Politics and interests complicate pure strategy

One of the big issues in strategy is simply the organization, complex organizations particularly. You have a hard time focusing energy because of all the different interests.

"This" refers to implementing a coherent business strategy, while "going this way" means pursuing the strategic direction being proposed.

The senior executives have to do this. The senior executives know pretty much everything you need to know to do this, but they disagree about the importance of different things. And more importantly, they occupy positions of power that, if we go this way, this is going to be hurt.

If somebody is on your critical path, the only judgment you should make is they're on my critical path. If I want to get something done, I need their collaboration and cooperation, and the fact that I may not like them is in fact irrelevant.

Having just the right amount of tension in our relationship was how you knew it was working for the company.