“Business chief executive officers and their boards succumb to the pressures of the financial markets and their fears of takeovers and pour out their energies to produce quarterly earnings - at the expense of building their companies for the long term.” LongEnergyTermCompanyProduceBuildingPressureFinancialChiefsBoardsLong TermExecutivesExpensesOfficersEarningFinancial MarketsTakeoversChief Executives Author:J. Irwin Miller
“The most direct path to achievement whether you're an entrepreneur, a company executive, or a pro soccer player is to be a great performer and a great team member. This is also the secret to a meaningful career and self-fulfillment.” SelfSecretCompanyCareersPathPlayerTeamMembersAchievementDirectEntrepreneurMeaningfulSoccerFulfillmentExecutivesPerformersGreat TeamSoccer PlayerTeam MemberSelf Fulfillment Author:Maynard Webb
“Early in my career when we went to golf tournaments and charity dinners I noticed businessmen and executives would give the players their cards. Well, they're giving you their cards for a reason. I said to my wife, 'All the guys get these cards and then when they get to the parking lot they rip them up or throw them away. It's really weird.' My wife .. said maybe you should just sign a picture and mail it to them. You know, 'Great playing golf with you,' or whatever. So, I did and lo and behold some of those guys I sent pictures to way back then are now CEOs at big companies.” KnowsWayGivingShouldWellsSaidReasonBigsGuyCompanyCareersWifePlayerGolfCharityDinnerMy WifeCardsExecutivesMailCeoBusinessmanRipTournamentsParkingPlaying GolfReally WeirdParking LotBig CompaniesGolf Tournaments Author:Tie Domi
“We are delighted that these regulations are now law, and we commend the provincial government for helping put the issue on the front burner. These requirements will push more companies to have the conversations they should be having around board and executive committee diversity and, hopefully, their talent development. Businesses need to tap the full pool of smart, talented people to stay competitive and strengthen our country’s economic future.” PeopleNeedsShouldCountryHelpingGovernmentLawCompanyIssuesEconomicTalentFrontsDevelopmentConversationDiversitySmartOur CountryHopefullyBoardsExecutivesPoolRegulationCommitteesRequirementsDelighted Author:Alex Johnston
“Ideas are somewhat like babies - they are born small, immature, and shapeless. They are promise rather than fulfillment. In the innovative company executives do not say, "This is a damn-fool idea." Instead they ask, "What would be needed to make this embryonic, half-baked, foolish idea into something that makes sense, that is an opportunity for us?"” IdeasWould BeAsksOpportunityBornHalfCompanyBabyFoolNeededPromiseFoolishMake SenseFulfillmentDamnExecutivesInnovativeImmature Author:Peter Drucker
“For example: (1) As if governed by Newton's First Law of Motion, an institution will resist any change in its current direction; (2) Just as work expands to fill available time, corporate projects or acquisitions will materialize to soak up available funds; (3) Any business craving of the leader, however foolish, will be quickly supported by detailed rate-of-return and strategic studies prepared by his troops; and (4) The behavior of peer companies, whether they are expanding, acquiring, setting executive compensation or whatever, will be mindlessly imitated.” IfsFirstsLawCompanyLeaderStudyExampleReturnBehaviorProjectsInstitutionsPreparedRateCurrentsAvailableFoolishSettingSettingsCorporateFundExecutivesTroopsPeersExpandingCravingCompensationStrategicNewtonAcquisitionLaws Of MotionExecutive Compensation Book:Warren Buffett on Business: Principles from the Sage of Omaha Source: Warren Buffett on Business: Principles from the Sage of Omaha
“People who get higher pay are more willing to relocate--especially to undesirable locations at the company's behest... A corporate secretary may change companies in the same town; a corporate executive is more likely to change towns with the same company. A talented corporate secretary sees an invitation to relocate as an invitation; a future corporate executive sees an invitation to relocate as an opportunity--and an obligation.” PeopleMayOpportunityPayCompanyWillingHigherTownsObligationCorporateExecutivesSecretaryLocationInvitationsGetting HighUndesirable Author:Warren Farrell
“Obviously, it's designed by record company executives who want a cheap success, and they don't want to give money to anybody and they don't want to give contracts, so they've created this world of very bubbly teenagers who want to be "idols" and they think all they have to do is mime quite well and they've made it. ... But it's not the problem of the kids, it's the problem of the record companies, because it's just an inexpensive way for them to have so-called, I won't say "artists", but erm...You're nodding, you know what I mean.” ThinkingKnowsWorldWayWantGivingWellsMeanMadeProblemKidsArtistCompanyRecordsThis WorldPopsMade ItTeenagerExecutivesContractsIdolsRecord CompaniesInexpensiveNoddingMime Author:Steven Morrissey
“Executives of the company must have the necessary qualities to direct the personnel by showing them the way to do things.” WayLeadershipQualityCompanyDirectExecutivesPersonnel Author:Akio Morita
“The company must not throw money away on huge bonuses for executives or other frivolities but must share its fate with the workers.” CompanyFateShareHugeWorkersExecutivesBonusFrivolity Author:Akio Morita
“Last year, the journalist Malcolm Gladwell conducted a survey of chief executive officers of Fortune 500 companies for his book Blink. He discovered that while in the US population 14.5 per cent of all men are 6ft (1.83m) or taller, among CEOs of Fortune 500 companies the proportion is 58 per cent. And while 3.9 per cent of American adults are 6ft 2in or taller, almost a third of the CEOs were that tall.” MenYearsBookLastsCompanyEvolutionAdultsThirdsFortunePopulationChiefsJournalistProportionExecutivesTallOfficersCentsLast YearCeoSurveysBlinkChief Executives Author:Daniel Finkelstein
“Part of America's industrial problems is the aim of its corporate managers. Most American executives think they are in the business to make money, rather than products or service. The Japanese corporate credo, on the other hand, is that a company should become the world's most efficient provider of whatever product and service it offers. Once it becomes the world leader and continues to offer good products, profits follow.” ThinkingWorldShouldProblemHandsAmericaCompanyLeaderProductsOffersAimProfitManagersMaking MoneyCorporateExecutivesEfficientWorld LeaderProvidersCredo Author:W. Edwards Deming
“I was an executive running a pretty substantial group before becoming CEO, and I had no idea what it was like. When something goes wrong, people say, 'It's all your fault.' Your reaction is, 'It's not my fault.' But what do you mean? I was the founder, I hired everybody in the company, I was managing it.” PeopleMeanIdeasRunningCompanyGroupsBecomingFaultsReactionsNo IdeaExecutivesFoundersCeo Author:Ben Horowitz
“When you're building a company, you need to continually strengthen every component - finance, strategic partnerships, executive team, and relationships with every last constituency.” NeedsLastsCompanyTeamBuildingFinanceExecutivesPartnershipComponentsStrategic Author:Michael J. Saylor
“For corporations to be bedfellows with the arts is good business for both. The architecture that houses a company is a more visible statement than the president's in the annual report. Ditto interiors, particularly of offices and sometimes, dramatically, in plants. For solvent businesses, support of community cultural undertakings in music, drama, dance creates great goodwill. Also, the existence of such activities is often important to the executives and their families that companies want to keep or attract to keep.” WantArtImportantSometimesCultureHousePresidentCommunityExistenceCompanySupportDramaActivityOfficeArt IsPlantArchitectureStatementsCorporationsVisibleReportsExecutivesInteriorsGoodwillUndertakingsAnnualsGood BusinessBedfellowsAnnual Reports Author:Malcolm Forbes
“The top people of the biggest companies are, surprisingly, often the nicest ones in their company I'm not sure, though, if they got there because they were good guys or that they're now good guys because they can afford to be.” PeopleIfsGuyCompanyNot SureExecutivesGood Guy Author:Malcolm Forbes
“The more I move among workers and factories and other plants, the stronger I become convinced that it is advisable to have as [a company] president a practical man, preferably one who has risen from the very bottom of the ladder. Workmen, I find, have far more respect for such men than for collar-and-cuff executives knowing little or nothing about the different kinds of work which have to be done by the workers. Wherever circumstances call for placing a financier or lawyer or a papa's son at the head of a large organization, he should be made chairman or some other title, but not president.” MenShouldKindLittlesMadeDifferentDoneMovingPresidentCompanyKnowingSonCircumstancesOrganizationStrongerPlantWorkersBottomConvincedLawyerPracticalsTitlesExecutivesFactoriesDifferent KindsLaddersChairmanRisenCollarsPapaWorkmenCuffsFinanciersAdvisable Author:B. C. Forbes
“Whenever possible, I like to have the supreme head of a company show me over the works. It is extremely illuminating to note the attitude of workers towards their boss, and equally interesting to note the attitude towards the workers. It is tragic to notice how many chief executives of large concerns are absolutely unknown, even by sight, to the rank and file of their workers.” ShowsInterestingAttitudeCompanyConcernSightNotesWorkersSupremeChiefsTragicExecutivesBossWorking ItShow MeFilesIlluminatingChief Executives Author:B. C. Forbes
“Of one thing the investor can be certain: A large company's need to bring in a new chief executive from the outside is a damning sign of something basically wrong with the existing management - no matter how good the surface signs may have been as indicated by the most recent earnings statement.” NeedsMayHas BeensMatterCertainCompanyOne ThingManagementInvestingSurfaceStatementsChiefsExecutivesInvestorsEarningChief ExecutivesLarge Companies Author:Philip Arthur Fisher
“People yearn to be in one of the best--a combat marine regiment, an elite college, the executive committee of a company, a religious sect, a fraternity, a garden club--any collectivity that can be compared favorably with other, competing groups.” PeopleReligiousCompanyGroupsHuman NatureCollegeGardenClubsExecutivesCombatElitesCommitteesCompetingMarineSectsFraternityCollectivityReligious Sects Author:E. O. Wilson
“I have told our senior executives that I will slaughter holy cows if it benefits the company's long-term success. When we asked ourselves whether Formula 1 still matched the concept of a sustainable company, the clear answer was no.” IfsLongStillsTermAnswersCompanyClearHolyBenefitsConceptsLong TermExecutivesFormulasCowsSeniorSlaughterMatchedFormula 1Long Term Success Author:Norbert Reithofer
“Tech executives have historically been owners of significant portions of their companies' stock so there is a propensity for them to diversify as a rule.” CompanyTechnologySignificantOwnersExecutivesPortionsPropensity Author:David Coleman
“So when this opportunity came up through Elisabeth Murdoch and her company Shine, to be an executive producer and actually be part of the show, I liked the idea because I like the word mentor. I don't want to judge someone. I like sharing my knowledge with my girls, and anything they ask me I'll try to do to help them. Any of my real friends who know me, know that's how I really am.” KnowsWantTryingIdeasRealHelpingShowsGirlAsksOpportunityCompanyJudgingShiningProducersAsk MeExecutivesMentorKnow MeReal FriendsMy Girl Author:Naomi Campbell
“The Carlyle Group is the most politically connected investment firm in the world. The company has mastered the art of influence peddling on a global scale, hiring executives and consultants ranging from Republican power broker James Baker and former president George Herbert Walker Bush to foreign leaders like former British prime minister John Major and former Philippine president Fidel Ramos.” WorldArtPresidentCompanyLeaderGroupsInfluenceRepublicanMajorsInvestmentConnectedBritishScalesFormerFirmMinistersExecutivesPrimePrime MinisterHiringPhilippinesWalkersBakersConsultantsBrokersPeddling Author:William Hartung