“You can’t be all things to all people.”

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

A target should go with every goal. A target is the value that defines success.

Change brings opportunities. On the other hand, change can be confusing.

Companies operating in urban communities have a tremendous ripple effect.

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

Strategy is about setting yourself apart from the competition. It’s not a matter of being better at what you do – it’s a matter of being different at what you do.

Billions are wasted on ineffective philanthropy. Philanthropy is decades behind business in applying rigorous thinking to the use of money.

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.

There’s a fundamental distinction between strategy and operational effectiveness.

The U.S. is facing a structural competitiveness problem that is leading to the weakest economy we have seen in generations.

The underlying principles of strategy are enduring, regardless of technology or the pace of change.

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

Strategic thinking rarely occurs spontaneously.

The purpose of the corporation must be redefined as creating shared value, not just profit per se. This will drive the next wave of innovation and productivity growth in the global economy.

Operational effectiveness and strategy are both essential to superior performance.

In the vast majority of businesses, there is simply no such thing as “the best.”

Have you ever been in love? Horrible isn’t it? It makes you so vulnerable. It opens your chest and it opens up your heart and it means that someone can get inside you and mess you up.

I am too intelligent, too demanding, and too resourceful for anyone to be able to take charge of me entirely. No one knows me or loves me completely. I have only myself.

I tore myself away from the safe comfort of certainties through my love for truth – and truth rewarded me.

A day wasted on others is not wasted on one’s self.

You’re always you, and that doesn’t change, and you’re always changing, and there’s nothing you can do about it.

Losing you was the becoming of myself.

Fall in love with your solitude.

On the last day of love, my heart cracked inside my body.