Motivational Quotes

Business

The morality of compromise' sounds contradictory.Compromise is usually a sign of weakness, or an admission of defeat.Strong men don't compromise, it is said, and principles should never be compromised.I shall argue that strong men, conversely, know when to compromise and that all principles can be compromised to serve a greater principle.

- Handy, Charles

Best Quotes about Business

To succeed as a team is to hold all of the members accountable for their expertise.

Mitchell Caplan

People will go right on preferring to do business with friends.

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

Rothschild, Sir Nathan

A man with a surplus can control circumstances, but a man without a surplus is controlled by them, and often has no opportunity to exercise judgment.

Firestone, Harvey S.

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

Beene, Geoffrey

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

Geneen, Harold S.

It takes more than capital to swing business. You've got to have the A. I. D. degree to get by -- Advertising, Initiative, and Dynamics.

Mulford Jr., Ren

Business is not just doing deals; business is having great products, doing great engineering, and providing tremendous service to customers. Finally, business is a cobweb of human relationships.

Perot, H. Ross

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

10.

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

11.

Don't try to buy at the bottom and sell at the top. This can't be done, except by liars.

Baruch, Bernard M.

12.

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

13.

Make every decision as if you owned the whole company.

Townsend, Robert

14.

Business is like war in one respect. If its grand strategy is correct, any number of tactical errors can be made and yet the enterprise proves successful.

Woods, General Robert E.

15.

It is almost as difficult to keep a first class person in a fourth class job, as it is to keep a fourth class person in a first class job.

Dunn, Paul H.

16.

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

17.

Goodwill is the one and only asset that competition cannot undersell or destroy.

Field, Marshall

18.

In the modern world of business, it is useless to be a creative original thinker unless you can also sell what you create. Management cannot be expected to recognize a good idea unless it is presented to them by a good salesman.

David M. Ogilvy

19.

When you are skinning your customers you should leave some skin on to grow again so that you can skin them again.

Khrushchev, Nikita

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.

Quality, service, cleanliness, and value.

Ross, Steven J.

22.

A consumer is a shopper who is sore about something.

Coffin, Harold

23.

Get me inside any boardroom and I'll get any decision I want.

Bond, Alan

24.

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

Coke, Sir Edward

25.

Business is never so healthy as when, like a chicken, it must do a certain amount of scratching around for what it gets.

Ford, Henry

26.

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

Blair, Tony

27.

Well, I don't know as I want a lawyer to tell me what I cannot do. I hire him to tell how to do what I want to do.

Morgan, John Pierpont

28.

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

Armour, P. D.

29.

Corporation. An ingenious device for obtaining individual profit without individual responsibility.

Bierce, Ambrose

30.

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

Buffett, Warren

31.

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

32.

We are all manufacturers. Making good, making trouble, or making excuses.

Adolt, H. V.

33.

Never say no when a client asks for something, even if it is the moon. You can always try, and anyhow there is plenty of time afterwards to explain that it was not possible.

Ritz, Cesar

34.

Concentrate your strengths against your competitor's relative weaknesses.

Henderson, Bruce

35.

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

Hook, Harold

36.

Drive thy business or it will drive thee.

Benjamin Franklin

37.

I buy when other people are selling.

Getty, J. Paul

38.

The commercial class has always mistrusted verbal brilliancy and wit, deeming such qualities, perhaps with some justice, frivolous and unprofitable.

Nevill, Dorothy

39.

No sale is really complete until the product is worn out, and the customer is satisfied.

Bean, L.L.

40.

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

Branson, Richard

41.

If you train people properly, they won't be able to tell a drill from the real thing. If anything, the real thing will be easier.

Marcinko, Richard

42.

Only as long as a company can produce a desired, worthwhile, and needed product or service, and can command the public, will it receive the public dollar and succeed

Carlson, Curtis

43.

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

Jurgen Schrempp

44.

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

Collins, Nathan

45.

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

Aldus Manutius

46.

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

Sydney Biddle Barrows

47.

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

Jefferson, Thomas

48.

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.

49.

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

50.

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