Nothing's Perfectt

From Mike Duke, CEO of WalMart

"I don't know that there's a business model that says, 'You're going to empower the organization. You're going to experiment. You're going to change and try new things all the time, but you're not going to make any mistakes,'" Duke says.

Gut Feeling

Robert Kraft, owner of the New England Patriots, made 2 brilliant personnel decisions in 2000:  hiring Belichick as the Patriots head coach and de facto general manager and drafting Tom Brady in the 6th round that year.  Nobody else in the league wanted either.  Why did Kraft pick them up?  "My gut," Kraft says without pause.  "That's how the best things in my life have happened."

What a BRILLIANT Leader!

From Reuters on 10/25/10:

In the current subdued consumer environment, retailers need to resist the temptation to focus solely on cutting costs, said Mindy Grossman, chief executive of U.S. teleshopping and e-commerce group HSN Inc (HSNI.O).

"That's not going to get us anywhere," she said, arguing that tougher times made it more important for firms to invest in new products and new ways of appealing to shoppers.

"We have so many opportunities to reach the customer, whether it's in a physical environment, on television, online, mobile, social (network sites). There is more access than at any given point in history -- we just have to do it in a way that makes them excited and makes them want to engage."

Skill and Sense over Size and Speed

Skill, scouts say, is easy to see.  It's visible in a fluid, extended skating stride, explosiveness off the mark and the ability to sustain top speed.  It's announced by a heavy shot or a quick release.  No one misses those traits in no-brainer prospects like Alex Ovechkin or Sidney Crosby.  But most gifted scouts can also identify subtler skills.  These reside in the player who operates on his own personal island of time and space -- who sees the play, as scouts like to say, as though he had a mental blueprint of the game.  These nuances can also be found in the player who senses pressure before it arrives and deftly uses his body to shield the puck.  Both are indications of hockey sense, defined as the ability to anticipate and predict what is going to happen before everyone else on the ice sees it happen.  It allows a player to get into position and execute plays faster than those around him.  It's God-given, unteachable and held sacred by the Wings.

Professional Hockey Team's Draft process

NHL scouts focus first on fundamentals:  acceleration, speed, shot strength, accuracy.  Then they look deeper:  "Identifying the intangibles in a kid is the toughest part of scouting, " says Jim Nill, head scout for the Detroit Red Wings.  Small kids can get bigger.  Weak kids can get stronger.  Bad skaters can learn to skate better.  But what is their character like?  Will they work hard?  You have a gut feeling that only comes from experience.

The Wings adhere to a consistent draft philosophy of selecting high-skill, high-hockey IQ skaters designed to find hidden gems in the ranks of seemingly flawed players.  In short, skill and hockey sense trump size and speed.

Flash in the pan or the real thing

Pro Hockey scouts must discern whether a potentially good player is sick or having a bad day -- or if an average prospect is having the night of his life.  Some uncertainty can be alleviated by watching a player several times and consulting coaches, but even in the best of circumstances, determining the future NHL potential of a teenage player is tricky business.

Angela Ahrendts management style

Unlike corporate chiefs who favor an inaccessible, imperial style, Ahrendts seems comfortable with dissent; her executives joke easily with her, and aren't afraid to press their points.  "She wouldn't know how to be undermining,  "EVP Stacey Cartwright says.

"She gets people to work harder than they ever have just by letting them know how important they are, how much the team relies on them", says Supply Chain VP Andy Janowski.

"It's easy to run a company while the economy is expanding, and easy to get lazy," says Ahrendts.  "A sharp downturn tends to focus the mind.  I was taught never to waste a good recession," she says.