The dumb-manager theory of business problems just didn't hold water for me. There had to be a deeper reason why smart people would make decisions that lead to failure.
Sentiment: NEGATIVE
Most managers are just trying to survive. That's why a lot of smarter guys have been let go from Fortune 500 companies: because they came up with new ideas that no one would allow them to try.
Inability to make decisions is one of the principal reasons executives fail. Deficiency in decision-making ranks much higher than lack of specific knowledge or technical know-how as an indicator of leadership failure.
Smart companies fail because they do everything right. They cater to high-profit-margin customers and ignore the low end of the market, where disruptive innovations emerge from.
I brought one big question with me to Harvard. Why do smart companies fail?
Most businesses fail because they want the right things but measure the wrong things, and they get the wrong results.
In my experience as CEO, I found that the most important decisions tested my courage far more than my intelligence.
I'm always surprised when the corporate world does stupid things, because they're often not very stupid in hindsight.
Success in almost any field depends more on energy and drive than it does on intelligence. This explains why we have so many stupid leaders.
If I had learned more about business ahead of time, I would have been shaped into believing that it was only about finances and quality management.
There is one thing Anthony Weiner and I agree on: there are a lot of smart, hard-working people in the financial industry.
No opposing quotes found.