“The phone company handles 84 billion calls a year-everything from kings, queens, and presidents to the scum of the earth.” YearsEarthPresidentCompanyKingsPhonesBillionsHandleQueensScumScum Of The Earth Author:Lily Tomlin
“I believe Facebook is going all the way. They're going to reach a billion members and will be the biggest company in the world. It will be a platform everyone goes on the Internet through.” WorldWayBelieveI BelieveCompanyGoes OnInternetMembersBillionsPlatforms Author:Ben Mezrich
“It's extremely hard to build a company with a product that everyone loves, is free and has no business model, and then to innovate a business model. I did that with Kazaa, had half a billion downloads but that wasn't a sustainable business.” HardLove IsHalfCompanyProductsModelsBillionsOne LoveDownloadsBusiness Models Author:Niklas Zennstrom
“Insider trading tells everybody at precisely the wrong time that everything is rigged, and only people who have a billion dollars and have access to and are best friends with people who are on boards of directors of major companies - they're the only ones who can make a true buck.” PeopleCompanyDirectorsMajorsDollarsAccessBillionsBoardsTradingBucksWrong TimeInsidersRiggedBoard Of DirectorsInsider Trading Author:Preet Bharara
“The biggest engineering companies, like Schlumberger, Halliburton and others, have technology they spent billions of dollars developing.” CompanyTechnologyDollarsBillionsDevelopingEngineering Author:Vagit Alekperov
“There are so many angles to follow up: government incompetence, sophisticated charity scams, how insurance companies treat victims, construction of the levees, who will start ripping off the billions of dollars available in new contracts. Every single one of these stories is going to be a big one.” StoriesBigsGovernmentCompanyTreatsVictimDollarsCharityAvailableBillionsContractsConstructionSophisticatedAngleIncompetenceInsurance CompaniesScamsFollow UpLevees Author:Brian Ross
“Companies, as they grow to become multi-billion-dollar entities, somehow lose their vision. They insert lots of layers of middle management between the people running the company and the people doing the work. They no longer have an inherent feel or a passion about the products. The creative people, who are the ones who care passionately, have to persuade five layers of management to do what they know is the right thing to do.” PeopleKnowsFeelsCareRunningPassionGrowsLosesBusinessCompanyVisionCreativeFiveMiddleProductsManagementDollarsBillionsThings To DoRight ThingLayersInherentEntityWho CaresCreative PeopleInsertMiddle Management Author:Steve Jobs
“I don’t think there’s any company that has reached $1 billion in revenue as fast as Xiaomi. In every conceivable benchmark, it’s almost unprecedented in terms of its speed of growth.” ThinkingGrowthTermCompanySpeedBillionsRevenueUnprecedented Author:Yuri Milner
“It is hard to think that a $2 billion company with 4,300-plus people couldn't compete with six people in blue jeans.” PeopleThinkingHardCompanySixBlueBillionsPlusJeansBlue Jeans Author:Steve Jobs
“Santa blows all these shipping companies away. He delivers more than 2 billion packages in just 24 hours. He does it by sleigh. He doesn't use tracking numbers and doesn't use trucks. He just uses midgets and a giant bag.” DoeUseHoursNumbersCompanyBlowBillionsChristmasGiantsBagsTruckSantaPackagesTrackingShippingMidgetSleighs Author:Craig Ferguson
“You don't need to buy a $7 billion company to penetrate maritime security. The Mafia doesn't buy FedEx to smuggle.” NeedsCompanySecurityBillionsPenetrateMafiaMaritime Author:James Carafano
“And our size: The company this year is going to be close to $50 billion, so if that's the case and you can continue to grow that fast, I would rather put my energies to solving customer problems and growing our business than worrying about integrating and laying people off.” PeopleIfsYearsProblemEnergyGrowsCompanyCasesWorryEconomyGrowingSizeCustomersBillionsIntegrating Author:Kevin B. Rollins
“Warren Buffett's company reportedly owes the IRS a billion dollars in back taxes. When he said he wasn't paying enough taxes, he wasn't kidding.” SaidEnoughCompanyTaxesDollarsBillionsIrsBuffettWarren Buffet Author:Jay Leno
“In the '80s, I thought I'd be a success as a woman if I were the president of a billion dollar company, had a sensitive soul-mate husband, two bilingual children, buns of steels, and a compost heap. In the '90s, I pretty much feel I'm a success if I can get through the afternoon without eating a cheesecake.” IfsFeelsChildrenI CanTwoSoulPresidentCompanyHusbandEatingDollarsBillionsSensitiveMatesAfternoonSteel80sSoul MateBunsCompostCheesecake Author:Cathy Guisewite
“When I care about something, I care about something. I think I have an obligation as an American to - and as a citizen, as - as a human being, to help others. Smoking is going to kill a billion people this century. I've put six hundred million dollars from my own money into trying to stop the tobacco companies from getting kids to smoke and convincing adults that it's not in their health.” PeopleThinkingTryingHumansHelpingCareKidsMy OwnHuman BeingsCompanyMillionsCenturyCitizensSixHundredAdultsDollarsBillionsHelping OthersObligationSmokeSmokingI CareConvincingMillion DollarsTobacco Author:Michael Bloomberg
“I'm really inspired to build a billion-dollar company. The hardest part is building the vehicle to get you there.” CompanyBuildingDollarsInspiredBillionsHardestVehicle Author:Robert Herjavec
“Government investment unlocks a huge amount of private sector activity, but the basic research that we put into IT work that led to the Internet and lots of great companies and jobs, the basic work we put into the health care sector, where it's over $30 billion a year in R&D that led the biotech and pharma jobs. And it creates jobs and it creates new technologies that will be productized. But the government has to prime the pump here. The basic ideas, as in those other industries, start with government investment.” YearsIdeasGovernmentCareJobsCompanyTechnologyHugeIndustryAmountInternetActivityResearchInvestmentBillionsHealth CarePrimePrivate SectorNew TechnologyPumpsGreat CompanyBasic ResearchBiotech Author:Bill Gates
“Most companies don't have the luxury of focusing exclusively on innovation. They have to innovate while stamping out zillions of widgets or processing billions of transactions.” CompanyInnovationBillionsLuxuryTransactionsProcessing Author:Gary Hamel
“The climate, financial and national security crises are all connected. They share the same cause: Our [the USA's] absurd dependency on foreign oil. As long as we need to spend billions of dollars each year to buy foreign oil from state-run oil companies in the Persian Gulf, our problems of a trade deficit, a budget deficit and a climate crisis will persist.” NeedsYearsLongStatesProblemRunningCausesCompanyShareSecurityCrisisTradeDollarsClimateFinancialConnectedOilBillionsAbsurdBudgetsUsaPersistNational SecurityDeficitDependencyPersianOil CompaniesForeign OilBudget DeficitPersian Gulf Author:Al Gore
“Some people don't want to know that very little progress has been made. It is in the same way that companies are selling their products (i.e. the billion dollar cosmetic industry), they can package the message of femininity and normalization around this disease.” PeopleKnowsWayWantLittlesHas BeensMadeCompanyProgressProductsIndustryDiseaseMessagesDollarsBillionsSellingMade ItFemininityPackagesCosmetics Author:Ravida Din
“Getting a traditional pharmaceutical to the market can cost a billion dollars or more. Newer, more tailored and targeted drugs called biologics are even more complex and expensive. Simple economics dictates that companies and venture funds will invest more in products that can generate a sufficient return.” SimpleCompanyProductsReturnCostDrugEconomicsDollarsComplexesBillionsTraditionalSufficientExpensiveFundVenturePharmaceuticalTailored Author:David Mixner
“I think there are a lot of companies that are staying private longer. Much more of their growth is happening while they are on the private side. So their valuations are hitting $1 billion while they are still private more often.” ThinkingStillsSidesGrowthCompanyHappeningsBillionsStayingHittingValuation Author:David Sze
“Each year, food companies use an amount of salt that is every bit as staggering as it sounds: 5 billion pounds.” YearsUseBitsSoundCompanyAmountBillionsPoundsSaltStaggering Author:Michael Moss
“Woz and I started Apple in my parents' garage when I was 20. We worked hard, and in 10 years Apple had grown from just the two of us in a garage into a $2 billion company with over 4,000 employees.” YearsTwoHardParentCompanyBillionsApplesEmployeeGarageTwo Of Us Author:Steve Jobs
“I bought a company in the mid-90s called Dexter Shoe and paid $400 million for it. And it went to zero. And I gave about $400 million worth of Berkshire stock, which is probably now worth $400 billion. But I've made lots of dumb decisions. That's part of the game.” MadeGamesDecisionCompanyMillionsPaidShoesBillionsDumbZeroDumb Decisions Author:Warren Buffett