Kelly Johnson, lead designer of the U-2 and SR-71 and founder of Lockheed’s Skunk Works, had three management principles:
- It’s more important to listen than to talk.
- Be decisive: even a timely wrong decision is better than no decision.
- Don’t half-heartedly wound problems. Kill them dead.
Or, as he put it more colorfully to his successor, Ben Rich:
I’ll teach you all you need to know about running a company in one afternoon, and we’ll both go home early to boot. You don’t need Harvard to teach you that it’s more important to listen than to talk. You can get straight A’s from all your Harvard profs, but you’ll never make the grade unless you are decisive: even a timely wrong decision is better than no decision. The final thing you’ll need to know is don’t half-heartedly wound problems—kill them dead. That’s all there is to it. Now you can run this g*ddamn place. Now, go on home and pour yourself a drink.
— Kelly Johnson, as quoted in Skunk Works: A Personal Memoir of My Years at Lockheed by Ben R. Rich and Leo Janos.