Robert Heller

"The difference between management and administration (which is what the bureaucrats used to do exclusively)... is the difference... between choice and rigidity."

"Effective management always means asking the right question."

"What goes wrong [in long-range planning] is that sensible anticipation gets converted into foolish numbers: and their validity always hinges on large loose assumptions."

"Management — The definition that includes all the other definitions in this book and which, because of that, is the most general and least precise. Its concrete, people meaning — the board of directors and all executives with the power to make decisions — is no problem, except for the not-so-little matter of where to draw the line between managers who are part of "the management" and managers who are not."

"Robert Heller can rightly be credited with promoting "management" as a skill that could be learned and perfected – and written about."

"Common sense suggests that some factors in a [risk management] process are more important than others — and analysis supports this. In reality, only 20 percent of activities. In reality, only 20 percent of activities may account for up to 80 percent of results. This is known as Paretos law, the “80/20 rule”...Paretos law concentrates on the significant 20 percent and gives the less important 80 percent lower priority."

"The first myth of management is that it exists. The second myth of management is that success equals skill."

"Decisions should be pushed down as far as possible, to the level of competence. This allows senior managers more time for making decisions of a more complex nature"

"My first book “The Naked Manager”, a big success in 1971, had been followed by many others, and I wanted to write still more. Writing books is very interesting as each new project takes you in a different direction. You learn a lot – especially about what you yourself really think."

"Never ignore a gut feeling, but never believe thats enough."

"Decision tree - The most picturesque of all the allegedly scientific aids to making decisions. The analyst charts all the possible outcomes of different options, and charts all the latters outcomes, too. This produces a series of stems and branches (hence the tree). Each of the chains of events is given a probability and a monetary value."

"When I left university I had two objectives; I wanted to write and I wanted to get married. The only way I could afford both was to get a job as a journalist. At that time, the National Union of Journalists was very powerful and would not allow the direct recruitment of journalists from college except under special circumstances. The Financial Times was deemed special and duly recruited a cadre of very bright young people. I joined the FT as part of that now celebrated intake and, as a result, found myself working on a business newspaper."