Quotes in leadership

There are four prongs of quality and four ways to improve quality of product and service:

- Innovation in product and service
- Innovation in process
- Improvement of existing product and service
- Improvement of existing process

The common mistake is the supposition that quality is ensured by No. 4, improvement of process, that operations going off without blemish on the factory floor, in the bank, in the hotel will ensure quality. Good operations are essential, yet they do not ensure quality. Quality is made in the boardroom.

A bank that failed last week may have had excellent operations— speed at the tellers’ windows with few mistakes; few mistakes in bank statements; likewise in the calculation of interest and of penalties and loans. The cause of failure at the bank was bad management, not operations.

There are three kinds of leaders. Those that tell you what to do. Those that allow you to do what you want. And Lean leaders that come down to the work and help you figure it out.

Does a security guard empower the CEO to enter the building?

You manage things; you lead people.

Managers must see themselves as experimenters who lead learning, not dictators who impose control.

Don't worry about people stealing an idea. If it's original, you will have to ram it down their throats.

Top management should publish a resolution that no one will lose his job for contribution to quality and productivity.

Long-term commitment to new learning and new philosophy is required of any management that seeks transformation. The timid and the fainthearted, and people that expect quick results, are doomed to disappointment.

So much of what we call management consists in making it difficult for people to work.

Profit in business comes from repeat customers, customers that boast about your product and service, and that bring friends with them.