• The rise of great societies, advancements in science and medicine and the exploration of space all happened because large groups of people, united in common cause, chose to collaborate with no clear end in sight.
• great leaders are the ones who think beyond ‘short term’ versus ‘long term’. They are the ones who know that it is not about the next quarter or the next election; it is about the next generation. Great leaders set up their organizations to succeed beyond their own lifetimes, and when they do, the benefits - for us, for business and even for the shareholder - are extraordinary
• Finite games are played by known players. They have fixed rules. And there is an agreed-upon objective that, when reached, ends the game.
• Infinite games, in contrast, are played by known and unknown players. There are no exact or agreed-upon rules. Though there may be conventions or laws that govern how the players conduct themselves, within those broad boundaries, the players can operate however they want. And if they choose to break with convention, they can. The manner in which each player chooses to play is entirely up to them. And they can change how they play the game at any time, for any reason.
• infinite games have infinite horizons. And because there is no finish line, no practical end to the game, there is no such thing as ‘winning’ an infinite game. In an infinite game, the primary objective is to keep playing, to perpetuate the game.
• In an infinite game, it’s the oppostive. it is the game that lives on and it is the players whose time runs out.
• To succeed in the Infinite Game of business, we have to stop thinking about who wins or who’s the best and start thinking about how you build organizations that are strong enough and healthy enough to stay in the game for many generations to come.
• They weren’t trying to outdo Microsoft; Apple was trying to outdo itself. The company was looking ahead to what would come after the iPod. Apple’s infinite mindset helped them think, not outside the box, but beyond it. About a year after the Zune was first introduced, Apple released the first iPhone. The iPhone redefined the entire category of smartphones and rendered both the Zune and the iPod virtually obsolete.
• But a company build for stability still fails to understand the nature of the Infinite Game, for it is likely still not prepared for the unpredictable - for the new technology, new competitor, market shift or world events that can, in an instant, derail their strategy. An infinite-minded leader does not simply want to build a company that can weather change but one that can be transformed by it.
• A finite-minded leader uses the company’s performance to demonstrate the value of their own career. An infinite-minded leader uses their career to enhance the long-term value of the company .. and only part of that value is counted in money.
• A Just Cause is a specific vision of a future state that does not yet exist; a future state so appealing that people are willing to make sacrifices in order to help advance toward that vision.
• A Just Cause is not the same as our Why. A Why comes from the past. It is an origin story. it is a statement of who we are - the sum total of our values and beliefs. A Just Cause is about the future. It defines where we are going. It describes the world we hope to live in and will commit to help build. Everyone has their own Why. But we do not have to have our own Just Cause, we can choose to join someone else’s.
• If I am an investor, I mist intend that the primary benefit of my contribution goes to helping the company advance its Just Cause.
• This is what ‘servant leadership’ means. It means the primary benefit of the contribution flows downstream. In an organization where service orientation is lacking (or treated as a slideshow rather than the main event), the flow of benefits tends to go upstream instead.
• The requirement that a Just Cause be service oriented is consistent with how infinite games are supposed to be played.
• An infinite-minded investor wants to contribute to advance something bigger than themselves - which, if it is successful, will be highly profitable.
• Chief Vision Officer. That is the primary job of the person who sits at the pointy end of the spear. They are the holder, communicator and protector of the vision. Their job is to ensure that all clearly understand the Just Cause and that all other C-level executives direct their efforts to advancing the Cause inside the organization,
• In a free-enterprise, private-property system, a corporate executive is an employee of the owners of the business. He has direct responsibility to his employers. That responsibility is to conduct the business in accordance with their desires, which generally will be to make as much money as possible while confirming to the basic rules of the society,m both those embodied in law and those embodied in ethical custom.
• In the mercantile system the interest of the consumer is almost constantly sacrificed to that of the producer; and it seems to consider production, and not consumption, as the ultimate end and object of all industry and commerce. In a nutshell, Smith accepted that it was human nature for people to act to advance their own interests. Our propensity for self-interest = the invisible hand.
• He went on to theorize that because the invisible hand was an universal truth (because of our selfish motivations we all want to build strong companies), it ultimately benefits the consumer. It is not from the benevolence of the butcher, the brewer or the baker that we can expect our dinner, but from their regard to their own interest.