I borrowed a book from the shelf of the Planning Manager on our program. Augustine's Laws, Norman R. Augustine, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, Martin Marietta Corporation, 1986, revised edition, Viking Press.
I have several other "history" books about Martin Marietta and Lockheed that I'd also recommend.Raise Heaven and Earth: The Story of Martin Marietta People and Their Pioneering Achievements, William B. Harwood, Simon & Schuster, 1993.
The Augustine book has many dozen's of Law's as well chapter introductionquotations. The core of the book is Augustine's experiences as the CEO and Chairman of Martin Marietta during growth and merger times. He was the CEO with Martin merged with Lockheed. Some samples for Augustine's Laws focused on business and business development.
- If a sufficient number of management layers are superimposed on top of each other, it can be assured that disaster is not left to chance.
- It costs a lot to build bad products.
- Fools rush in where incumbents fear to tread.
- One 10th the participants produce over one 3rd of the output. Increasing the number of participants merely reduces the average output. (Law Number V)
- There are many highly successful businesses in the United States. There are also many highly paid executives. The policy is not to intermingle the two (Law Number XIII)
Some that resonanted with me regarding the projected benefits of modern software and project management processes, especially agile:
- It seems to me that no soothsayer should be able to look at another soothsayer with laughing – Cicero to Roman Senate
- No more good must be attempted than the people can bear - Thomas Jefferson
- The last 10 percent of performance generates one-third the cost and two-thirds of the problems (Law Number XV)
- We look at it and do not see it - Lao-tzu, Sixth Century B.C.
- Software is like entropy. It is difficult to grasp, weighs nothing, and obeys the Second Law of Thermodynamics - it always increases (Law Number XVII)
and my favorite all time quote for architecture, process, design, or anything that involves "structuring" the solution
- Adde parvum parvo magnus acervus erit - Ovid (see it is worth paying attention in Catholic school Latin class). "Add little to little and there will be a big pile" - Ovid 43 BCE - 17 CE
Both books can be found on www.alibrus.com
