Organizational Focus Quotes

The bottom line is, when people are crystal clear about the most important priorities of the organization and team they work with and prioritized their work around those top priorities, not only are they many times more productive, they discover they have the time they need to have a whole life.

You know, I think when people are in important positions in big organizations, they often get tied up with the minutia of managing money, managing things. They often forget that people deserve to be led.

The manager has a short-range view; the leader has a long-range perspective.

I don't think there's anybody in this organization not focused on the 49ers...I mean Chargers.

Whatever the founder cares about, whatever the founders think are the key goals, that's going to be what the whole company focusses on.

Successful organizations have one common central focus: Customers.

The center of gravity for an organization should be as close to what they make as possible. If you make cars, you need people in the factory. If you breed horses, be in the stable. If you make the Internet, live on the Internet, and use all the freedom and power it gives you.

Lots of companies don’t succeed over time. What do they fundamentally do wrong? They usually miss the future. I try to focus on that: What is the future really going to be? And how do we create it? And how do we power our organization to really focus on that and really drive it at a high rate? When I was working on Android, I felt guilty. It wasn’t what we were working on, it was a start-up, and I felt guilty. That was stupid! It was the future.

Internal marketing is probably much more important than external marketing. That's even more true today than it's ever been.

The NFL cares about one thing, and that's the NFL. That's the bottom line.

I think there's a need for somewhat of a mindset change. We need to have a consistent external focus. We've always had the research labs. We've always had the resources to be innovative, and we've been innovative in a number of businesses. But, in any big company, you have to constantly push people to look at markets and customers, rather than look internally at themselves.

The trouble with organizing a thing is that pretty soon folks get to paying more attention to the organization than to what they're organized for.

It's easy to see how non-profits become engrossed in catering to donors, which may or may not be the best thing at all times, while if a company is ultra-engaged with its customers, it's universally positive and helpful.

Every leader needs to clearly explain the top three things the organization is working on. If you can't, then you're not leading well.

Often, organizations need bold, grand gestures to galvanize people towards a new mission or refocus their attention.

Looking at Capitol's performance over a 22-year period, I figure they were focused three years out of the 22 I worked for them.