Motivational Quotes

Business

I don't want to do business with those who don't make a profit, because they can't give the best service.

- Bristol, Lee

Best Quotes about Business

It is not the employer who pays wages -- he only handles the money. It is the product who pays the wages.

Ford, Henry

Business has only two functions -- marketing and innovation.

Drucker, Peter F.

The right merchant is one who has the just average of faculties we call common sense; a man of a strong affinity for facts, who makes up his decision on what he has seen. He is thoroughly persuaded of the truths of arithmetic. There is always a reason, in the man, for his good or bad fortune in making money. Men talk as if there were some magic about this. He knows that all goes on the old road, pound for pound, cent for cent -- for every effect a perfect cause -- and that good luck is another name for tenacity of purpose.

Emerson, Ralph Waldo

In business for yourself, not by yourself.

Kroc, Ray

I am the world's worst salesman, therefore, I must make it easy for people to buy.

Woolworth, F. W.

I believe Mrs. Thatcher's emphasis on enterprise was right.

Blair, Tony

What the customer demands is last year's model, cheaper. To find out what the customer needs you have to understand what the customer is doing as well as he understands it. Then you build what he needs and you educate him to the fact that he needs it.

Dewolf, Nicholas

There is no substitute for accurate knowledge. Know yourself, know your business, know your men.

Jacobs, Randall

Don't worry about your physical shortcomings. I am no Greek god. Don't get too much sleep and don 't tell anybody your troubles. Appearances count: Get a sun lamp to keep you looking as though you have just come back from somewhere expensive: maintain an elegant address even if you have to live in the attic. Never nickel when short of cash. Borrow big, but always repay promptly.

Onassis, Aristotle

10.

Every business is built on friendship.

Penney, J. C. (James Cash)

11.

For the merchant, even honesty is a financial speculation.

Baudelaire, Charles

12.

In business, the competition will bite you if you keep running, if you stand still, they will swallow you.

Knudsen, William

13.

The very best financial presentation is one that's well thought out and anticipates any questions... answering them in advance.

Collins, Nathan

14.

Do not fear mistakes. You will know failure. Continue to reach out.

Galvin, Robert

15.

If when a businessman speaks of minority employment, or air pollution, or poverty, he speaks in the language of a certified public accountant analyzing a corporate balance sheet, who is to know that he understands the human problems behind the statistical ones? If the businessman would stop talking like a computer printout or a page from the corporate annual report, other people would stop thinking he had a cash register for a heart. It is as simple as that -- but that isn't simple.

Lundborg, Louis B.

16.

Compromise is usually bad. It should be a last resort. If two departments or divisions have a problem they can't solve and it comes up to you, listen to both sides and then pick one or the other. This places solid accountability on the winner to make it work. Condition your people to avoid compromise.

Townsend, Robert

17.

If each of us hires people smaller than we are, we shall become a company of dwarfs.

Ogilvy, David

18.

The big will get bigger; the small will get wiped out.

Riklis, Meshulam

19.

People want economy and they'll pay almost any price to get it.

Iacocca, Lee

20.

I'm not a driven businessman, but a driven artist. I never think about money. Beautiful things make money.

Beene, Geoffrey

21.

What helps people, helps business.

Burnett, Leo

22.

The question is, then, do we try to make things easy on ourselves or do we try to make things easy on our customers, whoever they may be?

Frand, Erwin

23.

In a balanced organization, working towards a common objective, there is success.

Scrutton, T. L.

24.

Our planning system was dynamite when we first put it in. The thinking was fresh; the form mattered little. It was idea oriented. We then hired a head of planning, and he hired two vice presidents, and then he hired a planner; and the books got thicker, and the printing more sophisticated, and the covers got harder, and the drawings got better.

Welch, John

25.

If we decide to take this level of business creating ability nationwide, we'll all be plucking chickens for a living.

Perot, H. Ross

26.

There is only one boss. The customer. And he can fire everybody in the company from the chairman on down, simply by spending his money somewhere else.

Walton, Sam

27.

The business that considers itself immune to the necessity for advertising sooner or later finds itself immune to business.

Brown, Derby

28.

There's a lot more business out there in small town America than I ever dreamed of.

Walton, Sam

29.

The novice in advertising frequently gives the public credit, for too much intelligence.

30.

What's good for the country is good for General Motors, and vice versa.

Wilson, Charles E.

31.

The secret of business is to know something that nobody else knows.

Onassis, Aristotle

32.

Executives are like joggers. If you stop a jogger, he goes on running on the spot. If you drag an executive away from his business, he goes on running on the spot, pawing the ground, talking business. He never stops hurtling onwards, making decisions and executing them.

Baudrillard, Jean

33.

It is surprising, in the welter of questions that one gets at (AGMs), how few actually relate to the performance of the company, or the decisions taken by the board in particular areas.

Harvey-Jones, John

34.

If you can't pay for a thing, don't buy it. If you can't get paid for it, don't sell it. Do this, and you will have calm and drowsy nights, with all of the good business you have now and none of the bad. If you have time, don't wait for time.

Franklin, Benjamin

35.

It's far better to buy a wonderful company at a fair price than a fair company at a wonderful price.

Buffett, Warren

36.

It's better to take over and build upon an existing business than to start a new one.

Geneen, Harold S.

37.

Far too many executives have become more concerned with the four P's -- pay, perks, power and prestige -- rather than making profits for shareholders.

Pickens, T. Boone

38.

'Whom are you?'he asked, for he had attended business college.

George Ade

39.

To succeed in business it is necessary to make others see things as you see them.

Patterson, John H.

40.

HereÆs my theory about meetings and life; the three things you canÆt fake are erections, competence and creativity. ThatÆs why meetings become toxic they put uncreative people in a situation in which they have to be something they can never be. And the more effort they put into concealing their inabilities, the more toxic the meeting becomes. One of the most common creativity-faking tactics is when someone puts their hands in prayer position and conceals their mouth while they nod at you and say,'Mmmmmm. Interesting.'If pressed, theyÆll add,'IÆll have to get back to you on that.'Then they donÆt say anything else.

Douglas Coupland

41.

You generally hear that what a man doesn't know doesn't hurt him, but in business what a man doesn't know does hurt.

Lewis, E. St. Elmo

42.

Never hire someone who knows less than you do about what he's hired to do.

Forbes, Malcolm S.

43.

Quality, service, cleanliness, and value.

Ross, Steven J.

44.

Most men are individuals no longer so far as their business, its activities, or its moralities are concerned. They are not units but fractions.

Wilson, Woodrow T.

45.

The simple opposition between the people and big business has disappeared because the people themselves have become so deeply involved in big business.

Lippmann, Walter

46.

Letting your customers set your standards is a dangerous game, because the race to the bottom is pretty easy to win. Setting your own standards--and living up to them--is a better way to profit. Not to mention a better way to make your day worth all the effort you put into it.

Seth Godin

47.

The selfish spirit of commerce, which knows no country, and feels no passion or principle but that of gain.

Jefferson, Thomas

48.

We have yet to see the full impact of the open, global marketplace. By 1997 all raw materials and technology will be available everywhere in the world. The only differences between countries and markets will be skill levels, education, and the level of empowerment of the workplace.

Pritchett, Lew

49.

The five steps in teaching an employee new skills are preparation, explanation, showing, observation and supervision.

Hook, Harold

50.

I ran the wrong kind of business, but I did it with integrity.

Sydney Biddle Barrows