Best Business Quotes | Short & Famous Sayings Page 10

“Well, it's taken time to get this going, but he was right. If you give people a chance to associate themselves with a cause they care about, while buying a great product, they will. That was how the RED Campaign was born, here in Davos.”

People Ifs Giving Wells Care Causes Born Chance Business Taken Products Red Campaigns Buying Associates Davos

Author:Bill Gates

“Growth isn't central at all, because I'm trying to run this company as if it's going to be here a hundred years from now. And if you take where we are today and add 15% growth, like public companies need to have for their stock to stay up in value, I'd be a multi-trillion-dollar company in 40 years. Which is impossible, of course.”

Ifs Needs Trying Years Running Today Values Courses Growth Business Company Impossible Hundred Dollars Add

Author:Yvon Chouinard

“So all of these companies that are going for the big growth, if it continues for any length of time, will outlast their resources and outlast their customers and go belly-up. And that's why these huge companies have massive layoffs all the time.”

Ifs Bigs Growth Business Company Huge Resources Customers Length Massive Belly Layoff

Author:Yvon Chouinard

“We grow by letting the customer tell us. So when the customer tells us that they're frustrated, that they just got their catalogue and we're already out of a product they wanted, then it tells me that we're not making enough. We let the customer tell us instead of creating an artificial demand for our products. Any time you're making products that people don't need, you're at the mercy of the economy, you're at the mercy of whatever is going on. So we tried to avoid that situation.”

People Needs Enough Wanted Grows Business Situation Economy Products Demand Creating Mercy Customers Artificial Frustrated Need You Catalogues Don't Need You

Author:Yvon Chouinard

“But I'm really trying to run this company like it is going to be here a hundred years from now. That's what's important.”

Trying Years Important Running Business Company Hundred What's Important

Author:Yvon Chouinard

“We've teamed up with some Japanese companies to, basically by 2010, make all our clothing out of recycled and recyclable fibers. And we're going to accept ownership of our products from birth to birth. So if you buy a jacket from us, or a shirt ,or a pair of pants, when you're done with it, you can give it back to us and we'll make more shirts and pants out of it.”

Ifs Giving Done Business Company Accepting Products Birth Shirts Pairs Clothings Pants Ownership Jackets Fiber Recycled

Author:Yvon Chouinard

“Yeah, leading an examined life, I always say, is a pain in the ass. It adds an element of complexity to business that most businessmen don't want to hear about. They just want to call a fabric manufacturer, and say, "Hey, give us 10,000 yards of shirting."”

Want Giving Pain Business Elements Yeah Add Ass Hey Complexity Fabric Yards Businessman Examined Life

Author:Yvon Chouinard

“Entrepreneurs don't really make mistakes, though. We just make decisions that seem right at the time, but which sometimes turn out to have been the wrong path to take. For example, we allowed a buyer to place a huge opening order and later had to take some product back. We didn't have our sell-through programs in place, so in hindsight, it would have been wiser to sell in less product at the outset. The scary thing is you are always making decisions without knowing the future.”

“What they don't realize is that I'm not in the business to make clothes. I'm not in the business to make more money for myself, for Christ's sake. This is the reason Patagonia exists - to put into action the recommendations I read about in books to avoid environmental collapse. That's the reason I'm in business - to try to clean up our own act, and try to influence other companies to do the right thing, and try to influence our customers to do the right thing. So we're not going to change.”

Trying Book Reason Action Christ Realizing Business Company Influence Clothes Clean Environmental Sake Customers Right Thing Collapse More Money Recommendations Patagonia

Author:Yvon Chouinard

“Executives run organizations. In business, we need executives who have clarity, people who are in touch with themselves. Then, in leadership and management positions, they can be good role models and leaders. The people I know who have really moved their organizations are scrupulous role models. They are so clear about honesty, integrity, openness, mutual self-respect, dignity for the individual, and creativity, that they don't deviate from these principles at all in their behavior.”

“You can't delegate growth or customer satisfaction.”

Growth Business Satisfaction Customers Delegates Customer Satisfaction

Author:Jeffrey R. Immelt

“Anybody who is an entrepreneur is a person who essentially has impaired judgment. The odds of success are zilch. This valley is loaded to the gills with a whole lot of totally insane people who honest to God believe that they can be the next Bill Gates or the next Scott McNealy. And that is genuinely stupid.”

People Believe Persons Whole Next Business Honest Stupid Judgment Bills Entrepreneur Insane Gates Valleys Odds Loaded

Author:Tom Peters

“In the great city of San Francisco, where I used to live, at 2 in the morning every other Victorian house has somebody who is writing the great American novel. And the city is not loaded with James Joyces or Virginia Woolfs. But entrepreneurship is about distorted views of reality.”

Writing Reality Used House Views Business Cities Morning Novel Entrepreneurship San Francisco Virginia Loaded Victorian Great American Great Cities Joyce

Author:Tom Peters

“Steve Jobs is perhaps the most competitive human being I have ever met in my life, and yet I would argue one of the most artistic human beings I have ever met in my life. You can trash the movies all you want, but they do have an artistic component. And yet brutal competition knows no peers when it comes to Hollywood.”

Knows Want Humans Jobs Human Beings Business Mets Hollywood Competition Arguing Artistic Brutal Peers Components Trash

Author:Tom Peters

“The 10 or 12 artists I have known really well all my life are at least as competitive as professional athletes. They may express it in slightly different terms, but you look at the Jackson Pollocks et al., and they are as interested in wall space in the galleries as Joe Montana is in the percentage of completed passes. So the notion that symphonic conducting, or stage play, or pure art, is not a competitive business is real bullshit.”

“The start of the New Year is a perfect time to start a stop doing list and to make this the cornerstone of your New Year resolutions, be it for your company, your family or yourself. It also is a perfect time to clarify your three circles, mirroring at a personal level the three questions... 1) What are you deeply passionate about? 2) What are you are genetically encoded for - what activities do you feel just "made to do"? 3) What makes economic sense - what can you make a living at?”

Feels Years Made Three Perfect Levels Business Company Economic Activity Passionate Lists Circles Our Family Resolution New Year Cornerstones New Years Resolution Mirroring Feels Just

Author:James C. Collins

“In the early 1970s, Milton Friedman argued that corporations should not be socially responsible because they had no mandate to be; they existed to make money, not to be charitable institutions. But in the economy of the 21st century, corporations cannot be socially responsible, if social responsibility is understood to mean sacrificing profits for the sake of some perceived social good. That's because competition has become so much more intense.”

“As to the meaning of "corporate social responsibility," Friedman and I would agree: If a certain action improves the corporation's bottom line, there's no point in labeling it "socially responsible." It's just good business.”

Ifs Action Certain Social Lines Business Responsibility Responsible Agree Bottom Corporate Corporations Social Responsibility Bottom Line No Point Good Business Labeling Corporate Social Responsibility

Author:Robert Reich

“Yes, I am optimistic about the environment. If you assume business is exerting the most negative influence on the environment and also has the possibility to impact it positively, there are a bunch of forces that are impacting business that are fundamentally different from the situation 3 or 4 years ago.”

Ifs Years Different Force Business Situation Environment Influence Possibility Negative Years Ago Impact Assuming Bunch Optimistic Positively Negative Influence

Author:Jeffrey Hollender

“Peter Drucker has pointed out that it is a manager's job to "do things right." It is an executive's job to make sure "the right things" get done. Even the most rigorous eco-efficient business paradigm does not challenge basic practices and methods: a shoe, building, factory, car, or shampoo can remain fundamentally ill-designed even as the materials and processes involved in its manufacture become more "efficient."”

Source: Cradle to Cradle: Remaking the Way We Make Things

“Our concept of eco-effectiveness means working on the right things - on the right products and services and systems - instead of making the wrong things less bad. Once you are doing the right things, then doing them "right," with the help of efficiency among other tools, makes perfect sense.”

Mean Helping Perfect Business Products Concepts Tools Right Thing Efficiency Effectiveness Wrong Things Doing The Right Thing Eco

Book:Cradle to Cradle: Remaking the Way We Make Things

Source: Cradle to Cradle: Remaking the Way We Make Things

“If there's a big problem and you've got the right people with you, usually the answer emerges and you do what's the obvious thing to do. I don't think of myself as some great manager or great leader. I've been very lucky to be in the positions that I've been in. I meet a lot of people and I've grown a lot of companies, and I meet a lot of CEOs at big enterprises. I'm always so surprised at how much they seem to know. It doesn't always seem to be correlated to how well they actually do.”

“I'm amazed by the potential of more companies employing integrated philanthropic initiatives at earlier stages in their life cycle. What if this were done on an even more massive scale? Consider what would happen if a top-tier venture-capital firm required the companies in which it invested to place 1% of their equity into a foundation serving the communities in which they do business.”

Source: The Business of Changing the World: Twenty Great Leaders on Strategic Corporate Philanthropy

“"Patents make our product defensible." The optimal number of times to use the P word in a presentation is one. Just once, say, "We have filed patents for what we are doing." Done. The second time you say it, venture capitalists begin to suspect that you are depending too much on patents for defensibility. The third time you say it, you are holding a sign above your head that says, "I am clueless."”

Done Use Numbers Business Too Much Products Thirds Suspects Capitalist Venture Presentation Patents Clueless Optimal Third Time Venture Capitalists

Book:Reality Check: The Irreverent Guide to Outsmarting, Outmanaging, and Outmarketing Your Competition

Source: Reality Check: The Irreverent Guide to Outsmarting, Outmanaging, and Outmarketing Your Competition

“If you believe that every life has equal value, it’s revolting to learn that some lives are seen as worth saving and others are not. We said to ourselves: “This can’t be true. But if it is true, it deserves to be the priority of our giving.””

Ifs Giving Believe Said Values Business Equal Deserve Priorities Being True Saving If You Believe

Author:Bill Gates

“The answer is simple, and harsh. The market did not reward saving the lives of these children, and governments did not subsidize it. So the children died because their mothers and their fathers had no power in the market and no voice in the system.”

Children Government Mother Father Voice Simple Answers Business Died Rewards Saving Harsh

Author:Bill Gates

“If we can find approaches that meet the needs of the poor in ways that generate profits for business and votes for politicians, we will have found a sustainable way to reduce inequity in the world. This task is open-ended. It can never be finished. But a conscious effort to answer this challenge will change the world.”

Ifs World Way Needs Found Challenges Answers Poor Effort Business Politician Approach Conscious Tasks Vote Profit Finished Changing The World

Author:Bill Gates

“The most important job of an entrepreneur is to design the business before there is a business.”

Important Jobs Business Design Entrepreneur Important Jobs

Author:Robert Kiyosaki

“"Why is the creative entrepreneur the riskiest type to be?" I asked. "Because being creative means you are often a pioneer. It is easy to copy a successful and proven product. It is also less risky. If you learn to innovate, create, or invent your way to success, you are an entrepreneur creating new value rather than an entrepreneur who wins by copying."”

Ifs Way Mean Values Winning Easy Business Creative Successful Products Type Creating Entrepreneur Copies Proven Be Creative Pioneers Copying Way To Success

Author:Robert Kiyosaki

“Before there is a business, a successful entrepreneur is designing this type of business in his or her mind's eye. According to my rich dad, this is the job of a true entrepreneur.”

Mind Eye Jobs Business Successful Rich Design Type Dad Entrepreneur Successful Entrepreneurs Rich Dad

Author:Robert Kiyosaki

“In the business world, unwise men take more that they give. They do not realize that they are breaking the Universal Law which will eventually break them to an equal extent. It may not be balanced in the form of dollars and cents but in the loss of good-will upon which their future business depends.”

Men World Giving May Form Law Realizing Loss Business Break Depends Equal Universal Dollars Cents Balanced Good Will Unwise Business World Universal Laws Future Business

Author:Walter Russell

“Man's ignorance of the Law of Love in personal and world relationships will not serve as an excuse to save him from disaster. Wealth cannot be acquired from others by might, for wealth thus taken will impoverish him who takes anything which is not given. Nor can power be thus acquired, for the weakness of the despoiled will prevail against the might of the despoiler.”

Men World Might Law Given Wealth Business Taken Ignorance Weakness Excuse Disaster Ignorance Of The Law

Author:Walter Russell

“Oh Lord, there it is again. The question;" What kind of business should I start?" Incidentially, it has a twin that also sets me off: "What should I specialize in during the second year of my MBA studies?" Sorry, but those are two of the most profoundly upsetting questions anyone can ask - upsetting because the answer should be obvious: Do what turns you on, not what the statistics say is best.”

Should Years Kind Two Turns Asks Answers Business Lord Study Sorry Obvious Upset Statistics Twins Should I Mba

Book:The Pursuit of Wow!: Every Person's Guide to Topsy-Turvy Times

Source: The Pursuit of Wow!: Every Person's Guide to Topsy-Turvy Times

“Business, life itself, is damned hard work if you wanna be good at it. Actually, that's precisely wrong. Business ceases to be work when you're chasing a dream that has engorged you. ("Work should be more fun than fun" - Noel Coward.) And if the passion isn't there. then biotech and plumbing will be equal drags.”

Ifs Should Hard Dream Passion Fun Business Hard Work Equal Be Good Cease Coward Drag Chasing Plumbing Business Life Noel Biotech

Book:The Pursuit of Wow!: Every Person's Guide to Topsy-Turvy Times

Source: The Pursuit of Wow!: Every Person's Guide to Topsy-Turvy Times

“We believe that a company's obligations extend far beyond its bottom line and its shareholders - to a wider constituency that includes employees, customers, suppliers, and the community.”

Believe Community Lines Business Company Bottom Customers Obligation Employee Bottom Line Shareholders Suppliers

Author:John A. Byrne

“The reason is still difficult to explain, but it is not complicated. That inner voice that will not be denied, once we learn to listen to it, had whispered since the beginning, "Business is not what your life is about. Founding VISA and being its chief executive officer is something you must do, but it's only preparatory."”

Stills Reason Life Is Difficult Voice Business Complicated Chiefs Executives Officers Denied Founding Inner Voice Visa Chief Executives

Book:Birth of the Chaordic Age

Source: Birth of the Chaordic Age

“"Spirituality" in business sounds lofty. How practical is it? The answer is "very." There's a fundamental way in which Spirit and consciousness contribute to worldly success-and it has long been ignored.”

Way Long Spirit Spirituality Sound Answers Business Consciousness Fundamentals Practicals Ignored Worldly Lofty

Book:Megatrends Two Thousand and Ten

Source: Megatrends Two Thousand and Ten

“The cornerstone of effective leadership is self-mastery.”

Self Business Mastery Self Mastery Cornerstones Effective Leadership

Book:Megatrends Two Thousand and Ten

Source: Megatrends Two Thousand and Ten

“An unreflective passion for social justice may be one of the biggest obstacles to creating peace and prosperity in the 21st century. While there are most certainly factory owners in China whom we would rightly regard as criminal in their treatment of their workers, it is very important not to confuse these incidents with the phenomenon of globalization. It is a good thing that Wal-Mart is encouraging more humane standards in its supplier's factories.”

“Treasures in heaven are more permanent. They are more satisfying. There are only two reasons why we are not as successful as we would like to be in laying up earthly treasures. One is that we sometimes get into the wrong business; and the second reason is that even though we may be in the right business, we do not always work at it effectively. Interestingly enough, these are the same reasons why we fail in laying up treasures in heaven.”

May Two Sometimes Reason Enough Heaven Business Successful Failing Treasure Permanent Reason Why Satisfying Treasures In Heaven

Author:Sterling W Sill

“I have known some good men who have been so addicted to their study, that they have thought the last day of the week sufficient to prepare for their ministry, though they employ all the rest of the week in other studies. But your business is to trade with your spiritual abilities. ... A man may preach a very good sermon, who is otherwise himself; but he will never make a good minister of Jesus Christ, whose mind and heart are not always in the work. Spiritual gifts will require continual ruminating on the things of the Gospel in our minds.”

“Never before has information been so important, to governments and businesses alike. And please don't imagine that some of you gathered here today may be less concerned than others. Globalization means that the "butterfly effect" is everywhere at work. The mistakes of a stockbroker in Singapore or the collapse of the Baht in Bangkok, the decisions of a Finnish industrial concern, or what the Governor of Minas Gerais in Brazil decides to do about his State's debt, have had consequences for the world as a whole.”

“The new female is competent in all that she chooses. She chooses whatever her heart tells her. She can create a business, lead a country, drive a truck, hammer nails, deliver mail, or raise a family. She is at home in every social and physical environment. She can be a housewife, if she chooses. She can be anything else, too. She is intuitive and heart centered. She is all that a female has been, and more.”

Ifs Heart Has Beens Country Home Social Business Environment Female Raises Mail Nails Intuitive Truck Hammers Competent Housewife

Author:Gary Zukav

“What a dead thing is a clock, with its ponderous embowelments of lead and brass, its pert or solemn dullness of communication, compared with the simple altar-like structure and silent heart-language of the old sundials! It stood as the garden god of Christian gardens. Why is it almost everywhere vanished? If its business-use be superseded by more elaborate inventions, its moral uses, its beauty, might have pleaded for its continuance.”

Source: A complete Elia: The essays of Elia, together with The last essays of Elia

“Did it ever occur to you, that there is no conflict of interests among men, neither in business nor in trade nor in their most personal desires - if they omit the irrational from their view of the possible and destruction from their view of the practical?”

Ifs Men Desire Interest Views Business Conflict Destruction Trade Practicals Irrational Conflict Of Interest Personal Desire

Book:Ayn Rand Novel Collection

Source: Ayn Rand Novel Collection

“It is not fit the public trusts should be lodged in the hands of any, till they are first proved and found fit for the business they are to be entrusted with.”

Should Firsts Hands Found Business Fit Public Trust

Book:An Exposition of the New Testament: Wherein Each Chapter is Summed Up in Its Contents ...

Source: An Exposition of the New Testament: Wherein Each Chapter is Summed Up in Its Contents ...

“Is life so dear or peace so sweet as to be purchased at the price of chains and slavery? Forbid it, Almighty God! I know not what course others may take, but as for me, give me liberty, or give me death!”

Knows Giving May War America Death Courses Freedom Business Liberty History Society Sweet Revolution Ethics Give Me Slavery Dear Libertarian Chains Patriotism Patriotic Amendments Libertarianism Almighty Patriot Founding 4th Of July Freedom And Liberty Freedom Liberty Our Founding Fathers Property Rights American Revolution Limited Government Total War Founding Fathers Christian Price Almighty God Bearing Arms Founding Fathers Religion Individual Liberty American Government Limiting Government Rights And Freedoms American Founding Fathers American Patriotic Limited Freedom Great Patriotic Us Constitution American Patriotism American Liberty Founding Fathers Democracy America Freedom Patriotism In America Price Of Freedom Revolution Founding Fathers Good Patriotic Limiting Freedom Constitutional Law Constitutional Government God And Country Tyranny Founding Fathers Security And Freedom American Independence Day Inspiring Patriotic Security And Liberty

Author:Patrick Henry

“Respect, recognition, and reward flow out of performance.”

Inspirational Business Flow Performances Rewards Recognition

Author:N. R. Narayana Murthy

“I was 21 and had spent the last few years in Stanford University Engineering School at California. Many people advised me to take up a nice, cushy job rather than face the challenges of running a hydrogenated oil business. Looking back, I am glad I decided to take charge instead. Essentially leadership begins from within. It is a small voice that tells you where to go when you feel lost. If you believe in that voice, you believe in yourself.”

“Trying to do it all and expecting that it all can be done exactly right is a recipe for disappointment. Perfection is the enemy.”

Inspirational Trying Done Business Enemy Perfection Disappointment Expecting Recipes Leaning In Female Leaders

Book:Lean In for Graduates

Source: Lean In for Graduates

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