1. "In situations which cry out for new methods, the task of renewal can't lie in the hands of people who know only the old ways and are comfortable with those habits. Old dogs are unwilling to learn new tricks. This doesn't mean that they can't. It does mean, however, that they won't - unless the whole environment is changed so radically that only new tricks will work. So, in comes the indispensable concept of collective leadership, exercise all the way down the line."

2. "The extent to which internal rules build unnecessary delay into the system creates the case for what is known as 'time-based competition', in which every process is analysed, taken apart and reassembled to eliminate excess time. That is not the norm of business conduct. But in unconventional times and situations, conventional behaviour doesn't stand a chance: you must dare to be different."

3. "The old ways are more than systems; they are states of mind very few managers find it natural or comfortable to rethink: that is, to challenge the intellectual (and emotional) bases of the way they operate, even though rethinking offers large, and often cheap, scope for improvement."

Contribution from
"In search of European Excellence"
By Robert Heller

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