•it’s easy to analyze every aspect of a problem six ways to Sunday. But it’s a waste of time unless the analyses you’re doing add significant value to the problem-solving process

•in order to break the hypothesis you can run a Quick and Dirty Test QDT. The hypothesis is false whether assumptions are true

•Whatever problem you’re facing, chances are that someone, somewhere has worked on something similar.

•Thinking about your own organization, what are the five or six issues on which the CEO should focus?

•diversity doesn’t mean hiring people with different skin color, it’s hiring people with different background and experience 

•If you make your boss look good, your boss will make you look good. 

•FINANCIAL AND PERFORMANCE RATIOS: Almanac of Business and Industrial Financial Ratios; Standard and Poor’s Industry Surveys

•INDUSTRY DESCRIPTIONS, OVERVIEWS, AND STATISTICS: Business.com; Corporate Information.com; Encyclopedia of American Industries; Industry Reference Handbooks; Office of Trade and Economic Analysis; U.S. Industry & Trade Outlook

•COMPANY INFORMATION: Companies Online.com; CorpTech Directory of Technology Companies; Corporate Affiliations Plus; Hemscott.net; Moody’s Manuals; depts.washington.edu /balib/stocksites; Value Line Investment Survey

•ADDITIONALLY: Baker Library Industry information Guides (www.library .hbs.edu/industry/aboutguides.htm); Cole Library of Rensselaer at Hartford (www.rh.edu /library/industry/industry.htm); Fuld & Co. Internet Intelligence Index (www.fuld.com/i3 /index.html)