High Output Management

by Andrew S. Grove

As a middle manager, of any sort, you are in effect a chief executive of an organization yourself. Don’t wait for the principles and practices you find appealing to be imposed from the top. As a micro CEO, you can improve your own and your group’s performance and productivity, whether or not the rest of the company follows suit.

The output of a manager is the output of the organizational units under his or her supervision or influence.

A manager’s output = the output of his organization + the output of the neighboring organizations under his influence.

If you only understand one thing about building products, you must understand that energy put in early in the process pays off tenfold and energy put in at the end of the program pays off negative tenfold.