Change Quotes
from Christos Kartalis

 

  • Speedily closing deals is not just a competitive advantage. It is a condition for great deal-making.
  • The size of the knife should be proportionate to the size of the watermelon. Usually CEOs give large watermelons to their managers but very short edged knives.
  • There are many disadvantages of pursuing an opportunity after everyone else has gone. And there is one, big advantage: you are going last.

More Change Quotes

  • Keep hitting on the rock till it breaks to pieces.
  • Stop dipping your feet in the shallow water. Just make the decision and dive into the deep end.
  • When negotiating, it is a major advantage if your adversaries act as if you are naive. It means they believe you are soft and they will let their own guard down while they go for the obvious kill. Hit them back then, and hit them hard.
  • Have modest dreams when you implement change.  Once you’ve accomplished the lesser dreams, go for the bigger ones.
  • The impact of change is diametrically opposite to the time it is initiated. The sooner change is initiated, the bigger the impact.
  • Know how to accept and deal with failures. This is more important than doing the same with successes.
  • Negotiations are based on pockets, minds, and hearts. Find the right combination of the person across from you in order to succeed.
  • You cannot have tiger dreams and pussycat commitments towards them.
  • Assume that the decisions of others in the past were correct. Don’t fight history. Focus on the future.
  • If you believe that yesterday was a better day, you will never be disappointed!
  • After using brutal force to bring about major change, don’t forget to look back and scalp things back up where needed.
  • The challenge with today’s business is not the invention of ideas but the optimization of existing ones.
  • When there is fire, there will be ashes afterwards unless you put it out when you start smelling the smoke.
  • Recognize the storm before it arrives, not when it is already pouring and you are running to close doors and windows.
  • Don’t get into negotiations if you are not willing to walk away with a “no” outcome.
  • Messages from the leader should have depth but also frequency, just like TV advertisements.
  • Unless you are working for the government, add value or move out of the way.
  • To foster a sense of urgency, people need to feel discomfort.
  • Make change routine, not a strategic choice. When change is only an option, there are alternative solutions. But there are no alternatives to change itself for organizations who want to survive and dominate.
  • Are you “decision-averse and process-dominated”? If so, you make yourself a sitting duck whenever you face change or highly-competitive environments.
  • You‘ve got to institutionalize trust. You have to make it work so that the business itself continues when the key players of the business depart.
  • Companies are great, not because they manage cost or flexibility or speed, but because they manage transitions well.
  • A contingency plan must work. Other alternatives are less under your control. Either your performance will be damaged by investing without a plan or your headquarters will tell you how to manage and take control from you.
  • Worrying is okay as long as the level of worry is commensurate to the effect you can effect on the area you worry about.
  • Investment cuts are directed toward the now at the expense of the future. You decide how much of your future you want to cut.
  • People blur the concept of innovation, which is a value-added concept, with re-invention, which is a major repositioning of values.
  • When you feel like you are in the highway and everybody is coming towards you, slow down, take it easy, keep quiet, and either stop the car, change direction, or slow down before you go down.
  • Suppose you could measure change pain in units and assume you will receive 100 pain units. Would you choose to get 10 units per year over 10 years or all 100 during the first year? Choose the latter every time. One time shots will hurt less, your resistance will be low, your recovery will be faster, and you will have 9 years to manage new pains.
  • Re-engineering success is like a surgery room. The earlier you make the diagnosis and operate, the better chance the patient has to come out stronger. The later you operate, the operation becomes unavoidable, the deeper you will have to go to complete the operation, and the more it will hurt the patient and the family.
  • People hate losses more than they love gains. Use this to get decisions your way. Tell your boss what we would lose by not doing something rather than stressing what we would gain by doing it.