The Northbound Train

"More and more companies are facing difficulties and even crises of survival that go far beyond the usual ups and downs of the economic cycle."

"What are some of the shock waves we already know about that are affecting and will affect businesses around the world?"

"The service leader is willing to put empowerment above personal power; contribution above his or her own ego satisfaction; and the needs of the team above his or her own needs for credit and acclaim."

"Although it isn't possible to reduce the rapidly changing business environment to a simple formula, we can still discern some basic realities that can get our feet back on the ground."

"Fewer and fewer workers now fall into the category of task doers, that is, those who perform tasks that are fully predesigned and require little or no added value in the form of knowledge, judgment, creativity, or strategy."

"It is this evolution in the structuring of resources and relationships that is causing havoc with many businesses, and causing confusion in the minds of many business leaders."

"Many organizations waste enormous amounts of time and precious intellectual energy trying to plan and forecast their futures."

"Planning, as it is conventionally done, has little to offer in any highly ambiguous venture."

"Customer Value Package ? the infrastructure for value creation the enterprise uses in doing business with its customers. "

"Environmental intelligence has more value than just in averting disasters."

"Quite a few organizations get themselves into painful and unproductive situations by trying to enter markets they have no business being in."

"It is a relatively rare enterprise that has freed itself from intellectual clannishness and can honor all ways of thinking and knowing."

"What kinds of assignments or opportunities are used as rewards? Are there others that serve as punishments or inducements to leave?"

"It's striking how few organizations regularly measure and assess the state of the heart, the perceptions of quality of work life on the part of the people who work there."

"Threats are created mostly by events, trends, or competitor actions."

"One of the first places to look for advantages is in customer-base analysis."

"One of the hallmarks of the next decade of business will surely be an increase in partnering among organizations."

"What is customer value? It's the "mindware" created by the hardware and software you provide."

"Think of customer value as forming a hierarchy analogous to Abraham Maslow's famous hierarchy of needs."

"Three components help to make a vision statement valid and useful for people."

"Let's develop this idea of business logic and see how we might model it so that the leaders of the organization can sort it out and make sure it works."

"Let's see how these seven components go together to form the infrastructure for delivery of customer value."

"In quite a few organizations, the planning processes wander off course somewhere and don't ever get to the gap-analysis stage."

"The more effective the thinking process is at the strategic level, the less elaborate the planning process needs to be at the tactical, operational levels."

"Not all executives are comfortable with the evangelistic role, but nearly all can offer some semblance of it just by being who they are."

"By helping each unit manager, and especially each middle manager, think of his or her unit as an enterprise within the overall enterprise, you can make the overall concept come alive in everyday work."