It's all about competitiveness: are you making the products that people really do want and value, and are you making it more efficiently and using less resources and less time than the competition?
Interpretation
The quote emphasizes the importance of competitiveness in business by focusing on meeting consumer needs efficiently.
Alan Mulally highlights that true competitiveness arises from understanding and delivering products that people value, while also ensuring that production is efficient. This approach requires not only innovation in product development but also optimizing resource usage and time management to outperform competitors, ultimately leading to greater success in the market.
In practice
In a business meeting discussing strategy for product launch.
The reason I loved working at Boeing was because I loved the idea of air travel as a way of bringing people and cultures together - because when we come together as people and cultures, we realize that we are not that different after all, and when we realize that we are not that different after all, the world becomes a better place.
Failure is success in progress
I couldn't beat people with my strength; I don't have a hard shot; I'm not the quickest skater in the league. My eyes and my mind have to do most of the work.
My career should adapt to me. Fame is like a VIP pass wherever you want to go.
If you are going to be successful, you need to give up the phrase, "I can't" & all of its cousins, such as "I wish I were able to.
The greatest achievement was at first and for a time a dream. The oak sleeps in the acorn, the bird waits in the egg, and in the highest vision of the soul a waking angel stirs. Dreams are the seedlings of realities.
One of the things you have to learn is that you don't have to have the ball all the time to be effective.
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