Charles Kettering Quotes

We need to make sure we are constantly staying ahead, thinking about what is coming.

… problems and catastrophes may be inevitable, solutions are not.

Both my own process and that of the publishing industry are just too slow to do anything other than play catch-up when it comes to anticipating change.

The best way to predict the future is to invent it.

To be successful be ahead of your time, but only a little.

You must always be able to predict what's next and then have the flexibility to evolve.

I learned how important timing is; having a really good idea five years ahead of its time is practically worthless.

What I sell is the higher knowledge of knowing what's next and not following the trend of what's now.

Intelligence that is not timely is history.

The Future Belongs to Those Who are Fast

We are never complacent. My job is to make us look 10 years out and be prepared.

Keeping a little ahead of conditions is one of the secrets of business; the trailer seldom goes far.

There's an old Wayne Gretzky quote that I love. 'I skate to where the puck is going to be, not where it has been.' And we've always tried to do that at Apple. Since the very, very beginning. And we always will.

Change almost never fails because it's too early. It almost always fails because it's too late.

A leader not only has to be in the center but also be in the future.

Forecasting by bureaucrats tends to be used for anxiety relief rather than for adequate policy making.

For one person who is blessed with the power of invention, many will always be found who have the capacity of applying principles.

When a government faces an evil that might be avoided, the usual pattern is to first debate whether or not the evil is real or imagined; then determine how evil it really is; then is it an appropriate function of government to avoid it? Then what are the alternative ways to avoid it? Then what are the costs to avoid it? And finally, is the benefit of avoiding the evil worth the cost? In those cases where it is, it is by this time too late to avoid the evil and discussions shift to ameliorating the evil.

If you wait until you have all the facts, then it will be too late..

Artificial Intelligence is one of those areas where we should be proactive in controlling it rather than reactive. If we are reactive, by the time we will do the necessary things, it will be too late. Robots can do everything better than we [humans] can.

I think you have to see two steps ahead of things. That's just the way I roll.

Moving with the times is an important idea for strategy today.

Strategy is, at some level, the ability to predict what's going to happen, but it's also about understanding the context in which it is being formulated. And then you have to be open-minded to the fact that you're not going to get it right at the very beginning.

When you are running a business, there is a constant need to reinvent oneself. One should have the foresight to stay ahead in times of rapid change and rid ourselves of stickiness in any form in the business.

Things change very quickly. You have to be prepared and ready and on your toes at all times.