Astro Teller Quotes

With any project there's one or two things that you really want to do and that's going to crack it.

A big part of my job is to accelerate our ability to bring innovative products to our customers more quickly.

I am not the kind of designer who is racing to the finish line, so while collaborations are important for our growth, each and every one has to be strategic and well-timed with what we have going on internally.

But tending machinery was one thing; defining what we were trying to do and why we were doing it, and developing ways to measure how well the job was done - this was something else again.

My job is to make sure we keep performing.

I demand pretty aggressive goal setting and a commitment to measured progress towards those goals because I don't like surprises. I don't even like good surprises.

Efficiency is doing things right; effectiveness is doing the right things.

We hope that there will be better policy-making and hope to see projects implemented. We have lots of information that can be used for the implementation of projects.

In setting goals and executing a strategy, Wanda is sophisticated. We have good systems and departments. If targets are not reached, a yellow light goes off.

That is what we know how to do better than anyone else: We know how to maximize value for our projects. If the government would like to hire my services to maximize value for their stake, they should approach me. No problem.

Part of executive functions is the ability to look to a goal deadline and assess where an organization is in meeting it.

Strategic Work is all about the big questions: Who? What? When? Where? Why? Tactical Work is all about answers: This is the system we use to do each task. This is how we do it, how we measure it, how we monitor it.

The more Strategic Work you do, the more effective, productive, and joyful the Tactical Work becomes.

A fundamental principle that I learned in my career, and a principle that my consulting company McChrystal Group helps American civilian companies to adopt, is that winning units and organizations ensure that the time they actually spend - daily, weekly, and yearly - must hew closely to their priorities.

Management is defense. You basically say, 'This is the direction; this is where we're heading,' and then it's my job to get everything else out of the way. All the other things that can become a distraction keep us from executing well. Get those out of the way, because the team ultimately needs to run in that direction and execute well.

Customers are now driven by trying to optimize value.

Nurturing a project from the ground floor is something I've been wanting to do.

Great companies have to manage the cadence of what they do.

I think projects often fail because people do not have a clear understanding at the start what they are trying to deliver.

We know Donald Trump wants to hit his goals ahead of time, and under budget.

The best risk to take is to look to score goals and to play a lot.

Projects are usually undertaken to either solve a problem or take advantage of an opportunity. The probability that the project - even if precisely executed - will complete on time, on budget, and on performance is typically small. Project management is utilized to increase this probability. So in a sense, project management is risk management.

Many who know me or have worked for me are aware of my penchant for strategic planning. I consider it a critical component of the success of any organization and believe in the value of planning for a company's needs over multiple time horizons, as well as reviews against that plan at regular intervals.

Benchmarking is an ongoing exercise in any company that aspires for leadership.

Management always has a big influence on your success, no matter how good or how bad the business is itself.