Sublime

Last and most important, we cap our Planning Pyramid with some necessary accountability. This is the who level, where your company identifies specifically which person is accountable for which particular activity on your plan. Please note that I didn’t say you should identify who’s “responsible,” because responsibility and accountability are two qu

“If your thinking is sloppy, your business will be sloppy. If you are disorganized, your business will be disorganized. If you are greedy, your employees will be greedy, giving you less and less of themselves and always asking for more.” —MICHAEL

every partner has an opinion on how the firm’s affairs should be conducted and believes that no decision should be made without his or her input.

I never had it as a major life goal to become an expert on business excellence. I was most concerned with finding a career in which I could get paid to have fun. But then something dramatic happened that changed everything. In a shocking nod to the Peter principle (“In a hierarchy every employee tends to rise to his level of incompetence”), I was p

If things don’t work out as planned, it’s unclear who is responsible for stepping in. With the advice process, the ownership for the decision stays clearly with one person: the decision maker.

Bill Campbell

2. Executives are forced to keep on “operating” unless they take positive action to change the reality in which they live and work.

In the late 1990s, a group of midlevel students at GE’s Crotonville leadership institute challenged him, saying that the “#1, #2, fix, close, or sell” strategy was hurting the company because executives were gaming the system.