A word of caution..... A lot of the "get things done" and "get better fast" solutions that are floating around draw from experiences of successful people or or

A word of caution..... A lot of the "get things done" and "get better fast" solutions that are floating around draw from experiences of successful people or organisations, extrapolate from this and present what they have done as the best solution. This, however does not take into consideration what is cause and what is effect. For instance, if you take 50 companies and let them follow this advice (from the article) - Bet the company - Think big - Prescribe change - Reach for the sky - Set your sites high - Commit to change what you will see 5 years later is that 40 of the companies have gone bankrupt because they bet the company and reached for the sky. But all that is apparent to the casual observer is the 10 companies that have success, and all that is observed is their often risky strategies that have led them to their success. To drive the point home: In 1982 Tom Peters and Robert Waterman did exactly this, they investigated a number of successful companies and saw what they had done that noone else was doing. And they concluded that this was what you should do if you wanted to be successful, and thereby completely ignored cause and effect. Their studies were published in the business bestseller "in search of excellence". And what if you look at the companies that they investigated today? Many are bankrupt, and many are in financial trouble. Only a few are doing really well. One of the companies that "did all the right things" was Atari. This was actually one of the primary reasons I left business school. I basically thought "these guys have no idea what they are talking about" - and a lot of them still don't...