Motivational Quotes

Business

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

Best Quotes about Business

If a fellow wants to be a nobody in the business world, let him neglect sending the mail man to somebody on his behalf.

Kettering, Charles F.

Men who do things without being told draw the most wages.

Stuart, Edwin H.

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

Jefferson, Thomas

The poor man who enters into a partnership with one who is rich makes a risky venture.

Plautus, Titus Maccius

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

Forbes, Malcolm S.

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

Bond, Alan

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

Knudsen, William

Business has only two functions -- marketing and innovation.

Drucker, Peter F.

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

Riklis, Meshulam

10.

Few great men could pass personal.

Goodman, Paul

11.

Productivity is being able to do things that you were never able to do before.

Manzi, Jim

12.

My own business always bores me to death; I prefer other people's.

Oscar Wilde

13.

Anything that you do to increase job security automatically does work for you. It makes your employees a closer part of the unit.

Smith, Roger

14.

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

15.

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

Patterson, John H.

16.

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

17.

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

Dickens, Charles

18.

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

19.

A vacation should be just long enough that you're boss misses you, and not long enough for him to discover how well he can get along without you.

20.

Work is our business; it's success is God s.

Proverb, German

21.

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

22.

Drive thy business or it will drive thee.

Benjamin Franklin

23.

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

24.

Welch, John

25.

I do not believe a man can ever leave his business. He ought to think of it by day and dream of it by night.

Ford, Henry

26.

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.

27.

Never let an inventor run a company. You can never get him to stop tinkering and bring something to market.

Little, Royal

28.

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

Bierce, Ambrose

29.

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

30.

I buy when other people are selling.

Getty, J. Paul

31.

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

32.

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

33.

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

34.

Business, more than any other occupation, is a continual dealing with the future; it is a continual calculation, an instinctive exercise in foresight.

Luce, Henry

35.

We're going to see a lot more young people entering entrepreneurial ventures.

Malek, Fred

36.

In business for yourself, not by yourself.

Kroc, Ray

37.

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

38.

Such is the brutalization of commercial ethics in this country that no one can feel anything more delicate than the velvet touch of a soft buck.

Chandler, Raymond

39.

When the product is right, you don't have to be a great marketer.

Iacocca, Lee

40.

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

Beene, Geoffrey

41.

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

Bean, L.L.

42.

Stressing output is the key to improving productivity, while looking to increase activity can result in just the opposite.

Grove, Andrew

43.

In the business world, the rearview mirror is always clearer than the windshield.

Warren Buffett

44.

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

Blair, Tony

45.

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

Khrushchev, Nikita

46.

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

47.

Business conventions are important because they demonstrate how many people a company can operate without.

48.

You can't run a business without taking risks.

Drexler, Millard

49.

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

50.

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

Geneen, Harold S.