Inventories can be managed, but people must be led.
Ross PerotRead
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.
Interpretation
Business encompasses much more than transactions; it involves quality products, exceptional service, and nurturing relationships.
In this quote, Ross Perot emphasizes that successful business is rooted not only in the act of making deals but also in creating high-quality products and delivering exceptional service. He highlights the importance of human connections, suggesting that relationships are the underlying framework that supports and sustains a successful enterprise.
In practice
In a business meeting about customer service improvements, this quote could inspire the team.
Inventories can be managed, but people must be led.
Never ask anyone to do what you haven't done before and wouldn't do again. That's a pretty fundamental rule in leadership... treat them like you treat yourself. Things you don't like, they don't like.
Don't run your life by what's legal or illegal. Run your life based on what's right or wrong.
Punishing honest mistakes stifles creativity. I want people moving and shaking the earth and they're going to make mistakes.
Something in human nature causes us to start slacking off at our moment of greatest accomplishment. As you become successful, you will need a great deal of self-discipline not to lose your sense of balance, humility and commitment.
In a marketplace where it's so easy to produce products, where your competitors can essentially match you on the product itself, you need to have something else. You need to have an added value, and that added value is the identity, the idea behind your brand.
In the Machine Age, the company itself became a machine - a machine for making money.
The NBA is never just a business. It's always business. It's always personal. All good businesses are personal. The best businesses are very personal.
Customer service shouldn't just be A department, it should be the entire company.
You go to any MBA program, and you will be taught the theory of the firm, that the purpose of the firm is the maximization of return on invested capital. I always thought this was a kind of lunacy.
Marketing is too important to be left to the marketing department.
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