table for your partners. Not only will you be very rich, you will be very happy. If you allow your partners to benefit from the deal, they always come back and want to do business with you. There will never be a shortage of opportunity.

It is the man who goes to the table to ask and squeeze for the last nickel who is never happy. Do you know why? It is because that person leaves the table, typically getting the nickel, but then hates himself for not asking for the two nickels. As a result, he is never happy.

I immediately thought about all of the people I knew from Wall Street who were very rich, but also miserable. While I may be driven to the point of driving those around me crazy, I have never let success stand in the way of my happiness. And, as I've put this advice into practice in the years since that meeting, I have also realized the value of many other forms of capital. Again, as described in Goodbye Gordon Gekko:

Capital is not only cash, stocks, and real estate. Capital is any asset that you can store and rely upon, and it comes in many forms. There is capital in economic terms, which consists of investment assets, cash, and things like equipment on a company's balance sheet. There is also human capital, which is made up of those who work with you. When you establish healthy win-win relationships with people, your capital account grows and can earn you a lot of dough. But accumulating enough of any of those can only happen if you trust that your actions are worthwhile no matter what the return.

The method of principled negotiation is based on five propositions:
    "Separate the people from the problem"
    "Focus on interests, not positions"
    "Invent options for mutual gain"
    "Insist on using objective criteria"
    "Know your BATNA (Best Alternative To Negotiated Agreement)"


NYT Article on Amazon Culture:

"It would certainly be much easier and socially cohesive to just compromise and not debate, but that may lead to the wrong decision."

Amazonians are instructed to "disagree and commit" and "to rip into colleagues" ideas, with feedback that can be blunt to the point of painful, before lining up behind a decision.

Zachman vs TOGAF Comparision

Enterprise Architecture Framework Goals
The Zachman Framework is based on the idea that the same complex thing can be described for different purposes in a different way with different types of descriptions. The main goal of Zachman framework is to enable different persons to observe the same thing from various perspectives.

The main goal of the Open Group with TOGAF is to create an industry standard. They are trying to develop a tool and repository for experience-based, practical information on how to act when it comes to the enterprise architecture processes. Also, it provides a specific technique with particular sets of architectural assets, strategies and deliverables can be integrated.

Closer Comparison of the Zachman Framework and TOGAF
TOGAF is one of the enterprise architecture software tools which provide a far-reaching approach to the planning, design, implementation and use of enterprise architecture. It has 4 domains:

• Business - specifies the business strategy, administration, organization and important business processes in the company.
• Technology - presents the software, hardware and IT infrastructure required for the setup of core applications.
• Data - presents the structure of the physical and logical data resources and related information management.
• Application - defines the model and interactions for the application frameworks to be setup to the core company's processes.

TOGAF also includes a set of tools in order to enable enterprise architecture team to picture the present and future state of the architecture. This includes:

- a list of recommended standards
- a method used for defining information as building blocks
- information on how these building blocks can fit together
- a common vocabulary

The Zachman Framework, on the other hand, is very generic and applies only to enterprises.

The Zachman Framework is a simple logical structure for organizing and classifying items developed in enterprise architecture. It uses classification methods from engineering and architecture. There are 6 viewpoints in the 6 rows of the Zachman Framework:

1. Row - The Scope (Contextual) – directed to the planner
2. Row - The Business Model (Conceptual) – directed to the owner
3. Row - The System view point (Logical) – directed to the designer
4. Row - The Technology viewpoint (Physical) – directed to the builder
5. Row - The Detailed Representations viewpoint (Out of Context) – directed to the subcontractor
6. Row - The Functioning Enterprise viewpoint

The 6 questions which they have to answer are:

- The Data aspect – What?
- The Motivation aspect – Why?
- The Network aspect – Where?
- The Time aspect – When?
- The People aspect – Who?
- The Function aspect – How?

Basically, the Zachman framework is used for descriptive representations of any complex models and it does not describe any particular EA method, technique or tool.

source: EAComposer Article

Traits of a Successful Leader - JU Dean Keynote

4 Traits of a Leader

• Persistence
• How you get back up after fall
• Optimism
• Constructive
• Respectful
• Dress well
• Be on time
• No slang
• No swear
• Teamwork 

Good Reads:

• TED Talk on Grit
• Book on Steve Jobs & Elan Musk
• George Fisher
• Money Ball
• Big Short
• Freakonomics
• Tipping Point - How little things can make a big difference
• Blink - The power of thinking without thinking

How to Win Friends & Influence People by Dale Carnegie - Notes

>>> Fundamental Techniques in Handling People
1. Don't criticize.
2. Give honest and sincere appreciation.
3. Arouse in the other person an eager want.

>>> Six ways to make people like you
1. Become genuinely interested in other people.
2. Smile.
3. Remember a person's name.
4. Be a good listener. Encourage others to talk about themselves.
5. Talk in terms of the other person's interests.
6. Make the other person feel important - and do it sincerely.

>>> Win people to your way of thinking
1. The only way to get the best of an argument is to avoid it.
2. Show respect for the other person's opinions. Never say, "You're wrong."
3. If you are wrong, admit it quickly and emphatically.
4. Begin in a friendly way.
5. Get the other person saying "yes, yes" immediately.
6. Let the other person do a great deal of the talking.
7. Let the other person feel that the idea is his or hers.
8. Try honestly to see things from the other person's point of view.
9. Be sympathetic with the other person's ideas and desires.
10. Appeal to the nobler motives.
11. Dramatize your ideas.
12. Throw down a challenge.

>>> Be a Leader
1. Begin with praise and honest appreciation.
2. Call attention to people's mistakes indirectly.
3. Talk about your own mistakes before criticizing the other person.
4. Ask questions instead of giving direct orders.
5. Let the other person save face.
6. Praise the slightest improvement and praise every improvement.
7. Give the other person a fine reputation to live up to.
8. Use encouragement. Make the fault seem easy to correct.
9. Make the other person happy about doing the thing you suggest.

Source: Book/Internet

Innovation Quotes

1. Nothing is stronger than habit. [Ovid]

2. If you always do what you always did, you will always get what you always got. [Albert Einstein]

3. It’s tough when markets change and your people within the company don’t. [Harvard Business Review]

4. They always say time changes things, but you actually have to change them yourself. [Andy Warhol]

5. We cannot solve a problem by using the same kind of thinking we used when we created them. [A. Einstein]

6. Necessity is the mother of invention. [Anonymous]

7. Minds are like parachutes; they work best when open. [T. Dewar]

8. The reasonable man adapts himself to the world; the unreasonable one persists in trying to adapt the world to himself. Therefore all progress depends on the unreasonable man. [George Bernard Shaw]

9. There are no old roads to new directions. [The Boston Consulting Group]

10. You cannot discover new oceans unless you have the courage to lose sight of the shore. [Andre Gide]

11. Innovation is anything, but business as usual. [Anonymous]

12. The best way to predict the future is to invent it. [Alan Kay]

13. If at first the idea is not absurd, then there will be no hope for it. [A. Einstein]

14. The more original a discovery, the more obvious it seems afterwards. [Arthur Koestler]

15. A discovery is said to be an accident meeting a prepared mind. [A. von Szent-Gyorgyi]

16. Innovation is the ability to convert ideas into invoices. [L. Duncan]

17. Small opportunities are often the beginning of great enterprises. [Demosthenes]

18. Two roads diverged in a wood, and I took the one less traveled by and that has made all the difference. [Robert Frost]

19. The only way to discover the limits of the possible is to go beyond them into the impossible. [A. Clarke]

20. The key to success is for you to make a habit throughout your life of doing the things you fear. [Vincent Van Gogh]

21. The impossible is often the untried. [J. Goodwin]

22. An idea that is not dangerous is unworthy of being called an idea at all. [Oscar Wilde]

23. Ideas are useless unless used. [T. Levitt]

24. It is not how many ideas you have. It’s how many you make happen. [Advertisement of Accenture]

25. The best ideas lose their owners and take on lives of their own. [N. Bushnell]

Motivational Theories

Herzberg: Satisfiers and Dissatisfiers (mutually exclusive)
Maslow: Hierarchy of Needs (Psychological, Safety, Social, Esteem and Self-Actualization)
McCleland: Theory of Needs (Achievement, Power, Inclusion)
Equity Theory (output is compared and stabilized among employees)


http://www.netmba.com/mgmt/

Joel Barker: Vision is dreams in action

"Vision without action is just a dream. Action without vision just passes the time. Vision with action can change the world."

The past guarantees you nothing in the future if the rules change.

A paradigm is a system of rules that sets limits or boundaries, provides guidance for solving problems.  

Paradigm Effect is what may be obvious to one may be totally imperceptible to someone else, old paradigms blind us from seeing new paradigms. When paradigm shifts, everyone goes back to 0. 

Paradigm Paralysis happens when a paradigm becomes the paradigm – the only way to do something.  

Paradigm Shift when rules change fundamentally;  

Paradigm Shifters are outsiders – look for folks challenging your rules, not vested in current paradigm; 

Paradigm Pioneers bring critical mass to get adoption and have attributes of courage, intuitive judgment, commitment to long term

“What is impossible to do in your business today, but, if it could be done, would fundamentally change it for the better?” 

Strategy and Execution (Notes)

If strategy is deciding what to do, execution is all about making it happen. It’s the follow through.

The main requirements for successful execution are:

1. clear goals for everyone in the organization, that are supportive of the overall strategy; 
2. a means of measuring progress toward those goals on a regular basis; and 
3. clear accountability for that progress. Those are the basics.

Good execution requires having a “systematic way of exposing reality and acting on it”

You don’t have to be a management expert to diagnose whether an organization has a strong culture of execution. It’s usually obvious. Just sit through a couple of top management meetings, and you’ll quickly get the idea.

Strategy execution takes longer, involves more people, demands the consideration and integration of many key variables or activities, and requires an effective feedback or control system to keep a needed focus on the process of execution over time. The strategic planning stage is usually more concentrated and of shorter duration than the execution stage.

Failure to see and appreciate the interdependence or interaction among key factors — strategy, structure, incentives, controls, coordination, culture, change, etc. — is a costly mistake that detracts from strategy-execution success

Responsibility and accountability for decisions and actions must be clear and agreed upon, with areas of overlapping responsibility and need for cooperation laid out and committed to by key personnel.

It is important to design, reward and otherwise support the right behaviors, those that are vital to making strategy work, in order to create and nurture a culture of execution.

References:
http://business.financialpost.com/2013/08/08/how-to-execute-a-new-business-strategy-successfully/ 
http://guides.wsj.com/management/execution/what-are-the-keys-to-good-execution/ 

"The Art of War" - Sun Tzu (Key Points)

Strategy without tactics is the slowest route to victory. Tactics without strategy is the noise before defeat.

To be successful, one must have an intimate knowledge of themselves, their enemy, and the Terrain
So in war, the way is to avoid what is strong, and strike at what is weak.

One mark of a great soldier is that he fight on his own terms or fights not at all

The supreme art of war is to subdue the enemy without fighting

Appear weak when you are strong, and strong when you are weak.

Victorious warriors win first and then go to war, while defeated warriors go to war first and then seek to win

To know your Enemy, you must become your Enemy.

Even the finest sword plunged into salt water will eventually rust.

Thus we may know that there are five essentials for victory:

1. He will win who knows when to fight and when not to fight.
2. He will win who knows how to handle both superior and inferior forces.
3. He will win whose army is animated by the same spirit throughout all its ranks.
4. He will win who, prepared himself, waits to take the enemy unprepared.
5. He will win who has military capacity and is not interfered with by the sovereign.

Drucker on Marketing - Key Points

Whenever you see a successful business, someone once made a courageous decision.

The purpose of business is to create and keep a customer.

Business has only two functions — marketing and innovation. If marketing was done perfectly, selling would be unnecessary.

If you want something new, you have to stop doing something old.

There is nothing quite so useless, as doing with great efficiency, something that should not be done at all.

People in any organization are always attached to the obsolete - the things that should have worked but did not, the things that once were productive and no longer are.

Results are obtained by exploiting opportunities, not by solving problems.

People who don't take risks generally make about two big mistakes a year. People who do take risks generally make about two big mistakes a year.

The aim of marketing is to know and understand the customer so well the product or service fits him and sells itself.

The best way to predict your future is to create it.

The philosophy of bringing all departments together with the objective of satisfying their customers’ needs was incorporated into the very heart of marketing in what has been termed “the marketing concept”.

Creation of a customer and not profit that is the basic purpose of business. It would be disastrous to somehow overlook profit as a business necessity. Profit is not the purpose of business and that the concept of profit maximization is not only meaningless but dangerous. You must ensure profitability, but not necessarily profit maximization. Profit supplies the business with energy by supporting its two basic functions: marketing and innovation.

You can’t get “there” until you know where “there” is.

Most effective way to manage change is to create it yourself.

The most important thing in communication is hearing what isn’t said.

Quality as a feature defined wholly by the customer, not supplier. It is foolish for the seller to spend money, time, and effort in developing quality as he sees it if the buyer does not have the same definition.

The goal of the organization must come first, and everything must be done to support this goal as long as it is done with integrity.

References:
Drucker on Marketing - by William A. Cohen