Quotes on Business

Whatever business you are in, every company can shoot for the start in their own way.

Too often, executive compensation in the U.S. is ridiculously out of line with performance. That won't change, moreover, because the deck is stacked against investors when it comes to the CEO's pay. The upshot is that a mediocre-or-worse CEO - aided by his handpicked VP of human relations and a consultant from the ever-accommodating firm of Ratchet, Ratchet and Bingo - all too often receives gobs of money from an ill-designed compensation arrangement.

We believe strongly that in the long term, we will be better served - as shareholders and in all other ways - by a company that does good things for the world even if we forgo some short term gains. This is an important aspect of our culture and is broadly shared within the company.

Some people read business books looking for confirmation. I read them in search of disquiet. Confirmation is cheap, easy and ineffective. Restlessness and the scientific method, on the other hand, create a culture of testing and inquiry that can't help but push you forward.

Fella in business got to lie an' cheat, but he calls it somepin else. That's what's important. You go steal that tire an' you're a thief, but he tried to steal your four dollars for a busted tire. They call that sound business.

If you don't have time for the small things, you won't have time for the big things

Time is the scarcest resource and unless it is managed nothing else can be managed.

The productivity of work is not the responsibility of the worker but of the manager.

The entrepreneur always searches for change, responds to it, and exploits it as an opportunity.

Most of what we call management consists of making it difficult for people to get their work done.

Advertising is fundamentally persuasion and persuasion happens to be not a science, but an art.

Far and away the best prize that life has to offer is the chance to work hard at work worth doing.

The value of a smile... It costs nothing, but creates much. It enriches those who receive, without impoverishing those who give. It happens in a flash and the memory of it sometimes lasts forever. None are so rich they can get along without it, and none so poor but are richer for its benefits. It creates happiness in the home, fosters good will in a business, and is the countersign of friends.

A man should keep his little brain attic stocked with all the furniture that he is likely to use, and the rest he can put away in the lumber-room of his library, where he can get it if he wants it.

All good businesses are personal. The best businesses are very personal.

The major reason for setting a goal is for what it makes of you to accomplish it. What it makes of you will always be the far greater value than what you get.

Don't bring your need to the marketplace, bring your skill. If you don't feel well, tell your doctor, but not the marketplace. If you need money, go to the bank, but not the marketplace.

Discipline is the bridge between goals and accomplishment.

I would never make a good economist. You know, an economist is a man that can tell you anything about — well, he will tell you what can happen under any given condition — and his guess is liable to be as good as anybody else's, too.

I would rather earn 1% off a 100 people's efforts than 100% of my own efforts.

My precept to all who build, is, that the owner should be an ornament to the house, and not the house to the owner.