Without exception, the dominance and coherence of culture proved to be an essential quality of the excellent companies.

Companies that enjoy enduring success have core values and a core purpose that remain fixed while their business strategies and practices endlessly adapt to a changing world. The dynamic of preserving the core while stimulating progress is the reason that companies such as Hewlett-Packard, 3M, Johnson & Johnson, Procter & Gamble, Merck, Sony, Motorola, and Nordstrom became elite institutions able to renew themselves and achieve superior long-term performance.

Clarity equals success.

when a company clearly communicates their WHY, what they believe, and we believe what they believe, then we will sometimes go to extraordinary lengths to include those products or brands in our lives.

Often, the best companies are ones where the product is an extension of the founder’s personality, which shouldn’t be a big surprise, since everyone is passionate about themselves.

If you want to innovate at scale, you have to get really clear about your values. What do you really want in your company? What is really important to you?

A country has to be very clear about what it wants, and everybody else must be part of that. Rwanda did that very clearly. We defined what we want to do and where the priorities were.

Companies with a strong sense of WHY are able to inspire their employees.

company needs to be able to articulate exactly what it does, whom it serves, and against whom it competes. Why? Because all employees should be made to feel like salespeople or ambassadors for the firm, and they cannot do this without a fundamental understanding of an organization's business. More important, without this understanding, employees cannot connect their individual roles to the overall direction of the larger organization.

Being a good company is an end in itself.

cuando una empresa transmite con claridad su PORQUÉ, aquello en lo que cree, y nosotros creemos en lo que ella cree, entonces a veces nos esforzaremos de manera extraordinaria para incluir esos productos o marcas en nuestras vidas.

Before we can stand out, we must first get clear on what we stand for.

Building a World Class Company is a commitment to the integration of passion, purpose, and practice.

In every company which I have done strategic planning, the number-one value people choose is always integrity. The second values may be quality of products and services, caring about people, excellent customer service, profitability , innovation, entrepreneurship, and others. But integrity always comes first.