“While most business leaders agree that innovation is essential, surprisingly few organizations have a system for innovation. Creativity and innovation may well be the fuel that drive an organization to greatness, but a system for implementing innovation is the rocket that will take an organization to the top. Lacking an effective system to carry it — innovation is just raw fuel left sitting unused. In order to effectively integrate an innovation system into an existing organization, we first have to view organizations in a new light.”

“I’ve been trying to take a balanced view of outsourcing. On the one hand, I want to acknowledge the market forces that are driving companies to outsource IT services offshore. On the other hand, I want to identify the risks, so that clients may understand what they are signing up for and make rational decisions. I am concerned that the benefits of outsourcing have been overhyped, while the risks generally have been minimized.”

“10. Big companies do not create jobs, and historically have not created jobs. Big companies are not ‘built to last;’ they almost inexorably are ‘built to decline.’”

“Fax machines and other champions of electronics provide some important lessons about how new technologies settle into our lives. The following are rules that turn The Next Wonderful Thing either into the Internet or Betamax of its generation.”