Change
So I have been reading an amazing book, Good to Great, by Jim Collins. Without going into a full-scale book review here, Collins posits that it is easy to create a great company, but much harder to take the average good company and transform it into a great one. He looks at companies from all different sectors, pharmaceuticals, heavy industry, retail, etc. Needless to say, there are a few consistent traits of these companies. First, they have amazing leaders. Not egomaniacs like Steve Jobs, but solid, empowering leaders that create a corporate culture that is not dependent on their leadership. If Steve Jobs were to have a stroke tomorrow, Apple would be back to almost bankrupt in a few years. Jobs is the driving force for the company and the only person that can hold it all together.
Not completely related to the book, but I happened to come across a great quote while I was surfing the internet today. It's from General Eric Shenseki, the former Chief of Staff of the US Army: "If you don't like change, you are going to like irrelevance even less."