On Sundays, The New York Times runs a series called “The Corner Office,” fascinating weekly interviews with CEOs of small- and mid-sized companies. While each CEO is distinct and unique, consistent themes emerge:

– difference between activity and productive work
– importance of goals and persistence
– value of integrity and reputation
– continuous learning, growth, openness
– many meetings are wasteful and unfocused, most would benefit by being MUCH shorter

“The majority of meetings could easily be cut by a third and accomplish more… I’ve also found that the higher up you go in a corporation… the shorter the meetings are. You meet with the CEO, it’s 10 minutes. [Why?] …because that is how he got where he is.”  — Joel Babbit, CEO of Mother Nature Network, The New York Times, July 8, 2012

Closing quotes:

“If you had to identify, in one word, the reason why the human race has not achieved, and never will achieve, its full potential, that word would be meetings.”  ― Dave Barry, humorist

“Any committee that is the slightest use is composed of people who are too busy to want to sit on it for a second longer than they have to.”   ― Katharine Whitehorn; b.1928, British journalist, writer, and columnist known for her wit and a keen observer of the changing role of women

“To get something done a committee should consist of no more than three people, two of whom are absent.”   ― Robert Copeland