A moral hazard exists when organizations and individuals are not required to bear the negative consequences of their failures.

A business therefore shouldn’t base its prices on markups it thinks customers will deem reasonable. It should instead base them on the customers’ perceptions of the value provided.

“We survive by breathing but we can’t say we live to breathe. Likewise, making money is very important for a business to survive, but money alone cannot be the reason for business to exist.”

Technological obsolescence means that new technologies have superseded old technologies; however, the older device may still perform reliably, quickly, and safely. Although having the latest and best is appealing, it is often better to push old technology to its limits than to feel obligated to invest in the new.

“Two basic rules of life are: 1) Change is inevitable. 2) Everybody resists change.”

Patent: a protection granted by the USPTO allowing an inventor to exclude others from making, using, offering for sale, or importing the same invention.

An especially fast-growing new company with rapidly increasing sales can be chronically short of cash, because the costs of growth (hiring and training new employees, acquiring new facilities and equipment, financing an ever-growing inventory, etc.) perpetually exceed the cash receipts from the previous, smaller sales volume.

meaningful statement asserts something specific, establishes priorities, precludes some possibilities, and describes what the organization does that some of its peers might not do: “We provide one- and two-year skills-intensive programs tailored to local employers’ needs. Where possible, we provide core academic instruction for students transferrin

Identifying and communicating the broadest guiding values. For example, achieve community consensus, honor functionality over aesthetics, and make sure the product is fun to use. Identifying and communicating the most specific outcomes. For example, the product can’t be orange; it must be rechargeable in a half-hour, weigh less than 13 ounces, and