Ken Marlin

Jesus, give us one.

And the first one in the book is something that I call take the long view.

And the concept is not very complicated.

It's pretty straightforward.

It says that...

In the Marine Corps, all tactics derive from a clear understanding of the long-term strategic objective that you are trying to accomplish.

And once you understand that long-term strategic objective, then you make sure that all your tactics align with it, and you don't do things that don't align with it.

And it sounds just sort of blindingly obvious.

And of course, that's what people do.

But what we see in our world is a lot of people who very often don't even have a clear strategic objective.

And even when they do, they too often engage in tactics that are reactive.

And so a classic is people who buy companies without a clear understanding of how

that acquisition helps advance them towards a clear strategic goal.

Take two recent examples.

One is Microsoft buying LinkedIn, and another is Verizon buying Yahoo.

Leaving aside Yahoo's information security breach.

I would argue that Verizon buying Yahoo is a smart move,

That does advance them towards a clear strategic objective, given the fact that Verizon had already bought AOL and had announced an objective of making AOL into the leader in consumer-oriented internet, mail, sports, entertainment.

And Yahoo is not only a great bolt-on to that, but without buying Yahoo, it wasn't clear to any of us how Verizon was going to achieve that objective with AOL.

So I would argue that's a smart move.