All one has to do is to learn to say “no” if an activity contributes nothing. The first step toward executive effectiveness is to record actual time-use. There are executives who keep such a time long themselves. Others have their secretar…

Effective executives start with their time. “Know thyself,” the old prescription for wisdom, is almost impossibly difficult for mortal men. But everyone can follow the injunction “Know thy time” if one wants to, and be well on the road tow…

One scurvies problems by making them irrelevant because of success. Every surprise is something to be taken seriously. The entire reporting system kind of encourages the neglect of opportunities and surprises, but also it’s fairly easy to …

Performing organizations enjoy what they’re doing. Organizations have a gravity, the weight is constantly being pushed into being problem-focused, and one has to fight it all the time. Not very many organizations are good at what I call “e…

Only the fairy story ends “They lived happily ever after.” Success always obsoletes the very behavior that achieved it. It always creates new realities. It always creates, above all, its own and different problems. It is not easy for the m…

While it lasts, the niche strategy is the most profitableentrepreneurial strategy. What all niche strategies have in common is that they are unlikely to endure forever. One threat is for the niche to be outflanked, and especially by techno…

With the specialty-market strategy the innovator must createa small but profitable new market. The final niche strategy is to establish a specialty-market niche big enough to be profitable but small enough not to make it worthwhile for pot…

If the specialty skill is properly maintained the innovator is usually protected against competition. The second ecological niche is the specialty-skill strategy. Here the niche an innovator occupies is just as unique as in the tollbooth s…

The fourth major entrepreneurial strategy, occupying an ecological niche, allows an innovator to establish a virtual monopoly in a small niche market. The first niche strategy is the tollbooth strategy. Under the tollbooth strategy, the i…