Ego is the enemy of successful marketing. Objectivity is what’s needed.

Companies that live by the numbers, die by the numbers.

The next thing to cut back on are the meetings. Instead of talking things over, walk out and see for yourself. As Gorbachev told Reagan, “It is better to see once than to hear a hundred times.”

Categories are dividing, not combining.

There are many different ways to be first. Dell got into the crowded personal computer field by being the first to sell computers by phone.

Is alcohol a stimulant or a depressant? If you visit almost any bar and grill on a Friday night after work, you’d swear that alcohol was a stimulant. The noise and laughter are strong evidence of alcohol’s stimulating effects. Yet at 4:00 in the morning, when you see a few happy-hour customers sleeping it off in the streets, you’d swear that

There’s a relationship between market share and your position on the ladder in the prospect’s mind. You tend to have twice the market share of the brand below you and half the market share of the brand above you.

The Japanese seem to be able to admit a mistake early and then make the necessary changes. Their consensus management style tends to eliminate the ego. Since a large number of people have a small piece of a big decision, there is no stigma that can be considered career damaging. In other words, it’s a lot easer to live with “We were all wrong” than

“We’ll focus on the quality end of the market. We won’t get into the low end where the emphasis is on price.” The problem is that customers don’t believe you unless you restrict your business to high-priced products only, like Mercedes-Benz or BMW.