10 Great Business Strategy Quotes

1. “Objectives can be compared to a compass bearing by which a ship navigates. A compass bearing is firm, but in actual navigation, a ship may veer off its course for many miles. Without a compass bearing, a ship would neither find its port nor be able to estimate the time required to get there.”
Peter Drucker

2. “Strategy is simply resource allocation.  When you strip away all the noise, that’s what it comes down to. Strategy means making clear cut choices about how to compete.  You cannot be everything to everybody, no matter what the size of your business or how deep its pockets.”
Jack Welch

3. “The essence of strategy is choosing what not to do.”
Michael Porter

4. “With the level of uncertainty we see today, more people are asking, how can you develop a strategy in a world that keeps changing so fast?  They are afraid that a set of rigid principles will hinder their ability to react quickly.  I argue that it is precisely at such times that you need a strategy.”
Orit Gadiesh

5. “Focusing solely on what you can potentially do better than any other organization is the only path to greatness.”
Jim Collins

6. “However beautiful the strategy, you should occasionally look at the results.”
Winston Churchill

7. “To be strategic is to concentrate on what is important, on those few objectives that can give us a comparative advantage, on what is important to us rather than others, and to plan and execute the resulting plan with determination and steadfastness.”
Richard Koch

8. “Let’s execute along this strategy, but know that we’ll probably get some of this wrong, so be open to changing it.“
A.G. Lafley

9. “Designing a winning strategy is the art of asking questions, experimenting and then constantly renewing the thinking process by questioning the answers.  No matter how good today’s strategy is, you must always keep reinventing it.”
Constantinos Markides

10. “Good tactics can save even the worst strategy.  Bad tactics will destroy even the best strategy.”
General George S. Patton Jr.