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" If your goal is anything but profitability - if it's to be big, or to grow fast, or to become a technology leader - you'll hit problems. "

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" I teach in the medical school, the School of Public Health, the Kennedy School of Government, and the Business School. And it's the best perch... because most of my work crosses boundaries. "

" Companies understand that if their employees are sick, it's really expensive. So despite the rhetoric I hear, thank God employers are still in the health-care system. "

" Technology has given us this wonderful opportunity to have low energy costs. We have to seize that, rather than keep debating and discussing and fighting over it. "

" Companies operating in urban communities have a tremendous ripple effect. "

" In America, the problems of poverty and low income, particularly for minorities, are disproportionately focused in the inner cities. Shining a spotlight on the businesses growing in these communities is proof that any community has the potential for entrepreneurship. "

" Sound strategy starts with having the right goal. "

" The essence of strategy is choosing what not to do. "

" Millennials are more aware of society's many challenges than previous generations and less willing to accept maximizing shareholder value as a sufficient goal for their work. They are looking for a broader social purpose and want to work somewhere that has such a purpose. "

" If all you're trying to do is essentially the same thing as your rivals, then it's unlikely that you'll be very successful. "

" Good leaders need a positive agenda, not just an agenda of dealing with crisis. "

" As a multisport athlete, I was always fascinated with competition and how to win. At HBS and later at the Harvard Department of Economics, I was drawn to the field of competition and strategy because it tackles perhaps the most basic question in both business management and industrial economics: What determines corporate performance? "

" Strategy is about making choices, trade-offs; it's about deliberately choosing to be different. "

" Strategy 101 is about choices: You can't be all things to all people. "

" Unfortunately, I'm an engineer. I'm always thinking about, what's the task and how do I get it done? And some of my tasks are pretty broad, and pretty fuzzy, and pretty funky, but that's the way I think. "

" Finally, strategy must have continuity. It can't be constantly reinvented. "

" In a period of economic downturn, the overwhelming instinct is to pare back, cut costs, and lay off. If you do that, do so with your strategy in mind. The worst mistake is to cut across the board. Instead, reconnect and recommit to a clear strategy that will distinguish yourself from others. "

" I think that, too many times, business has been seen as acting in its narrow self-interest rather than, essentially, contributing more broadly to society. I think a lot of that is unintentional; I don't think that many managers are deliberately trying to be unethical or are not trying to be sensitive to social needs. "

" The essence of strategy is that you must set limits on what you're trying to accomplish. "

" There's a fundamental distinction between strategy and operational effectiveness. "

" Ultimately, health care fails the most basic test. It's not organized around the needs of the patient. "

" The ability to change constantly and effectively is made easier by high-level continuity. "

" As minorities and other immigrant groups become more important to our economy, the inner city is a crucible that gives us an early look at phenomena that are going to be spreading more broadly in the economy over time. "

" I'm really puzzled by why people in societies find it difficult to work collaboratively together with other people in societies. "

" Health care historically has been a very siloed field that's organized around medical specialties - urology, cardiac surgery, and so forth - and around the supply of these specialty services. The patient is the ping-pong ball that moves from service to service. "

" A strategy delineates a territory in which a company seeks to be unique. "

" You can't have a healthy society unless you have healthy companies that are making a profit, that are employing people and that are growing. "

" America used to be a uniquely productive, low-cost place to do business. We had efficient infrastructure. We had limited regulation. We believed in the market. "

" So companies have to be very schizophrenic. On one hand, they have to maintain continuity of strategy. But they also have to be good at continuously improving. "

" Innovation is the central issue in economic prosperity. "

" The best CEOs I know are teachers, and at the core of what they teach is strategy. "