Motivational Quotes

Business

You can't run a business or anything else on a theory.

- Geneen, Harold S.

Best Quotes about Business

It is much more difficult to measure non-performance than performance. Performance stands out like a ton of diamonds. Non-performance can almost always be explained away.

Geneen, Harold S.

One of the vices of the virtue of decentralization is that people don't share ideas.

O'Reilly, Anthony J. F.

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

In business, words are words; explanations are explanations, promises are promises, but only performance is reality.

Geneen, Harold S.

Corporations cannot commit treason, or be outlawed or excommunicated, for they have no souls.

Coke, Sir Edward

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

Hook, Harold

Good design can't fix broken business models.

Jeffrey Veen

I find it rather easy to portray a businessman. Being bland, rather cruel and incompetent comes naturally to me.

John Cleese

Industry is the soul of business and the keystone of prosperity.

Dickens, Charles

10.

It doesn't matter to me if a man is from Harvard or Sing Sing. We hire the man, not his history.

Ford, Henry

11.

You can close more business in two months by becoming interested in other people than you can in two years by trying to get people interested in you.

Carnegie, Dale

12.

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

Riklis, Meshulam

13.

Good business leaders create a vision, articulate the vision, passionately own the vision, and relentlessly drive it to completion.

Welch, John

14.

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

15.

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

Walton, Sam

16.

Conducting your business in a socially responsible way is good business. It means that you can attract better employees and that customers will know what you stand for and like you for it.

Burns, M. Anthony

17.

Talk of nothing but business, and dispatch that business quickly.

Aldus Manutius

18.

In modern business it is not the crook who is to be feared most, it is the honest man who doesn't know what he is doing.

Young, Owen D.

19.

Treat employees like partners, and they act like partners.

Allen, Fred A.

20.

The propensity to truck, barter and exchange one thing for another is common to all men, and to be found in no other race of animals.

Smith, Adam

21.

You never really hear the truth from your subordinates until after 10 in the evening.

Jurgen Schrempp

22.

A compromise is the art of dividing a cake in such a way that everyone believes that he has got the biggest piece.

Erhard, Ludwig

23.

I've got to keep breathing. It'll be my worst business mistake if I don't.

Rothschild, Sir Nathan

24.

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

Collins, Nathan

25.

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

Wilson, Charles E.

26.

A man's success in business today turns upon his power of getting people to believe he has something that they want.

Lee, Gerald Stanley

27.

You can't run a business or anything else on a theory.

Geneen, Harold S.

28.

If you did not look after today's business then you might as well forget about tomorrow.

Mophatlane, Isaac

29.

Deals are my art form. Other people paint beautifully on canvas or write wonderful poetry. I like making deals, preferably big deals. That's how I get my kicks.

Trump, Donald

30.

What helps people, helps business.

Burnett, Leo

31.

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

32.

The City's reluctance to take a stand on an issue like the British Gas pay row makes a mockery of corporate governance and shareholders' ability to influence annual general meetings.Institutions should be obliged to make public how they vote at such events.They should be obliged to provide customers with a record of how they vote on every kind of issue.

Donovan, Patrick

33.

In a start-up company, you basically throw out all assumptions every three weeks.

Mcnealy, Scott

34.

I buy when other people are selling.

Getty, J. Paul

35.

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.

36.

You read a book from beginning to end. You run a business the opposite way. You start with the end, and then you do everything you must to reach it.

Ceo, Harold Geneen

37.

I work in a strange business, and trust is a word that's not even in the vocabulary.

Basinger, Kim

38.

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

39.

Anybody can cut prices, but it takes brains to produce a better article.

Armour, P. D.

40.

If you can run one business well, you can run any business well.

Branson, Richard

41.

So much for industry, my friends, and attention to one's own business; but to these we must add frugality if we would make our industry more certainly successful. A man may, if he knows not how to save as he gets, keep his nose all his life to the grindstone, and die not worth a grout at last.

Franklin, Benjamin

42.

The five essential entrepreneurial skills for success: Concentration, Discrimination, Organization, Innovation and Communication

Gerber, Michael E.

43.

There's no business like show business, but there are several businesses like accounting.

David Letterman

44.

The magic formula that successful businesses have discovered is to treat customers like guests and employees like people.

Peters, Thomas J.

45.

It's the economy, stupid.

Clinton, Bill

46.

The first thing the secretary types is the boss.

47.

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

48.

Entrepreneurs are simply those who understand that there is little difference between obstacle and opportunity and are able to turn both to their advantage.

Kiam, Victor

49.

As a small businessperson, you have no greater leverage than the truth.

Hawken, Paul

50.

When two friends have a common bank account, one sings and the other weeps.

Proverb